Code Like It's 198x

CSDb

The credits and connections around C64 releases

CommunitiesSource-checked

The C64 Scene Database records productions, people, groups and events through information supplied by its users. Klaus Andersen, known as Perff, began the project in 2001 with Kilroy and other members of No Name, using cross-references to connect releases with the people who made them.

A demo file can tell you what a computer does when it runs. It may tell you much less about who made it, which group released it or where it was first shown. CSDb, the C64 Scene Database, connects those pieces: productions, people, groups, parties and the credits linking them.

CSDb's blue official link button.
CSDb's own link button, supplied by the service and used unchanged.

Klaus Andersen, known in the scene as Perff, began working on it in spring 2001. In his 2007 interview with Commodore Free, he recalled finding information about the C64 scene scattered across separate websites. He wanted a place where a reader could find out who had made something and which groups they belonged to.

A database built by participants

Andersen belonged to the group No Name. He recruited its webmaster, Kilroy, to design the site while he wrote the code; Kilroy later worked on the code too. Other members contributed ideas. Inspired by IMDb, Andersen made the people using the site responsible for supplying its information.

The initial material included information from SAL, the Sceners Addy List, but Andersen recalled a largely empty database at launch. Its subsequent contents came through contributions. The current site credits Perff and Kilroy for code and database work and Kilroy for design, alongside people responsible for ideas, testing, administration and moderation.

That is a different kind of archive from a collection assembled by one historian. Participants can record their own work, add old productions and connect people whose names or group memberships changed. It also means that a record is a contribution that can be corrected, rather than a fact guaranteed by the presence of a database field.

Following one release

The record for Coma Light 13 shows the connections in practice. CSDb identifies it as an Oxyron C64 demo released on 28 October 2012 at X’2012, where it placed first in the C64 demo competition.

Its credits distinguish code, graphics, music, text, character set, loader and help. A reader can move from the release to a credited person’s record, from that person to a group and from the party link to other competition entries. The file is one part of a network of people and work.

The page also contains comments and user ratings. Those answer different questions from the credits. A rating records the response of participating users; a comment may contain a recollection, a technical observation or a disagreement. Neither should silently become the production’s original documentation.

Keeping contributions usable

By 2007 the database had developed record maintainers, trusted users and moderators. Andersen explained that the original intention remained a database maintained by its users, while experience had required ways to protect and correct the information.

CSDb’s own introduction says its staff cannot manually check everything submitted. Its FAQ explains how registered users update records and how a maintainer can lock one against general editing. The ability to report a problem and identify who maintains a record matters as much as the ability to add it.

Independent researcher Markku Reunanen used scene databases in his study of the demoscene. He noted CSDb’s broad scope, extending beyond executable demos to items such as competition votesheets, paper magazines and hardware extensions. He also discussed the limits of user-populated archives: surviving and recorded work is not a complete account of everything that happened.

A neighbouring collection

Discussions on CSDb also helped lead to Codebase64, whose wiki gathers programming explanations and source code. The two sites serve related needs. CSDb connects the work to its makers and occasions; a technical article can explain how an effect in that work operates. Following both kinds of record can turn an unfamiliar demo into something a reader can investigate.

Sources

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