When we think demoscene, our first thought is typically of 80s computers, particularly the Commodore 64 and Amiga 500 which were widely regarded as the awesomest of their time. However, you can write a demo on any platform you wish, and [OxABADCAFE] has done just that – in PHP.
Going by PDE, standing for Pointless, Portable, or PHP Demo Engine, the code is available on GitHub for the curious. The code is set up for RGB ASCII terminal output, for a beautifully old-school aesthetic. Demo sequences can be programmed in JSON files, with the code executing a default in-built demo if none is provided.
There’s no audio yet, so you’ll have to cool your thumping chiptune jets until that’s available in a later release. With that said, we look forward to more development expanding what can be done with the engine – after all, there’s nothing more demoscene than pushing the limits. Video after the break.
[Thanks to Useless Landline for the tip!]
I tried my hand at oldskool demoscene effects in PHP some 10 years ago. It’s not realtime though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfgDSp3naqk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT3GJigwlPg
I would subscribe, but that would really ruin things.
Nice.
mesmerizing!
I made a game using that Comanche renderer used at the end of the demo: https://eri0o.itch.io/i-rented-a-boat
Thanks for the write up! I plan to start working on sound soon but in the meantime, there are some things that weren’t ready in the first release:
Tunnels: https://youtu.be/77Ize7KSG1Y
Raytracer: https://youtube.com/shorts/0NdSchCaqlU