Wake up! 16b(hellmood.111mb.de)
375 pointsby MaximilianEmelMay 24, 2026

18 Comments

gnabgibMay 24, 2026
Discussion (209 points, 6 days ago, 34 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48173962
kennywinkerMay 24, 2026
Definitely thought this was a 16b parameter llm, not a 16 byte demo.
msikoraMay 24, 2026
Same! This is way cooler tho!
3formMay 24, 2026
Some other time, I really thought that a 32 byte demo I saw is the limit of how small the binary can get and still look good.

That other demo didn't even have sound.

This is hell of a good work. A masterpiece to retire after. (or more realistically, chase it on other architectures)

sneakMay 24, 2026
This is absolutely obscene. I am floored. Sweet hack.
hei-limaMay 24, 2026
I'm really impressed. Those are the things that made me love programming and computing. It's all so beautiful, it's TRULY art. It's a shame that in the industry we don't usually have the opportunities to make something like that, with AIs and all that...
jonhohleMay 24, 2026
If this was made in Electron it would probably be a 300MB download and around 1GB of RAM.
electroglyphMay 24, 2026
i'll upvote this each time it's submitted
tedgghMay 24, 2026
This sent me on a one hour long rabbit hole that ended with two guys building a Sierpinski triangle with recursive PowerPoint presentations

https://youtu.be/b-Fa6HtvGtQ?si=LpQszgA9_K-m3V3-

wuschelMay 24, 2026
Thank you for that. Refreshing! :)
namanyaygMay 24, 2026
One of the linked demos, "rainbow surf", got me hypnotized. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKLhH_ANwIc
HellMoodMay 24, 2026
Author of "wake up" here. Yes, that one reactivated me again. We thought (as size coding community) that we found every cellular automaton trick years ago, but then Plex came around and showed us otherwise ♥
__del__May 24, 2026
i can barely accept this is possible
immanuwellMay 24, 2026
love the sign "This text is handwritten" at the bottom, that's awesome
coffeeking001May 24, 2026
But big model is really better
sphMay 24, 2026
I did NOT expect this 16 bytes demo to also have sound! What an outstanding piece of art.
mgMay 24, 2026
Makes me wonder how many bytes the shortest possible Mandelbrot implementation would need.
HellMoodMay 24, 2026
Author of "wakeup" here. You would would need between 32 and 64 bytes. I have something that almost looks like one in 32 but it's not published yet ;)
HellMoodMay 24, 2026
At the same event I released "Broccolori", a 32 Byte fractal for old-school PCs.

https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=106205

Related to the Dragon Fractal, with a twist:)

smokelMay 24, 2026
There are only 2^128 of such demos. How much of those are valid DOS programs? If we narrow it down to ones that generate both video and sound, I guess there are much less, which should motivate more people to try and find one :)
nojvekMay 24, 2026
2^128 is still a huuuuuge space.
torben-friisMay 24, 2026
I swear watching this kind of projects occasionally is the only thing keeping me from dropping tech and going to work as a mailman or something.
DweditMay 24, 2026
Did not work on PCEM for some reason.
nzhumasseiitMay 24, 2026
that's crazy. level to which i'm striving haha
selfsimilarMay 24, 2026
16 bytes equals immediate “black magic” and “it’s a witch”. I get it in the abstract - generative art and CAs and fractals have infinite depth. But this is madness. I love it so much