[HN Gopher] A whole boss fight in 256 bytes
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       A whole boss fight in 256 bytes
        
       Author : HellMood
       Score  : 31 points
       Date   : 2026-04-05 22:32 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hellmood.111mb.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hellmood.111mb.de)
        
       | HellMood wrote:
       | Technical write up for "Endbot" 256 bytes MSDOS program with
       | plot, sync, sound, and payoff. Released April 4th at Revision
       | Demoparty 2026.
        
       | ale42 wrote:
       | 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)
        
       | lucb1e wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
       | 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.
        
         | rustystump wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | senfiaj wrote:
           | 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.
        
           | layer8 wrote:
           | This is probably in reference to things like Dwitter.net
           | (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46557489), where the
           | browser (plus the supplied 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.
        
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       (page generated 2026-04-07 23:00 UTC)