Lounger
3 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2011–2024
4:14 · 583K views · May 28, 2009
Chaos Theory is a 64k demoscene intro by Conspiracy and CNS that took second place at Assembly 2006, generating its graphics and music from a tiny executable.
HN people use it as a showcase of what fits in 64 kilobytes.
3 comments from Hacker News
In case you haven't seen a 64k intro, "Chaos Theory" by Conspiracy is probably the coolest and most impressive one I've ever seen (fullscreen it in 720p for maximum awesomeness): this video I think it's probably one of the few I've seen that goes beyond being just impressive coding and actually seems to evoke the feeling of a post-singularity civilization, or something like that. The graphics and music are all generated on the fly from 64k of code. I think it actually uses the code compression from the linked article.
I work in embedded software and we fight for every megabyte of NAND flash. Multiple smaller executables add up, too. Reducing the binary size is usually more important than performance (and often more important than memory safety, if we are totally honest...). Personally, I hate bloated software just as much as slow software. It's crazy what you can do with 64 kilobytes, let the demoscene blow your mind: this video Would be awesome if compilers could do the same :)
I don't get the fascination with Farbrausch. While I respect and admire the feat which I'm unable to pull of myself, there are comparatively much better realisations both in terms of art and technique. See the following 64k demos: - chaos theory - this video - turtles all the way down - sub dream [LINK] - the timeless — [LINK] - turtles all the way down - brain control - [LINK]