A demoparty is a weekend gathering where demosceners compete in categorised compos judged live

A demoparty is the demoscene’s primary event format: a non-stop weekend gathering where sceners bring computers, socialise, and enter competitions (‘compos’). The most important compo is the demo compo; separate tracks cover 64K and 4K intros, music, and pixel art. Competing entries — at least those in the most important competitions — are projected on a large screen with loudspeakers at night, then voted on by attendees. Parties range from massive (Assembly, Helsinki) to platform-specific (C64-only) to focused (Revision, world’s largest scene-only party). Many large parties also host LAN gaming alongside the scene compos, but sceners typically socialise more than they sit at their machines.

Examples

Assembly (1992–) in Helsinki; Revision (2011–) in Saarbrücken; The Party (1991–2002) in Denmark; Breakpoint (2003–2010) in Germany; Lovebyte (2021–) dedicated to sizecoding.

Assessment

List four competition categories typical of a demoparty and explain why competing works are usually shown at night.