Event planning for Demosplash 2026 is ongoing, and this page will be updated as featured events are scheduled.
Come to hear engaging discussions on topics across the demoscene. Check the schedule for event times, which are subject to change.
Presenter: Aziz Chaudhry
From the Sega Saturn to the original Xbox, join a curated tour of demoscene productions exploring a formative era of console 3D graphics. Through screenings and commentary, we’ll discover how unusual hardware and creative ingenuity gave each machine its own visual character and revisit the unique styles and experimental imagery that became part of growing up around the turn of the millennium.
Presenter: Vince Weaver
In 2023, Vince Weaver made a subset of the 1993 CD-ROM game "Myst" that could run on the extremely limited Atari 2600 gaming console. It targeted an M-Networks E7 cartridge that had 16kB of bank-switched ROM and 2k of RAM. While the game ran fine under emulation and on modern cartridge emulators (that have relatively high-powered ARM chips inside) I decided to try to get it working on vintage 1980s hardware by replacing the code on a BurgerTime cartridge. In this talk, Vince will briefly discuss how the code works and then go through all the challenges that occurred getting it to run on real hardware.
Presenter: Arciel Rekman
An overview of nearly four decades of ZX Spectrum demos and the people who made them. We'll follow the scene across countries and hardware variants, explore its changing visual styles, and look how the technical details and local traditions may have influenced them. Along the way, there will be clips from memorable demos, scene folklore from diskmags and personal experience, and some statistics.
Come celebrate the spirit of the Demoscene with live screenings and competitions.
Throughout the weekend, we'll be offering live showings of demos running on real machines, old and new, from the CMU Computer Club's large collection — Amiga, Atari, Commodore, PC, you name it! We'll be showing both eternal classics and recent releases. Check the schedule for more details and times!
No demo party is complete without the chance to write your own demos and submit them to be screened and voted on by the audience! We have several categories — check the compos page for more info.
Over the years we've had a few attendees bring cool projects they're working on, retro hardware for gaming, and more to Demosplash. We think this is awesome and we'd like to encourage more of it. We'll supply tables, chairs, and power but you'll need to bring your own monitor, speakers, cables, etc.
If you're planning to bring something, please e-mail us at organizers@demosplash.org letting us know what you're planning to bring so we can make space for you and coordinate move-in and move-out.
If you don't feel like bringing hardware of your own, fear not. As always, the Demosplash organizers will be setting up some of our favorite retro machines in the game room for attendees to enjoy!