4K intros
“4K intro” is a term referring to a very small demo. So small that it fits in just four kilobytes, which is quite a tiny amount – it equals roughly one page of text without images. And even a single icon on your desktop takes more space than a whole 4K intro! The size limit is just an arbitrary one chosen by people in the demoscene community, but that’s what makes the whole challenge very interesting.
I have created a few 4K intros, some alone and some with a team of other people. In addition I was one of the founders of the IN4K site which is collecting development information related to 4K intros.
Read about San Angeles Observation from its own page…
Read about Afrika from its own page…
Read about Dream Creditor from its own page…
Read about Andromedary from its own page…
Read about Fountain of Mart from its own page…
Made for the 4k intro competition of Assembly 2013 event:
Prunus Mykiss, released under Rustbloom label.
Click to download (Windows), or watch a video in YouTube.
Code by tonic (me), design by stRana and music by John Peeba. Uses Crinkler and Clinkster.
In 2012 the annual Assembly summer computer festival added a 1 KB intro compo category. I made an entry called “Synxiety Attack – Tahdistuskohtaus”.
Click to download (Windows), or watch a video in YouTube.
For the Evoke 2011 event I also took part in the 4 KB intro compo, with Excess Geometry – Ylijäämägeometria by tAAt 2011. This production was an experiment which started with the thought “what if I precalculate a big static bunch of vertex positions, and make a production which only shows a sliding window of those vertices”. That is, the effect code basically boils down to: glDrawArrays(GL_POINTS, array_pos_in_time, 50000);. Since the demo features a planar ground as a context to show other objects, it actually has to be “refreshed” all the time by re-inserting more vertices to the plane. So, the silly design choices largely dictate what kind of things are featured.
Download Windows zip
YouTube video
I helped out XMunkki to create a little humorous entry for the Assembly 2011 event’s 4 KB intro competition, Nelejän Kilon Nakki by XZM & tAAt. Technology-wise it interestingly the 2D effects in the production are actually running inside a complex pixel shader written by XMunkki. I mostly tweaked some of the visuals/movements and created the audio track using 4klang.
Download Windows zip
YouTube video
Irrelephant by tAAt (2009)
Platform:Windows
Little 4K intro I made with tongue in cheek for the Assembly’09 4k intro competition. Crowd seemed to like it as it got the 3rd place. You can probably easily spot that my little 2D walker prototype ended up as part of this production.
Download Windows zip
YouTube video
DJ (2003)
Platform: Windows
My contribution to the Assembly’2003 4 KB intro competition category. It placed on the 8th position.
Download Windows zip
YouTube video
Shadow Sun (2004)
Platform: Windows & Linux
Shadow Sun is my entry to the second #demoscene 4k source compo and it took the 1st place. It’s not a 4 KB intro in the traditional sense, where the size limit refers to size of the final executable form. Instead this is a production where the source code fits in 4 KB. This is actually a lot harder limit, because many 4K intros have a lot more source code than 4 KB although the final compiled and compressed form still fits in four kilobytes.
The rules stated that the source had to be ANSI C/C++ using SDL. Contribution had to be only code without any data files, and size limit for the code was 4096 bytes (not counting whitespace, so pretty formatting the source was preferable). The effect uses OpenGL and it also features background music.
Update: Later I created an IOCCC 18 entry (winning one) from the music. As IOCCC organizers didn’t get around releasing the competition entries, you can download the IOCCC entry version here.
Download Windows zip with source
YouTube video
Lollipop Hogwagen (2003)
Platform: Windows & Linux
This effect participated in #demoscene 4k source compo and it placed 2nd. Just like Shadow Sun, this one was built with limited source size rather than size of the final form.
The rules stated that the source had to be ANSI C/C++, and SDL or glut must be used. The entry had to be only code without any external data files. Size limit for the source code was 4096 bytes (not counting whitespace). I had plenty of space left, so I could return my entry under the size limit even with the extra whitespace.
Download Windows zip with source
Blobzilla 4000 by Northern Dragons (2005)
This small demo participated in the Assembly’2005 event and placed 4th in the 4 KB intro competition. It is a creation of the group Northern Dragons, and I participated with doing part of the coding work. In total over 10 persons took part in making of this little thing!
Rose Shank by XZM & tAAt (2007)
4 KB intro for Assembly’2007. Created mostly by XMunkki, but I was there lending a hand and doing whatever necessary to get the thing finished. What’s special about the creation is the fact that it was created in a custom language which uses LISP syntax (Lisp-ahtava aka IL4). The code is compiled into a custom minimal bytecode and a VM for that particular case. Respect to XMunkki – he is the brains behind that nice little system which we have talked about for some years, and he finally got around to implementing it!
Download Windows zip
Source code is available from XMunkki’s home page
YouTube video
Nafta (2002)
Platform: Windows
My contribution to the Assembly’2002 4 KB intro competition category. It placed on the 2nd position. This is my first real 4K intro when not counting some earlier tests.
Download Windows zip
YouTube video