Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020 • Hacker News Board

guiambros wrote: post #2

The source code really looks like black magic. It's incredible they were able to cram the tunnel effect into 64 bytes [1]. The entire video is here [2], if you just want to watch the final product. EDIT: link fixed. [1] https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=85227 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imquk_3oFf4

No, go fire up DOSBox and watch it in realtime! Watching demos on YouTube takes away a lot from the spirit of what makes productions like this one special.

Also, your Pouët link is wrong. I think you actually meant https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=85227 instead.

Re: Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020

#4

Post by haberman » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 4:06 AM UTC

How do you handle time with such small code size? I see a timer interrupt for the music, but what about the animation? Is it dependent on the speed of the underlying CPU?

Re: Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020

#5

Post by rsiqueira » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 4:22 AM UTC

There is a JavaScript implementation of this parallax checkerboards effect with just 140 characters of code, including 3D animated perspective: https://www.dwitter.net/top/all In this page you can also find an implementation of Pouet's tunnel effect.

Re: Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020

#6

Post by ajxs » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 4:27 AM UTC

This is amazing!

Here's another awesome 256b demo that I love: http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=66372

Re: Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020

#7

Post by d_silin » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 4:44 AM UTC

A couple of other famous short demos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YWMGuh15nE ("Elevated", 4k)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp0t2jCMGZE ("One of those days", 8k)

Re: Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020

#8

Post by a1369209993 » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 4:58 AM UTC

nrr wrote: post #3

guiambros wrote: post #2

The source code really looks like black magic. It's incredible they were able to cram the tunnel effect into 64 bytes [1]. The entire video is here [2], if you just want to watch the final product. EDIT: link fixed. [1] https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=85227 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imquk_3oFf4

No, go fire up DOSBox and watch it in realtime! Watching demos on YouTube takes away a lot from the spirit of what makes productions like this one special. Also, your Pouët link is wrong. I think you actually meant https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=85227 instead.

> I think you actually meant https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=85227 instead.

For reference, the original was https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=78044 which appears to be a 64-byte demo showing off just the raytracer from 85227.

Re: Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020

#9

Post by iszomer » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 5:09 AM UTC

Tiny binaries probably relied heavily on the native OS's system libraries.

Re: Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020

#10

Post by londons_explore » Tue, Apr 28, 2020, 5:17 AM UTC

Normally these demos are filled with all kinds of 'tricks' to make things smaller.

Things like self modifying code, using bits of the bios or video ROM in ways they weren't intended by jumping into the middle of them, saving space by using code as data or vice versa, tiny packers which compress or uncompress the code, massive pregenerated buffers to do runtime lookups to generate data in one order but use it in another, etc.

This seems very vanilla in comparison...