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April 6th, 2026
Welcome to the 91st issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about Entertainment. In this edition, Graham reviews the beautiful art taking place in the demoscene, and Adrian argues that we are just blinded by entertainment; in our Vidéothèque section, we learn about the demoscene thanks to L33T GUY, and then we watch the first computer-generated movie ever released, made by Loren Carpenter; and in the Library section, we review "Marx at the Arcade" by Jamie Woodcock, and "Super Nintendo" by Keza MacDonald.
by Graham Lee
You are deep into fixing a bug where the customer wants to view entries in a report in a different order, but calling the method to sort the array turns on the sprinkler system in your on-premise server room for reasons that nobody can recall (or diagnose). It is at this moment that it is hardest to remember that programming can be fun.
by Adrian Kosmaczewski
The first issue ever published of Byte Magazine, visible and available on the Internet Archive at the time of this publication, features a bold claim on the cover: "Computers–the World's Greatest Toy!" Said issue also dealt with the more mundane issues of choosing the best microprocessor for your home kit, building your own assembler, or using a surplus keyboard. But the core idea behind home computing was definitely hedonistic from day one.
The opening frames of The Art of the Algorithms sets the scene perfectly: a chip tune plays as greeting text scrolls in a waving motion across the screen, reminiscent of a 1980s cracktro. Then, we get a proper title sequence, as electronic music supports a fast-moving tour through the graphics from classic demos.
The year is 2026, and we take computer-generated movies for granted: Pixar, Illumination, DreamWorks, and a myriad of smaller studios delight us every year with more and more technical and storytelling prowess. Heck, we even have "artificial intelligence" systems that can generate whole movies out of a single "prompt" consisting of a certain amount of words that make a certain sense in a particular context. 50 years ago, however, the prospect of a computer generating images was the subject of intense scientific research.
A superficial view of the videogames sector gives the impression that its employees and customers—the players of the games—are treated much better than at any time in history. Physical media, including EPROMs in cartridges, CD-ROMs, and Blu-Ray discs, have not been the primary method to distribute games since the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii.
Precisely as this issue lands on your browser or e-book reader, "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" is hitting theaters and receiving (at the time of this article) a rather tepid reception from audiences and critics. A feature film inspired by one of the most popular game franchises of all time, itself the brainchild of a company that loves secrecy, rarely revealing anything about itself, with a zeal that would make Apple jealous. The second of this month's Library entries hits with particularly good timing.
