"Memories" - 256 byte MSDOS intro
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN people share it as a mind-blowing example of demoscene craft and the reigning champion of 256-byte demos.
What it is
Memories is a 256-byte MS-DOS demo that packs eight effects and MIDI soundscapes into a tiny program. It won first place at Revision 2020.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2020 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec jacquesm · 2022-12 · on “Ask HN: What does artisanal software look like?”
Check out the demo scene, they are still going strong after 4 decades and producing stuff that is just as mindblowing as it was when it all began. [this video] That's 256 bytes .
Recommends stallmanite · 2020-04 · on “Memories – a multipart demoscene demo in only 256 bytes”
The 256 byte category of demos is inspirational. The idea that a relative handful of symbols that you could write on a sheet of notebook paper and view in its entirety could produce minutes of video and sound is hard to wrap my mind around. To save anyone else the clicking here’s the video [this video]
Recommends oddly · 2022-09 · on “New Linux malware combines unusual stealth with a full suite of capabilities”
I suggest you check out the demoscene if you haven’t. This is “Memories” from the Revision competition: [this video] 256 bytes
Recommends throwawayben · 2022-10 · on “The Commodordion”
[this video] I don't think it uses any fancy modern CPU features but this is probably the reigning champion of the 256 byte demo, and its write up[0] [0] [LINK]
Cites guiambros · 2020-04 · on “Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020”
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] [LINK] [2] [this video]
Cites clan · 2020-04 · on “Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020”
I am always very impressed when I see these demos and how much can be done with so little. If you are like me you just jumped to Youtube[1] to see it in action. When trying to make my significant other to understand what was happening I wanted to run it myself. I was amazed how simple that was! - Install the assembler[2] - Install dosbox[3] - Get the source[4] and put it into c:\temp\demo\memories.asm - Start nasm and enter: cd c:\temp\demo nasm.exe memories.asm -fbin -o memories.com - Start dosbox and enter: mount d c:\temp\demo d: dir memories - Press [ALT][ENTER] for fullscreen The dosbox config is not optimized but it runs with sound with the default settings! For me this is somehow much