For 486, no FPU, for MsDos FreeDos, WinXP Dos, DosBox-X ... i made that rather in a hurry, so right now i have a version without background but wall bouncing like the original. But since the competition is already over, i will tinker a bit to make it perfect :)

the blank code for everbody who can read it ^^ you can paste it to http://twt86.co/ to run in a browser

  org 100h
  mov al,0x13
  les bp,[bx]
  int 0x10
  X: sub dh,95
  mov al,[bp+si]
  add dl,al
  imul al
  sub dh,ah
  mov bx,dx      
  mov al,bh      
  imul al        
  xchg ax,dx    
  imul al       
  add dx,ax   
  mov ch,7
  imul ax,di,byte 102
  sub ch,dh
  jle F        
  mov al,bl    
  cbw           
  idiv ch        
  add al,[bp+si] 
  xor al,bh      
  and al,16    
  mov al,31      
  jnz F           
  add al,9     
  F: stosb
  mov ax,0xCCCC
  mul di 
  adc byte [bp+si],cl 
  jmp short X

Those people should also definitely check out "Mariana" (2024), a 256 byte demo from the same author, using the same techniques, which was even nominated for the Meteoriks Award for that year.

https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=96105

https://2025.meteoriks.org/laureates/#nominees-ota

  Features:
  - Multithreading (using all CPU cores & hyper-threads)
  - Full HD / HiColor (1920x1080 / 16 bpp)
  - 128-iterative fractal on FPU
  - Pure DOS (no drivers, no DPMI)

Howdy =) I didn't spot your analysis back then, but it's (still) spot on. A tiny addition, 0xA0000 to 0xB0000 is VGA memory when using graphics modes, so it's quite safe to write there until it flows into the visual text mode memory.

It requires specific graphics card setup ( it simulates an old system) Use the provided config from here https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=106210 Edit: for Dosbox X

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:)

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 ♥

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 ;)

"Spongy" was one of my inspirations to try something similar in 64 bytes.

Of course it's not the same, but "flying through a 3D grayscale orthogonal structure" is actually possible in 64

https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=78044

I tested this on a real FreeDos based notebook and it survived ;) But seriously, on more modern systems it doesnt do anything harmful anymore, while i have read that on older systems, you could provoke a system crash this way. Which then would create the interesting task of designing the CA in a way that it "avoids" the hazardous values. For now it seems that "anything goes", at least on all my semi-old and newer systems. DosBox Emulators literally dont care ;)

"Rainy" was a 32 bytes production in a (strong!) 256byte competition "Wakeup" was a 16 bytes production in a (strong ^^) 128byte competition

Sometimes, content to size ratio wins. Other times, not so much ;)