Seeing the scene transition from a pure demonstration of technical prowess to a more art themed scene has been fascinating. Lots of old timers don't really like the direction, but modern hardware is so over the top powerful, that it's just simply not necessary to squeeze an extra 3 fps out of an algorithm by hacking a new video mode or some such. So the result has been that the "computer art" part of the scene is now being heavily emphasized.
That being said, there's almost no other modern art-form that I know of that looks and feels like demos outside of a few music videos that used to play on MTV's amp. Knowing that most of the work is produced by essentially teenagers and folks in their early 20's makes it all the more amazing to see such talent.
Like many here, I remember when people would eke out all sorts of crazy demos from relatively anemic hardware. I still love the demo scene. All of it, really. From the die-hard retro-grouches with their 68ks and z80s that scoff at all things x86, to the people throwing unadulterated polygon insanity through the most advanced graphics accelerators.
tasm and tlink wont do you any good if the underlying OS is refusing to give you monopolistic access to the hardware and process address spaces. Have fun coding in raw assembly for a virtualized image.
That being said, there's almost no other modern art-form that I know of that looks and feels like demos outside of a few music videos that used to play on MTV's amp. Knowing that most of the work is produced by essentially teenagers and folks in their early 20's makes it all the more amazing to see such talent.