The Lost Art of Tech Demos

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Strap in and take a ride with me to the past, exploring the history and nostalgia of graphics card tech demos made by many of the most famous vendors in the industry!
A total of 58 demos from NVIDIA, ATI, 3dfx, Matrox, and more were recorded for this video using my own hardware. In many cases, substitutions were made in place of the intended hardware where it made sense to, for the sake of efficiency and time management. These were the graphics cards used:
-3Dfx Voodoo 4MB
-3Dfx Voodoo2 12MB
-3Dfx Voodoo5 5500
-Rendition V1000L-P 4MB
-Matrox G400 MAX
-NVIDIA GeForce 7800GTX
-NVIDIA GTX 285
-ATI Rage Pro 4MB
-ATI Rage 128 Pro
-ATI Radeon 7500 64MB
-ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
-ATI Radeon X1950XTX
-AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB
0:00 Intro
2:28 A little history
4:15 3Dfx Valley of Ra
5:10 3Dfx Race
5:27 3Dfx Wizard's Tower
5:56 Rendition Cartoon
6:52 ATI Knight
7:37 ATI Rage Dawning
12:56 3Dfx Voodoo2 demos
13:09 Matrox G400 EMBM demo
15:44 NVIDIA Smaller GF256 demos
16:02 NVIDIA Crystal
16:32 NVIDIA Smaller GF2 demos
16:56 NVIDIA Creature
17:21 3Dfx Rocketburger
18:06 ATI Radeon's Ark
22:24 NVIDIA Zoltar
23:11 NVIDIA Chameleon
23:47 ATI Nature
24:19 ATI Rachel
24:50 ATI Island demos
27:17 NVIDIA Werewolf
28:06 NVIDIA Squid
28:42 Matrox Parhelia Reef
29:24 ATI Smaller 9700 demos
30:06 ATI Pipe Dream
34:37 NVIDIA Dawn
36:07 NVIDIA Dusk
37:03 NVIDIA Ogre
37:44 NVIDIA Toys
39:02 NVIDIA Last Chance Gas
39:47 NVIDIA Vulcan
41:02 ATI Chimp
42:18 NVIDIA Nalu
43:17 NVIDIA Timbury
44:20 ATI Smaller X800 demos
44:33 ATI Double Cross
46:49 ATI Dangerous Curves
47:06 NVIDIA Luna
49:49 NVIDIA MadMod Mike
51:50 ATI The Assassin
53:51 ATI Toy Shop
54:33 ATI Whiteout
57:54 Epilogue on ATI demos
58:23 NVIDIA 8800 demos
59:16 NVIDIA Medusa
1:02:25 NVIDIA Supersonic Sled
1:02:58 Epilogue on NVIDIA demos
1:03:34 Conclusion
Intro Animation By Ken Gruca Jr - Inquire at kjgruca@gmail.com
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26 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 343

@philiphanhurst2655 3 года назад

I really like this era of graphics. It looks so different from the stuff we get today and it's almost as stylistic as PS1 graphics or pixel art.

@Ivan-pr7ku 3 года назад

The Luna demo for the G70 GPU contained an early case study of implementing real-time ray tracing, using pixels shades. RT was used on the big eye, since it's a perfect sphere, where ray traversal and intersection is very simple and fast, mapping the compute functions directly on the graphics pipeline.

@blakegriplingph 3 года назад

The demoscene was actually an offshoot of the warez/software cracking scene. Warez groups often include graphically impressive intros as a form of bragging that they cracked this particular game, but they soon realised they could tap into this as an art form with no ties to piracy.

@mattcude6917 Год назад

I knew a lot of people that went to jail during that time, they went from tech demos on c64/amiga to cracking pc games and using ogl to render demos. So it was full circle, most started with tech demos to begin with. Shout out to my class101, razor and M&M buds.

@christianrodriguez7222 3 года назад

Another fantastic video! As an “aging millennial” I too miss tech demos. They used to be one of the first things I fired up to test a new card. It’s really a big shame they’re removing demos. As a part of history they should be preserved. I also noticed some old drivers are giving me 404 pages now...

@vladrogonja2012 3 года назад

You're not alone buddy, I miss it too. Today nothing is special anymore, just the next thing and you wait for the next to be released and so on. I have more memories of Voodoo 2 and Geforce 3 + Geforce 4cards than I have of GTX Maxwell or GTX Pascal cards.

@2528drevas Год назад

"Aging Millennial?" I built my first gaming PC in 1998, how do you think I feel? 😁

@davidcunningham959 4 месяца назад

As an aging "Gen X" ,I chased the carrot of new tech. Now I work making semiconductors.

@sebastianaliandkulche 3 месяца назад

Some of the Nvidia and ATI demos are preserved though they are practically impossible to run on modern hardware...

@yellowblanka6058 3 года назад

Ah, the days when reflection mapping and colored lighting were features worthy of a tech demo.

@wishusknight3009 3 года назад

The awsome thing about Dawn, was that it could be also patched to run on the 9700Pro, and unshockingly ran significantly better on said hardware. Us ATI users gloated like little smug children.

@gandrurass 3 года назад

another fun thing is that the New Dawn demo used to run on Radeon cards as well with a help of a patch, used to run it on my HD5870, ran like ass

@nemz7505 3 года назад

Yeah, I remember my hard modded 9500 beating my mates nvidia card at Dawn

@wishusknight3009 3 года назад

@@nemz7505 OOH, I remember doing that to my friends 9500, and enabling its second half. Was just a bios flash or a resistor or something to that effect IIRC. Was really a snap... And I spent the money on the whole thing, though i got the All-in-wonder edition so to me it was worth that.

@vr-legion3468 2 года назад

@@wishusknight3009 Omega Drivers

@wishusknight3009 2 года назад

@@vr-legion3468 Those were pretty good, though I never saw a doubling of performance if I had the stock drivers tweaked a little. But it was safe to say they were better than stock in every way and fixed a lot of issues that ATI never fixed until their legacy driver program many years later.

@Soonjai 3 года назад

Amazing showcase you put together here. I remembered most of these, but some of them where new to me. But I was a bit surprised that the 2004 ATI Demo "The Project" wasn't even mentioned here. It was made by Crytek, had the Far Cry 1 setting and featured a evolutionary step of the Cry Engine that was more advanced than what was used in Far Cry 1, but still far off from what would be used in Crysis. In terms of graphics features it most notably showed off a Predator style transparency effect on a human-like character involved in combat and depth of field effects.

@ultra_code_ 3 года назад

GPU waifu battle: Dawn vs Dusk.

@koodeus6170 3 года назад

Dawn is superior.

@tomtom98 3 года назад

Nalu trumps all 😁

@PixelPipes 3 года назад

No love for Luna??

@ultra_code_ 3 года назад

@@PixelPipes she's nice, although IMO Ruby's the best and most badass. She won 1st place in my book.

@ninjasiren 3 года назад

I'll take Ruby all day. Especially the later iterations of her. Though Dawn, she's also yep...

@rebeccaschade3987 3 года назад

It would actually be kickass if during the Radeon RX6000 launch, AMD suddenly showed an all new Ruby demo. I think those around my age would go nuts :D

@solarstrike33 Год назад

RX 7000 now?

@kt249 3 года назад

ATI Pipe Dream is so cool, even to this day. The way every ball move independently and form a perfect rhytm is just so enjoyable to watch. A true masterpiece.

@johndandrea6238 3 года назад

Thank you for preserving and showcasing these.

@evklinken 3 года назад

Criminally underwatched video. Great effort putting this all together.

@artratengo3685 3 года назад

I think this was very interesting the whole way through, amazing video

@devonrosa4414 3 года назад

This deserves all the views. Thank you for letting me relive a portion of childhood, plus all the ones I missed before and after!

@user-th5ui4ib3y 2 месяца назад

In my opinion 3d mark was another great series of demos back in the day.

@tHeWasTeDYouTh 3 года назад

I remember when the Geforce 3 came out. I was blown away by the chameleon tech demo showing the power of programmable shaders. I was on anandtech every single day. Thanks for the video PixelPipes. all the great memories of the past came back

@vladrogonja2012 3 года назад

You are not alone. What we have today, everything looks the same only the FPS is lover or higher and benchmarks on youtube. We need this again.

@Ace12GA 3 года назад

It's criminal this doesn't have more views. I miss the demo days.

@okitasan Год назад

Such a fun time to be a young gamer. I was in elementary school-middle school and loved looking at the graphics demos on screensavers at Computer City and CompUSA, and running tech demos at home (often on my computer which could barely handle them). Very nostalgic to see them. The years 1998-2000 feel especially nostalgic. Great time to be a gamer!

@mauriciochacon 3 года назад

ati x800 x850 demos with the radeon girl were years ahead of reality in games, and off course nvidia demos too, but the ATI ones were like a movie instead of a static scene

@erikt211 Год назад

Wait a minute! The model at 6:21 was used by the Utopia Boot Disc for Dreamcast! Until now I’ve never seen that anywhere else! I would love to know the connection to that!

@Lilithe 2 месяца назад

Me: ah beans... a one hour video... Also me: wow that was totally worth it!

@BadManiac 3 года назад

Love ATI Rage Dawning, I've got an Original Rage Fury in my 1998 K6-2 based PC, this demo runs perfectly on it. Wish I had seen it back then, would have completely blown my mind!

@mbe102 3 года назад

Holy crap, that Reindeer in the Verite demo... anyone else use the Dreamcast Loader discs????

@mauriciochacon 3 года назад

hell yeah

@zhongyangli 3 года назад

Thanks for the excellent work. When I saw the title and opened the video, the first two things came into my mind were: 1. click the like button. 2. wait for pipe dream.

@DimitriosChannel 3 года назад

1990's tech demo's had a lot of love and passion from the developers.

@MedlinMasbor 3 года назад

i see all my childhood here :'). my friend's brother used to work in a computer supplier. he often brings lots of installation CDs home. me and my friend often play that cd just to see things like this. I have ATI and my friend have Nvidia.

@jaikishorsharan5971 Год назад

To see the quality of the demos in an actual game usually took 5-10 years depending of the demo, but it was a nice view into the future.

@MSDGAMEZ 10 месяцев назад

Late 90s to mid 2000s was peak graphics

@druout1944 2 года назад

This was fantastically done; great job.

@zachsteiner 3 года назад

God it makes me so sad how few views this has gotten. What a great video.

@willl4575 3 года назад

Thanks another great video, it is also great seeing you making some new vids lately, I love your work one day you will rewarded, Thanks again dude!

@GSXone 3 года назад

This was an amazing video! I used to love these demos! I actually had most if not all the ATi tech demos....until my drive crashed with all of them a year ago. This really brings back memories! Thank you!

@Mini-z1994 3 года назад

ATI toy shop demo is so nice looking too this day, specially if you force the resolution upwards it still looks nice, remember running that on my HD 5770 in 2010 being impressed of how nice it looked in 1080p with anti aliasing & sharper textures forced on.

@Mini-z1994 3 года назад

This is a bit irrelevant but Carmageddon runs so well after following comment nr17 on steam discussions there on the instructions. steamcommunity.com/app/282010/discussions/0/333656722982705624/?ctp=2 Sound is acting up though unfortunately with the carma95 exe's for me but runs 1080p 60+ fps thanks too dgvoodoo2 & those instructions on comment 17 there by smappyy, ofc due too the high fps the timer is a bit faster then it should so had too limit via rivatuner server statistics, steam overlay also works fine, though bit laggy due too the fps in the menu's & when it plays those clips at 20 fps.

@joeyvdm1 3 года назад

Another terrific video Nathan, really enjoyed it! You are spot on with "Tech Demos" being the ideal showcase for the burgeoning 3D accelerator market. I did (and still do) get quite excited and nostalgic for such tech demos. It was always something I looked forward to with a new 3D accelerator release. As you said, they were more of an ideal situation showing off the new hardware and its features at its best. But that was what I loved about them, it was part and parcel of a new 3D accelerator/GPU generation, and they were always entertaining to view and/or play around with. And they were indeed very impressive as well, it always got the imagination going as to what would be possible with the new tech (even if games could not quite match said tech demos). And I always got a kick out of showing new tech demos to my friends and family as well. There are even a few tech demos that you demonstrated in your video that I had never seen or used myself (a few ATI and Matrox ones). And it was great to see all the ones I have not seen in decades once again as well. So this video was a pleasure to watch and there is much to enoy here. It is a shame that we do not get such tech demos anymore, and also sad that NVIDIA and AMD are doing their best to erase the past of said demos as well, so I am glad you have made this video for us. So thanks for the upload Nathan, no one captures the history of the 3D accelerator/GPU market quite as you do, and your content is always enjoyable and an absolute must watch for me.

@CPUGalaxy 3 года назад

Thank you for this great video!! I love tech demos since ever... Of course the iconic ones from Future Crew in the early 90‘s as well the newer ones from ATI and NVIDIA.... loved watching the ones you decided to show here.. 😍. Cheers, Peter

@lronMan88 3 года назад

At first, thanks for your great work 💪🏻👍🏻😀 Highly underrated video, this content is awesome. Thanks for your effort to bring back this cool time of graphic demos. I remember my eyes falling out of my head with my first ati 9700pro looking the demos. Absolutly goosebumps rember those days in my childhood.

@GrinPS14 8 месяцев назад

Great vid! Really enjoyed this retrospective of sorts and moved all the way along from the first voodoo to now RTX and enjoyed most of the demos myself.

@vBDKv 2 года назад

This video truly is a hidden gem. Thank you very much sir!

@SUCRA 3 года назад

This was such a great video. I imagine how much work it went into making this awesome 1 hour film. I enjoyed it very much, and it's so true that the innocent feeling of happiness and hope we got with the release of new tech has mostly disappeared. Thanks again Nathan. 👍

@BcHmF 3 года назад

Wow, thanks. I was waiting for this video! :D

@totty2524 3 года назад

Fantastic video, man! I really appreciate it.

@KleinMeme 3 года назад

Argh, nostalgia hits hard. Awesome to see that after so long.

@FluteGamerSouzaLima 2 года назад

Great video, I love seeing this old tech demos, they are so nostalgic.

@mauriciochacon 3 года назад

great video, i still cant believe how amazing is the ati x800 ruby demo

@yosuhara 3 года назад

Thank you very much, this was an awesome trip!

@mulliganxable 3 года назад

Thank you for making this

@matthewmangan6251 6 месяцев назад

this is peak aesthetic i wish more games went for this colourful half-realistic half-cartoony vibe

@cyberdemon9306 Год назад

This video deserves a million views

@callindocorleone5435 11 месяцев назад

Nice one, thanks for this great video.

@Kapitaen_Flauschbart 3 года назад

Oh the memories :-) Very nice roundup, thank you!!

@SirSilicon 3 года назад

1:40 Lisa Su looking good back then.

@PixelPipes 3 года назад

Damn you got me with this one 😄

@souta95 3 года назад

I was thinking the same thing

@PixelPipes 3 года назад

@@remasteredretropcgames3312 briefly considered in the past but I'd rather not balloon the upload for a marginal improvement

@christophmosimann9244 3 года назад

Great video, brings back memories!

@bportermusic 3 года назад

My first 3D card was the Rage Fury Pro, it was nice to see the demo again, I used to run that so much on it back then.

@slowlymakingsmoke 7 месяцев назад

Loved seeing these. I remember some of them, but a lot passed me by.

@adamk3026 Год назад

This video is crinally underviewed. Excellent work.

@olivur_1459 3 месяца назад

ATI demos have always been my faves.

@ruxandy 3 года назад

Haven't watched the whole video yet, so not sure if this has been mentioned, but nVIDIA just removed all demos that featured female characters...

@RANDOMdevyn 3 года назад

Wow, they’re so woke.

@kinbbink6435 3 года назад

You can still get them from alternative sources like Guru3D i think.

@kinbbink6435 3 года назад

EDIT:- Just checked and yes, they are still hosted on Guru3D

@ruxandy 3 года назад

@@kinbbink6435 Well, obviously, but that's not the point :-)

@snetmotnosrorb3946 3 года назад

Oh my, a new video! Looks like you've been uploading, I haven't checked my notifications. Perfect subject! I haven't watched it, but I know I will like it. And timing! I just yesterday saw a picture of ATI's demo mascot Ruby and realised that that whole thing is gone. I miss Ruby.

@JohnAmanar 3 года назад

Awesome video! So nostalgic! ^_^

@MrVitalic85 3 года назад

Super cool presentation my man !

@dimarzio9374 3 года назад

Immaculate job. Thanks

@squeeeb 2 года назад

Nice trip down memory lane. It's a shame we don't really see tech demos anymore. I'm still using the Gargoyle / Clock screensaver on my XP machine. Another classic demo not mentioned is the X-Isle demo showcasing early crytek engine effects!

@CommodoreFan64 3 года назад

Awesome video, the ATI Ruby demos where always my favorite, but could be the very long time ATI/AMD fan in me lol!

@rare6499 7 месяцев назад

Whats really amazing is how impressive so many of them still look ! Those later Ruby demos were AMAZING

@wallakfir90 Год назад

This video should have way more views! Excellent work and I miss those days of creativity. It all became so sterile nowadays.

@tribalwar117 3 года назад

Before watching the video, my best guess for their disappearance is that until rtx came around there was just a lack of additional features being added. Gpus got faster obviously, but the time where a new gpu could do something an older gpu just couldn't do seemed over. A resolution rat race started around the gtx 9xx serries with both consoles and pcs alike trying to reach 4k, can't really show that in a demo... Now with rtx the demos are back! Because they finally have something new to show off. Anyway now onto hear what you think.

@ereksat 3 года назад

Thanks bud, this is good stuff

@manoelmac 3 года назад

Great VIDEO!!!! 😍

@crawbe 3 года назад

Great content

@wishusknight3009 3 года назад

I know which one you forgot... Village Mark for the Power VR Kyro. Btw thankyou for this collection. Excellent documentation of history! I am now finding myself digging around for some of these demos and getting out my period correct hardware to just run them. And I will probably be at this all day lol.

@Yinco1 Год назад

Bro. I remember how good the lighting was in that demo.

@TheUTubeTeamSucks 6 месяцев назад

I had the Matrox Tech Demo with my Millenium G400 and Radeon's Ark demo with my ATI VIVO. Really impressive back in the day

@trovasergi 3 года назад

El mejor canal sobre tarjetas de video.

@XzPERFECTIONzX 3 года назад

great video!!!

@cptcrogge 3 года назад

Great video, I remember most of them :)

@foch3 3 года назад

Great intro

@nboy7 Год назад

Brings back memories, miss those days. Everything just was so optimistic and groundbreaking.

@danthompsett2894 3 года назад

I miss this, it gets you enthuised bout playing the latest games with your new graphics card.

@mattfoxlikesretro 3 года назад

God Damn, love this!

@roger.monitor 3 года назад

Your video brought back fond memories, when I bought my Ati 128 Rage 32Mb in 1999 and showt the demo at our computerclub every member wanted one and in a short span of time the cards where sold out. People travelled 100 km and more to get one. It wa s a big step up from a PCI card with 8MB to a AGP with 32Mb. My then Win 98 was faster, really I checked. I still have that card as well the computer where I put it in, Celeron 300 with 128 mB RAM from 1998.

@nemz7505 3 года назад

Transmit was one of the best places for demos back in the day, miss that site :( Also, I'm that old my demoscene started on the C64 - the rave demo blew everyone away!

@mspeter97 3 года назад

What's impressive is that some of them really hold up in 2021

@OtaconEmmerich Год назад

I had no clue ani music had a tech demo... ATI too! Neat!

@jasonmatthew8650 2 года назад

What the hell were they smoking when they made that Luna demo. Creepy as hell.

@RiasatSalminSami 3 года назад

24:48 bruh I wqas watching at late night with lights off and then u show this xD RIP

@TechGamesAU 3 года назад

Bring back the good old days of half naked fairy women, I say.

@glitchybeta6226 3 года назад

Unfortunately we'll never get those back because of SJWs.

@Daniel-sm5vy 3 года назад

Agreed!

@MadsterV 3 года назад

@@glitchybeta6226 just until their children turn on them :)

@RacerS2 3 года назад

@@glitchybeta6226 its like exactly what happened

@MaoRatto 2 года назад

@@glitchybeta6226 Let Japan make some. 😏 The West has surgically removed balls.

@jamzales 2 года назад

Same can be said about game demo's. Wished I would have kept all those pc gamer cd's. Also thanks for putting this together.

@skivvywaver 3 месяца назад

"Ahhh Ruby. So nice to see you again". Ruby...The first AI hottie. I wonder how many cards she sold?

@carbonsx3 3 года назад

Excellent presentation. I too have downloaded and archived most of these demos... some of the installers refuse to run but if 7zip is used to extract most of them, the executables work just fine.

@Xonatron 3 года назад

0:50 - Ferrari F50 demo... this is the one I was looking for!

@kallamamran 3 года назад

This video = ❤

@TombomOfficial Год назад

also s/o LGR another awesome retro tech tuber I saw in your related videos, cool to see another fan and insta sub from me for the awesome video. Keep up the impressive work.

@Carstuff111 3 года назад

I am half way through this video... and just realized that everything in these tech demos, we now take for granted today... like the fur on the werewolf... That took every bit of horsepower for that card in its era.....and now we have even more detail in fur and hair today, with better lighting AND doing so real time, in detailed games..... Good grief, I now feel old! Also, realizing just how much video of these tech demos does not do them good.... I know from experience that ATi's Pipe Dream looks WAY better in real time.... as do many of the others.

@helljester8097 3 года назад

Great video

@dimebag667 Год назад

I had some nighttime beach one that you could play music with. Spent many a night drifting off to "Beyond the Sea" by Bobby Darin. Great video 👍

@Lacusmons 2 года назад

I always loved the Ruby tech demo story arch.

@StarFury2 3 года назад

0:11 twenty years later this guy is the Gladiator boss in Doom Eternal!

@praxis22 3 года назад

I remember 8 & 16bit computer demos, part of the demo scene, the stuff made by GPU companies are just pretty nothings. IMO The only really memorable moment was when Dawn was hacked to work on ATI hardware, and it ran better.