A whole boss fight in 256 bytes

5 comments

• lucb1e 2 hours ago
  That domain is such a blast from the past for me. I spent so many hours working on projects with free webhosting as a teen!

  dang/HN: this domain should probably be added to the list where the subdomain is shown next to the title, since subdomains are users' webspaces. (Might be a good candidate for the public suffix list: "[DNS labels] under which Internet users can (or historically could) directly register names".)
• flopsamjetsam 2 hours ago
  I clicked on this fearing it was a "256 bytes of JS" (plus X GB of browser), and was pleasantly surprised it was actually 256 bytes.
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  • xg15 19 minutes ago
    Had a similar thought. In theory, you're right, though in practice today it's "256 bytes of binary plus X MB of DOS emulator".
  • rustystump 1 hour ago
    Why is that bad? If the bytes could easily run within the same constraint in another env/language why the hate?

    I am with u on the excessive ram of browsers. It is insane. Still, it is one of the most portal and easy ways to share something. Heck, u can run a dos emulator in your browser.

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    • layer8 1 hour ago
      This is probably in reference to things like Dwitter.net (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46557489), where the browser (plus the Dwittet-specific runtime harness) contributes significantly higher-level functions than traditional demoscene targets like DOS PCs.

      It’s just a different thing. I see no “hate”, only an expression of preference for “bare-metal” demos.
    • senfiaj 1 hour ago
      Probably because JS has larger runtime, in JS you don't have to write about most of the low level code. So it's easier to squeeze code in JS than in ASM or machine code.
    • irishcoffee 33 minutes ago
      It is misleading to say "I wrote X in 1k bytes" when those 1k bytes were library calls to library calls totaling 300MB.
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      • whaleofatw2022 0 minutes ago
        Right... on the flipside its one thing to where it is X+minor overhead inclined lib calls

        Then a whole nother level of awesome where its literally just ASM
• HellMood 2 days ago
  Technical write up for "Endbot" 256 bytes MSDOS program with plot, sync, sound, and payoff. Released April 4th at Revision Demoparty 2026.
• ale42 2 hours ago
  Didn't run it (yet) but it looks nice. Great that some people are still able to optimize code! I'm wondering if this would run on actual hardware (VGA + a sound card supporting MPU401 emulation)
• Anmol-Baranwal 1 hour ago
  [dead]