Not sure i follow, as the trend had been ongoing ever since the C64 (if not before).
As for the whole demoscene thing, i am not surprised given that it grew out of the cracking scene on micros. By being more elaborate versions of the intros cracking groups added to games (and those seems have made something of a comeback as cracking groups have to provide their own installers because games rarely ship as complete ISOs these days).
That said, i never got the impression that the demoscene was much interested in the PC platform once it started sprouting soundcards and graphics accelerators. I guess it just became hard to judge the prowess of the demo developers when the platform was not a fixed package.
As for the whole demoscene thing, i am not surprised given that it grew out of the cracking scene on micros. By being more elaborate versions of the intros cracking groups added to games (and those seems have made something of a comeback as cracking groups have to provide their own installers because games rarely ship as complete ISOs these days).
That said, i never got the impression that the demoscene was much interested in the PC platform once it started sprouting soundcards and graphics accelerators. I guess it just became hard to judge the prowess of the demo developers when the platform was not a fixed package.