64K intro


A 64K intro is a demo where the size of the executable file is limited to 64 kibibytes, or 65,536 bytes. At demo parties there is a category for this kind of demo, where the one that gives the best impression wins.
64K intros generally apply many techniques to be able to fit in the given size, usually including procedural generation, sound synthesis and executable compression.
The size of 64 kibibytes is a traditional limit which was inherited from the maximum size of a COM file.

History

Demos traditionally were limited by the system memory size, or later on the storage that was available. By the early 1990s, especially after machines started to get large hard discs and internet connections, demo sizes grew, and as a reaction limited size categories that forced devs to not simply stream data from storage started to become common at demo parties. As the scene evolved, the size of limited PC demos settled down to 64k.
fr-08, a 64k PC demo by Farbrausch released at The Party 2000 in Aars has since been claimed to mark a watershed moment in the popularity of the category.

Notable 64K intros for PC