This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser • Hacker News Board

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#11

Post by the__alchemist » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

nvllsvm wrote: post #5

Not cross-platform, but I'm reminded of the kkrieger game for Windows which was a 96k FPS game that looked visually impressive for the time. https://web.archive.org/web/20100304155706/http://www.thepro...

From that link: Still works on modern PCs! Was able to DL and launch.

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#12

Post by zamadatix » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

w4yai wrote: post #9

zamadatix wrote: post #2

For me: - Browser: works after renaming to .html - Linux: "./snake.com: line 20: lzma: command not found". Installing the xz package makes it work (already had XWayland enabled so X11 worked, but may be needed if you have a strict Wayland session). - Windows: As either .com or renaming to .exe I get "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000005). Click OK to close the application." Not sure how to make t…

Works for me on Windows 11

Hmm, Windows 11 25H2 here as well. Redbean works so there must be something about this particular approach combined with some unknown setting on my install.

Edit: Got it working, was DEP.

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#13

Post by bananaboy » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 11:08 PM UTC

Very clever!

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#14

Post by indigodaddy » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 11:19 PM UTC

Wonder why they don't give a demo/link to the browser version

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#15

Post by TuringNYC » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 11:38 PM UTC

On a related note -- when I see the minuscule filesize of the original Zelda game on emulators, I marvel at how little text/code/information could produce how much wonder, how far-reaching impact, and how many hours of enchantment for me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(video_gam...

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#16

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jan 11, 2026, 11:55 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#17

Post by gaigalas » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 12:05 AM UTC

Quite cool.

You could distribute it as `.html` only, and use JS to offer a local download link to itself in the correct extension. A polyglot installer, of sorts.

For example, this gist is an HTML that, when opened, offers a download zip of its DOM in whatever state it currently is:

https://gist.github.com/alganet/c904acb57282402fc0bd724f1eeb...

I think you can use something similar to get the entire page contents as a blob, but I never tested with binary data in actual browsers. Perhaps even patch it to avoid the initial windows error.

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#18

Post by ValdikSS » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 12:05 AM UTC

https://js13kgames.com/

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#19

Post by nxrabl » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 12:12 AM UTC

indigodaddy wrote: post #14

Wonder why they don't give a demo/link to the browser version

It's the same file, you just rename it to end in '.html'

Re: This game is a single 13 KiB file that runs on Windows, Linux and in the Browser

#20

Post by socketcluster » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 12:14 AM UTC

I love the idea of applications which exist in one file which you can run anywhere. I've been working towards this with my serverless platform; you can build complex data-driven apps with just one .html file and mostly declarative HTML markup (thanks to web-components which are loaded from a remote server). With modern browser features, you don't need a bundling system. Once you do away with it; a whole universe is opened up.

The ability to load .html files over the file:// protocol is a powerful, often neglected feature. In practice, it means you can double-click an HTML file and it runs an app in your browser instantly.