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A common complaint on tiny demos. Here the OS is only used for setting graphics mode and setting up a timer. Plus all the boot code of course. Not much really, with 512 bytes you can probably do it on the bare metal, if someone didn't already. There is even more debate in 4k. After all, most rely on graphics drivers that take hundreds of megabytes. But the thing to understand is that in any case, the intro ships all…
(author here) Not quite, a 256 bytes PC intro CAN have decent non MIDI music as showcased here https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=79281 (won the "outstanding technical achievment" award) I did some intros in 32 bytes and 16 bytes having that "horrible buzzer", looks like some ASCII effects and a dutch gabber bassline is the maximum you can get in this category :D ( https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=76093 )
Anyways, great job. I was there during the compo, it was epic, with everyone double checking the executable size, even the old guys who have seen it all. You got my vote BTW.