16-Byte Masterpiece: How One Programmer Creates Visual and Audio Fractals in Minimal Code

At the recent Outline Demoparty in May 2026, programmer HellMood unveiled 'wake up! 16b', a remarkable piece of software that generates both visual and audio fractal patterns using only 16 bytes of x86 assembly code. This tiny program represents the pinnacle of sizecoding – the art of creating maximum visual and auditory impact with minimal code.

The program creates an infinite Sierpinski fractal pattern that appears as characters moving across a text-based screen while simultaneously generating corresponding audio through the PC speaker. What makes this achievement particularly impressive is how HellMood leverages the specific characteristics of early IBM PC hardware to create this dual-sensory experience.

"I learned programming as a kid on an old IBM PC with a monochrome green monitor over 30 years ago and always wanted to create a program for this system," HellMood explains. "The fantastic 'Rainbow Surf' from Plex in just 16 bytes motivated me to dig up some old dusty sketches again and get to work."

The technical ingenuity behind 'wake up! 16b' lies in how it repurposes PC hardware components. The code uses the video memory as a calculation space to draw the fractal while simultaneously using the speaker port to output the same mathematical pattern as sound. This creates a synesthetic experience where the visual and auditory representations are mathematically identical.

"The intertwine, the synesthesia goes far beyond what I found so far in other tiny intros," HellMood notes. "I would even go so far as to say it's revealing more mathematical secrets and relations than using iterated function systems for the 'chaos game' without an RNG."

The program works by implementing a cellular automaton that follows rule 60, which naturally generates the Sierpinski triangle pattern. The 16-byte code cleverly manipulates memory addresses and processor operations to create both visual and audio output simultaneously.

Key technical innovations include:

• Using polymorphic assembly instructions to save bytes
• Jumping into the middle of instructions to reuse opcodes
• Leveraging the specific initialization pattern of text mode memory
• Utilizing the PC speaker port to output the fractal data as audio

The visual output appears as characters moving diagonally across the screen in a sparse pattern, while the audio creates evolving square wave patterns that shift in pulse width and frequency. The result is a mesmerizing experience that demonstrates the mathematical relationships between visual patterns and sound.

"Each time step, another Sierpinski triangle line is a) played on the speaker b) drawn to the screen with a stepsize of 56," HellMood explains. "You can sense the motion, but not really see it, since it's 8192 'pixels wide' but one line of chars is just 80 bytes. On a much much much bigger screen, you could see the triangle."

The program has already inspired hardware enthusiasts to run it on original equipment. Scener miragept created a capture running on a 286 with an MDA monitor, noting the "HUGE phosphor persistence" of the vintage hardware.

"This is so awesome that I had to try running it in real hardware," miragept stated. "The green text is a natural fit for MDA/Hercules, so I patched the address from 0xB800 to 0xB000 which is what MDA uses."

HellMood's achievement highlights the continued relevance of the demoscene – a subculture focused for decades on creating impressive audiovisual demonstrations within extreme technical constraints. In an era of ever-increasing software bloat, 'wake up! 16b' demonstrates the enduring beauty of minimalism and mathematical elegance in programming.

The program joins other remarkable achievements in extreme sizecoding, including HellMood's own "M8trix" (7 bytes) and Plex's "Rainbow Surf" (16 bytes). These works represent the cutting edge of programming as both technical achievement and artistic expression.

For those interested in exploring sizecoding further, resources like the Sizecoding Wiki and Nanogems offer curated selections of remarkable tiny intros from the demoscene. The Pouet.net demoscene community also hosts numerous examples of extreme programming achievements.

As computing hardware becomes increasingly abstracted from the underlying machine, works like 'wake up! 16b' serve as important reminders of the fundamental beauty of computation and the remarkable creativity that can emerge when working within severe constraints.