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Origin of "Demo or Die!"

category: offtopic [glöplog]
 
Hanging around the web I've found The Origin of “Demo or Die”. As this is (or at least used to be) common phrase in demos, I am thinking where it started? (link is obviously offtopic in this matter and brief look into wikipedia told me it is even not that old as is used in demoscene).
added on the 2014-01-30 02:22:20 by evills evills
Wasn't it Sanity's slogan originally?
added on the 2014-01-30 02:25:48 by Gargaj Gargaj
See Sanity's demos. For instance, Interference.
added on the 2014-01-30 03:18:29 by ham ham
Skate or die!
added on the 2014-01-30 04:30:44 by Serpent Serpent
Possibly from the term "Skate or Die" which was aimed at people in the skating community who didn't actually skate. similar to "Make a demo about it" | "Put up or shut up" | "Show us what you got"

MIT media lab started in the 80s which was near the same time the skater term became popular.

skate or DIE! die! die! die! die! die!

i'm just guessing
It's a quote from Einstein's original paper on General Relativity. "Demo oder tod".
added on the 2014-01-30 07:06:50 by cruzer cruzer
it started as DEMO OR DIET!
Yep i remember the phrase from those 80's skating days, along with other ingenious lines as "go skate or go home", "skateboarding is not a crime", "live to skate, skate to live" etc. It was before EA's game but that of course made it much more popular...
added on the 2014-01-30 07:52:10 by Serpent Serpent
@Serpent - ahh, the good olde days. Remember the bruised and broken wrists, knees and ankles and the scraped palms, knees and elbows? Not too mention worn out wheels and bearings, scraped rails, broken truck and snapped boards?
Skate or die, mutha fukka!

I miss my Powell Peralta deck. I don't think I could afford the life/health insurance premiums if I chose to try and go for a grind these days!
added on the 2014-01-30 08:36:19 by ringofyre ringofyre
ringo: heh sure do as i skated again from 1997 till 2000 (regularly) and again from 2008- at least once a year :D
added on the 2014-01-30 09:24:33 by Serpent Serpent
got a demomaking is not a crime t-shirt from one of the bunzli parties :)
added on the 2014-01-30 09:24:37 by psenough psenough
"exe or it didn't happen"
added on the 2014-01-30 10:56:38 by xTr1m xTr1m
Yeah i still got the "demomaking is not a crime" buenzli t-shirt :)
added on the 2014-01-30 12:43:53 by rez rez
AfaIr "Demo or Die" was a Sanity's slogan, invented by them in the early 90s (92 or max 93?).
added on the 2014-01-31 11:49:54 by sim sim
Serpent: adding "skateboarding is dead, now leave us alone" there

i also skated regularily until 2003, more then ten years total.
tried it again in 2008 and nearly broke my wrist, decided then that biking is more my sports now. :D

concerning origins of "demo or die" i have two theories.

the mentionend modification of "skate or die" &
the possible statement to the illegal scene to only do demos.
added on the 2014-01-31 13:07:02 by gentleman gentleman
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added on the 2014-01-31 15:44:09 by w00t! w00t!

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