THE VIDEO SHELF · demoscene size coding
A Mind Is Born (256 bytes)
A Commodore 64 demo by Linus Akesson that fits video and music into 256 bytes, winning the Oldskool 4K Intro compo at Revision 2017. A technical write-up accompanies it.
Why HN readers recommended it
It is HN's favorite example of extreme code compression, a compelling song and visuals from a program smaller than a tweet.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- lftkryo
- Topic
- demoscene size coding
- Format
- demo
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 8
- HN mentions in dataset
- 18
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2017–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
I still play [VIDEO] over and over, just for the song, not only because it is 256 bytes, but because it is a compelling song too.
kwoff on Hacker News · 2018-04
In A dive into the making of a 64K IntroThere's an amazing demo called 'A Mind Is Born': [VIDEO] Amazing principally because the whole thing is 256 bytes: [LINK] I never meet anyone who has even heard of the demoscene, let alone come seen this particular work. I was at a film festival watching …
twic on Hacker News · 2020-03
In A Mysterious Song on the Internet (2019)Not MS-DOS, but my favourite 256 byte demo is for the C64: "A Mind Is Born", check it out: [VIDEO] that music is astonishing.
wgx on Hacker News · 2020-04
In Memories – 256 bytes demo winner of Revision 2020
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.