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16 bytes of code generate this video and the music in it [1]

['Rob Beschizza']

Date: 2026-05-21  

Linus Akesson's A Mind is Born, a chiptune and graphic demo generated by just 256 bytes of code, is famous for its incredible brevity and spookily good output. All rise for wake up! by DESiRE, which somehow pulls the same trick–pumping soundtrack and striking visual accompaniment—in just 16 bytes of x86 real-mode assembly. That it so evokes The Matrix (though the music reminds me more of Fight Club soundtrack) is really something.

Released at the Outline Demoparty in the Netherlands last week, it "utilizes the computer's video memory as a calculation space to draw an infinite Sierpinski fractal, while simultaneously interpreting that geometry as audio data."

Here's a byte-by-byte explanation of how it works. The YouTube embed of it dumps about 700,000 bytes of Javascript on your computer before it even starts streaming the video! Below, film of it running on real hardware.

By the same group was Bees & Honey, also generated by 16 bytes:

It had competition, too, and took second place at the compo. The winner was Alien Hangar, by Bion-FX. It's more conventionally appealing, to be sure, but the creators had the luxury of 128 bytes to work with.

Previously: A Mind is Born: computer demo, with pumping soundtrack, in only 256 bytes of code

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/05/21/16-bytes-of-code-generate-this-video-and-the-music-in-it.html

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