A one-minute capture of Tim Clarke's 1993 'Mars' DOS demo, a roughly 5 KB program that renders a navigable terrain landscape in real time.
Why Hacker News points people here: Remembered fondly as a tiny, efficient demo that inspired graphics programmers and is a benchmark for modern terrain rendering.
“I saw Mars demo which hooked me forever on the path of graphics programming.”HN comment, 2016
“I saw Mars demo which hooked me forever on the path of graphics programming.”
Demo that inspired a career in graphics programming
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Second Reality was the best. First demo that I saw was Spaceballs' State of the art link and I vividly remember of thinking 'wtf is that, a video or what?' and then Second Reality a year later or so - link But then (I look all and every demo out there by then at the age of 13) I saw Mars demo this video which hooked me forever on the path of graphics programming.
RecommendsreconnectingJul 2025
“Just 6 kilobytes and 30+ fps on a 12MHZ 286 (2).”
6KB terrain demo running at 30+ fps on a 286
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It's amazing what people achieved with the resources of the '80s, creating fairly enjoyable visuals using extremely limited technology. Another example from the early '90s is MARS.COM (1) by Tim Clarke (1993). Just 6 kilobytes and 30+ fps on a 12MHZ 286 (2). 1. this video 2. link
Cites itcousin_itJan 2016
“The next step is to reimplement the Mars DOS demo [1] using voxels in the browser”
Efficient 1993 terrain demo contrasted with slow modern CSS voxels
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Voxels are the most expensive way to model a 3D shape, and browser CSS is the slowest way to render a 3D shape. These two were made for each other. The next step is to reimplement the Mars DOS demo [1] using voxels in the browser, and marvel at the slowdown compared to 1993. It's discouraging that we're supposed to cheer for progress even when it's headed backwards. [1] this video
Cites itmarcusjtJan 2020
“Here's a video of it in action, for those unfamiliar”
Shows the terrain demo in action
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Here's a video of it in action, for those unfamiliar, the poster had also included a link to its location at Pouet this video
Cites itvelosolJul 2023
“I zoomed around that landscape in the way a child can pour hours into”
Controllable Mars demo remembered fondly
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Thinking about demos brought me right back to probably one of the first things I downloaded, the 'controllable' Mars demo [1,2]. I zoomed around that landscape in the way a child can pour hours into what anyone older would view as painfully repetitive. Based on the YT comments it's been done at shadertoy too: link [1]: link [2]: this video
