STARS – Wonders of the world

A faithful JavaScript reimplementation of STARSv2.EXE, the MS-DOS demo by Noooon (1995): a 16-channel module soundtrack, env-mapped morphing 3D objects, a voxel terrain, feedback tunnels and a lot of palette tricks, all running in 320×200 / 256 colours. The original code was unpacked and reverse engineered, then each effect was ported to plain JS (canvas + a software rasterizer) and checked pixel by pixel against the original machine code.

Screenshot: a 3D wasp flying over a purple background

▶ Play the demo

Needs a modern browser and sound. Read how it was done (write-up), with a walkthrough of every effect.

Credits

Original demo: Noooon, 1995 (STARS: Wonders of the world, final release, per STARS.NFO). Groo: music, Bartie: 3D motion / vertices, Karl: system and special effects, Ra: script and pixels.
Music player: LCA MOD player v3.02 by Cédric Bermond (1993-95). Protected-mode extender: PMODE v3.07 by Tran.
Playback here: libopenmpt through chiptune3 (the 16-channel MOD is converted to XM).
This port was produced by reverse engineering with AI assistance (Claude); all rights to the original demo belong to its authors.