X
The Commodore 64 party
Held in the Netherlands since the mid-1990s, X is the premier Commodore 64-only demoparty, the place where the 8-bit scene's biggest productions premiere.
Overview
If Datastorm is the Amiga’s loyalist party, X is the Commodore 64’s. Held in the Netherlands and running since the mid-1990s, X is the largest and most prestigious C64-only event — a biennial gathering where the 8-bit scene’s most ambitious demos are saved up and unveiled.
The C64 scene is famously, stubbornly alive, and X is its showcase. New productions premiered there routinely redefine what the 1982 machine is thought capable of, decades after Commodore stopped making it.
Fast facts
- First held: mid-1990s, Netherlands.
- Focus: Commodore 64 only.
- Cadence: Biennial.
- Status: The flagship C64 party.
Why it matters
X concentrates the C64 scene’s best work into a single weekend, and the prestige of an X premiere pushes groups to hold back their strongest demos for it. The result is a steady stream of productions that keep extending the limits of forty-year-old hardware.