Best demos

Coders have to find something new like Hextrain for MTXplus+ running on TMS9918A.
The limitations of TM9918A are quite known now, also same coding/routines but using screen4 instead of screen 2.
If we want to amaze with 15+ colors, we really have to move to V9938+ . The TMS9918/18A/29/29A we have, IMHO, seen, encrypting/decrypting video meuk. I think we have to move on to V9938+ and, finally show those capabilities, in demo or game format. I have some tricks in my sleeve and will will show in approx 3 months.
The last couple of years MSX1 demos and games dominated the scene. Time to make a change I would say.
Be creative with V9938+, make use of the additional registers that came by this up grade and do not stick with the TMS9918A. if your woman left you, would you still keep her routines? Even when you upgraded>

That depends on the architecture of the machine, really. Perhaps the C64 is more capable than an MSX to allow full-screen redraws at a reasonable frame rate, without just doing simple things like scrolling. If that's so, such a C64 is more inviting to grow a demo scene. A demo scene relies on full-screen and full-framerate screen updates, or else almost nothing can be done - other than boring scrolls. Again, go a few pages back and watch that C64 Second Reality again. Show me a convincing MSX-version (and not a videostream of it!) and I may adjust my viewpoint.

And don't get me wrong: scrolls aren't bad.... for games! I'm sure a C64 couldn't ever beat Aleste 2 regarding visual candy. And a scroll & logo demo may look smoother on MSX2 as well, compared to a C64. But then you're limited to simple scrolling blocks again, and that may have been the way of the international demo scene in the late 80's and early 90's, but the spirit of the international demo scene has moved on from that.

Then we should revert back a question I deposited here earlier: what is the definition of a demo? If you merge all demo scenes from each platform together, you'll find that it's a combination of showing audio-visual entertainment and showing technical skills. These technical skills are typically related to (complex) math, and showing effects that are seemingly impossible to do on the system they were made for. E.g. in history you first had the scroll + logo demos, and I guess MSX could go along with that. Then things got more related to maths; showing 3D using filled polygons, showing textured polygons etc. etc. That's where for MSX the road ended. Maybe the Z80 could cope with the calculations (wouldn't know, ask a coder), but polygons aren't rectangles, and these would be time-consuming to draw for the VDP. Ro often had this saying 'if it looks good on an MSX, it's a trick'. I'm sure someone could show me a rotating solid cube on MSX. But are they truly filled polygons, or is it just a bunch of tiles where the neighboring surfaces show dedicated tiles using some kind of VRAM-stream? Because if it's like that, the effect-evolution also ends exactly there.

So the real question is whether or not the MSX was able to come along with other systems regarding typical demo scene effects. I highly doubt so. I'd say that Traktor's Baltak Rampage is the most modern-style demo on MSX. But yea, it's only one like that, and not with effects I couldn't explain. Scrolls, sprite overlays 'n such.

That is a pretty high bar to set for a demo.
Any seasoned programmer will have at least some notion of how to achieve an effect, even if it comes down to explaining it away as a precalculated animation of some sort.

You can't really make a programmer awestruck by an effect unless they have actually tried to make the effect themselves so that they understand why the trivial implementation isn't feasible.
As for non-programmers they might not even realize that something is particularly hard to do so you are out of luck there too.

I guess here is where coding challenges comes in. If multiple programmers try to implement the same effect at the same time they will be able to appreciate the best implementation a bit more.

Either way I think it is better to focus on making a demo entertaining rather than impressive. (Logo+scroll fail at both)
That way it will be enjoyable for a larger audience and it will actually be rewatchable.

Either way, my whole story was purely a segmented reply to BadWolf359's reaction at 16-12-2022, 21:05. About the 'why' there're more demo releases on other systems.