NEWS

🏆 ICC 2026 Results Are In - And What a Competition It Was!

📅 2026-04-01

The votes have been counted, the Bayesian averages calculated, and the dust has finally settled - the Intro Creation Competition 2026 has officially wrapped up! With an incredible field of entries across both the 4K and 16K categories, this year's competition was a true celebration of creativity, skill, and the timeless love for the demo scene. And honestly? Every single entry deserves a round of applause. 🎉

But before we get to the numbers - a quick note on how the winner is determined, because it's a bit more nuanced than simply counting votes.

🤔 Wait... Why Didn't the Entry with the Most Votes Win?

Great question! The ICC uses a Bayesian Average to determine the final ranking, rather than just the raw total or simple average of votes. Here's the idea in plain language:

Imagine two entries. One gets rated by 3 people and scores a perfect 5 every time. Another gets rated by 100 people and scores a very strong 4.8 on average. Which is "better"? The Bayesian method says: more voters = more confidence in the score. It weighs each entry's average against a global baseline (the overall average score across all entries), and blends the two based on how many votes the entry received.

This prevents entries with just a handful of very enthusiastic voters from outranking entries that consistently wowed a much larger audience. It's fair, it's robust - and it occasionally produces a surprise or two!

In the 16K category, this played out beautifully: Blood Eye Vision actually collected the most total votes of any entry (137 points across 30 voters, raw average 4.57), yet it landed in 2nd place - because Zombie Pirate Intro, with 28 voters and an average of 4.61 per voter, came out slightly ahead in the Bayesian calculation. The difference? A razor-thin margin of just 0.019 in the final Bayesian score. That's how close it was! Both entries are absolutely phenomenal.

🕹️ 4K Category - Final Results

Global Average: 3.43 | Confidence Value: 7.25 | Total Voters: up to 29

Rank	Title	Votes	Avg	Bayesian Avg
🥇 1st	2K(EFRENS)-Intro	137	4.72	4.47
🥈 2nd	Cold Colors	125	4.31	4.13
🥉 3rd	Commodoretro 4k Intro	112	4.00	3.88
🥉 3rd	Sheiny	112	4.00	3.88
5th	Sprite Circle (Laxity Intro #143)	105	3.75	3.68
6th	4ktro	101	3.74	3.68
7th	Checkmate	98	3.63	3.59
8th	Raster (Re-)Cycler ICC26 4KB Intro	94	3.62	3.58
9th	Binary 10ve	97	3.59	3.56
10th	Mirror Jumper (Laxity Intro #144)	104	3.59	3.56
11th	Gianna Brothers	94	3.48	3.47
12th	Rasta Grid 2026	88	3.38	3.40
13th	Beer 4k	82	3.28	3.31
14th	Mega-Logo Argentina	91	3.25	3.29
15th	PETSCII Mirror Intro	82	3.15	3.21
16th	Didi's 4k for HF	85	3.15	3.21
17th	Petsciizoom Intro	83	3.07	3.15
18th	Small Blocky Intro	78	2.89	3.00
19th	Hokuto No 4K	74	2.85	2.97
20th	Avatar Intro PETSCII Magic	69	2.65	2.82
21st	MYD - Smaller	58	2.52	2.74
22nd	The Plot Thickens	60	2.40	2.63

🖥️ 16K Category - Final Results

Global Average: 3.42 | Confidence Value: 7.50 | Total Voters: up to 30

Rank	Title	Votes	Avg	Bayesian Avg
🥇 1st	Zombie Pirate Intro	129	4.61	4.36
🥈 2nd	Blood Eye Vision	137	4.57	4.34
🥉 3rd	Thanksalot	121	4.48	4.25
4th	It's Movin' Tribute	123	4.39	4.19
5th	The Amazing Treadmill Party	130	4.33	4.15
6th	Z-Wave Intro	109	4.19	4.02
7th	Plasmatica	115	4.11	3.96
8th	Honey, I Shrunk the 1701	103	4.12	3.96
9th	Flappus Viridis	113	4.04	3.91
10th	Behemoth+	109	4.04	3.90
11th	VAISOR:71	102	3.92	3.81
12th	Censor Hires Bubbles Intro	117	3.90	3.80
13th	The Bump Intro	102	3.78	3.70
14th	Graffiti 16k Intro	100	3.70	3.64
15th	Digital Mirror	89	3.56	3.53
16th	Pixelpulse Back To The Eighties!	99	3.54	3.51
17th	Intro to Monolith	91	3.50	3.48
18th	Space Intro	94	3.48	3.47
19th	Tagger Intro	86	3.44	3.44
20th	Sphere of Laziness	89	3.42	3.42
21st	Frog at Trench	85	3.40	3.40
22nd	Blazon Starfield Intro	83	3.32	3.34
23rd	Quantum Breach	79	3.29	3.32
24th	Yellowy	82	3.28	3.31
25th	Moving Tubes (Laxity Intro #145)	80	3.20	3.25
26th	Big'QUANTUM	76	3.17	3.23
27th	Spacestation Intro	78	3.12	3.19
28th	Knight Rider Intro	76	3.04	3.13
29th	ICC 16k 4 Excess	77	2.96	3.06
30th	Silver Plated Oldschool Intro	73	2.92	3.04
31st	Being Slacky Again!	72	2.88	3.00
32nd	Blaze On	75	2.88	3.00
33rd	More than Sweet	77	2.85	2.98
34th	Red Paint Intro	71	2.84	2.97
35th	Space Junk	68	2.83	2.97
36th	Hot'n'Shadow	66	2.75	2.91
36th	PETSCII Magix ICC26 4k Intro TREX	66	2.75	2.91
38th	Dominators Tribute 4 HF	63	2.63	2.81
39th	Bavaria is not Germany Motherfucker	60	2.61	2.81
40th	TND Recycled Oldschool Intro	62	2.58	2.78
41st	ICC 2026 Intro	60	2.50	2.72
42nd	Fikkfelah Intro	56	2.33	2.59
43rd	MP-DYCP with a slice of yellow banana	48	2.18	2.50

Yeah - you guess right. The table was created using an AI system - as writing html tables is really boring... But if you want check the calculation by yourself - feel free to take a look at the result and voting Excel where every vote and every calculation can be seen. Here we checked it twich, recalculated by hand and finaly went online with the result. As we do not hide from you what we did, you can download the Excel at ICC_Results2026.xlsx.

💙 Everyone's a Winner

Rankings are fun, but let's take a step back and appreciate what we just witnessed: 22 entries in 4K and a whopping 43 entries in 16K. That's 65 intros, crafted with passion, creativity, and countless hours of work - all to keep the demo scene alive and thriving. From creative PETSCII art to hardware-defying effects, from chiptune grooves to wild visual tricks, every single entry brought something unique to the table.

Whether you landed on the podium or near the bottom of the list, you shipped something real. You created. You competed. And in a world where it would be so easy not to bother - you did. That counts for everything.

A huge thank you to all who put their work out there. You are what makes this community so special.

👋 See You Next Time!

This won't be the last ICC, and we hope it won't be the last time we see your name in the entry list either. Whether you're planning your next intro already or still catching your breath - we'll see you at the next competition, or somewhere along the way. The scene never sleeps. 🚀

Until then: keep creating, keep coding, keep the pixels flowing.

your ICC 2026 crew

Voting Results: How we will calculate them

📅 2026-03-21

We're using a Bayesian Average to rank the entries. Yes, we went full stats-nerd on this one. No regrets. It's like a fastloader — looks complicated under the hood, works beautifully in practice.

Trusting a sample size of 2 is like judging a demo by its first two raster bars — you haven't seen anything yet. A naive system that just adds up points hands the trophy to whoever got lucky with exposure, not whoever made the best entry. That's not a ranking system, that's a READY key stuck on a broken keyboard.

Instead, we start from the assumption that every entry is roughly average — and update that as votes come in. The more votes, the more the actual score dominates. Think of it like a SID chip: one voice alone doesn't tell you much, but enough voices together and you've got something worth listening to.

The formula, for the nerds in the back:

score = (C × μ + Σvotes) / (C + n)

μ = global mean of all entries · Σvotes = sum of votes · n = number of votes · C = confidence threshold

C is set to roughly 20–25% of expected voter turnout — the point where a result stops feeling like "a couple of mates and a cat" and starts feeling like actual signal. Too low and you can still POKE your way to first place. Too high and everything clusters around the mean like sprites fighting for the same hardware channel. Like adjusting the azimuth on your datasette head — once it's right, things just load.

Practical implications:
- Skipping an entry doesn't hurt it — vote = 0 is simply ignored
- Brigading with 2–3 votes is effectively neutralised
- Entries with few votes stay conservative until the data speaks
- The ranking reflects consensus, not exposure

We could have just added up the points like it's 1984. But where's the fun in that. 🕹️

🚀✨ Voting Window Open Until End of March! ✨🚀

📅 2026-03-04

Dear sceners and voters,

The voting window for the Intro Creation Competition 2026 is now officially open — and it will remain open until the end of March.

Out of all submissions, 66 intros have officially qualified for voting. That means 66 pieces of creativity, code, graphics and sound are now waiting for your critical eyes and ears.

🔑 Important Reminder:

Voting is only possible with a valid vote key. As mentioned before, you must request your personal vote key in order to participate.

You can request your key via PM (preferred) or via email. If you choose email, please make sure to include your csdb scener tag — otherwise we cannot issue a key.

⚠️ One small but honest note:

We love the scene — but we also have a life outside of it. This is a community-driven event, and we are not running a 24/7 instant vote-key service center. Requests sent on the very last day — especially in the very last minute — might not be processed in time.

📢 Transparency Notice:

All votings are public. After the competition, we will publish all voting results in detail. We have no secrets — ICC stands for openness and fairness.

⚖️ Fair Play Policy:

We reserve the right to exclude voters in case of unusual or suspicious voting behavior. The goal is a fair and balanced competition, and we will act if necessary to protect its integrity.

So please request your vote key early, enjoy all 65 qualified intros, and cast your vote responsibly.

Happy voting — and may the best intro win! 🔥

🚀✨Submission Phase Officially Closed! ✨🚀

📅 2026-03-02

Dear sceners, coders, musicians, and fearless deadline fighters,

The submission deadline for the Intro Creation Competition 2026 has officially passed! The upload gates are now closed and we can proudly announce:

👉 Over 70 intros have been submitted!

In detail 71 productions were uploaded, this include entries inside and outside the competition, showing once again how alive and creative the scene truly is. Whether competing for glory or simply sharing your latest masterpiece — thank you all for contributing to this fantastic lineup!

So what’s next?

All entries are now again being carefully reviewed and tested to ensure everything runs properly and meets the competition requirements. At the same time, we are setting up and finalizing the voting system.

If everything goes according to plan, voting will start tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We will announce the exact launch as soon as the system goes live.

🔑 Important Reminder:

You will need a vote key to participate in the voting process. If you haven’t requested yours yet, now would be a very good time to do so.

Please contact Freeze via PM on csdb (preferred) or send an email request to icc@blz-c64.de to receive your key. If you request your key via email, you must provide your csdb scener tag — otherwise we cannot issue a voting key.

So don’t wait until the last minute — secure your vote key early and be ready when the doors to the rabbit hole open.

Over 60 intros are lined up. The stage is set.
Get ready to watch, listen, judge — and celebrate another great year of creativity at ICC 2026. 🔥

It’s Getting Serious (Well… Almost)!

📅 2026-02-27

Dear pixel pushers, raster wizards, and SID whisperers,

The final hours are ticking away! The open doors for new entries to the Intro Creation Competition 2026 will close tomorrow, February 28th at 24:00 CET. After that: keyboard down, coffee empty, deadline gone. So hurry up!

If you still have a file on your disk called “final_final_reallyfinal_v7.prg” — THIS is your moment. After tomorrow, only prayers to the holy raster interrupt may help.

🗳 Voting? Yes! But Not Without a Magical Key!

Voting will start next week — we’re not entirely sure on which exact day yet (suspense is part of the show!), but we will inform you here in time.

The voting system will be running here - The entrance to the rabbit hole will soon appear in the upper right corner — keep your eyes open and be ready to dive in.

Important:
You WILL NEED a voting key. No key, no click. No click, no fame. No fame… well, you know how that story ends.

You can get your voting key by:
– Sending a PM to Freeze
– Or sending an email request to icc@blz-c64.de

If you request your key via email, please provide your scener tag and link it to your csdb user account. (This is not required when using the PM system.)

Please note: All votings will be published afterwards. So vote fair and wisely — your clicks will not disappear into anonymous digital fog!

We are currently finalizing the setup of the voting system (probably involving cables, disk drives, and a small ritual sacrifice to the C64 gods). More information about voting will follow soon on our homepage and here in the comments.

Submit your entry, secure your voting key, and get ready.
May the best intro win! 🔥

Only 3 Weeks to Go – Yes, This Is Your Friendly Wake-Up Call 🚨

📅 2026-02-07

Time is flying. Like, really flying. With only three weeks left until the deadline of the Intro Creation Competition 2026, we’ve officially entered the “oh wow, that’s sooner than I thought” phase.

But don’t panic — no dramatic keyboard smashing required. Whether you already have a half-finished intro sitting somewhere on your hard drive (you know, that folder) or you’re just now feeling the creative spark, this is your moment to jump in.

An intro doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs personality. A vibe. Your vibe. Play with motion, timing, sound, style — experiment, break things, fix them again. Creativity loves a bit of chaos (and maybe some caffeine).

And let’s be honest: three weeks is actually a pretty sweet spot. Enough time to turn a rough idea into something polished, but close enough to the deadline to keep procrastination from winning. Future-you will be very thankful you started today.

So open your tools, trust your instincts, and start creating. The deadline is coming fast, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with. Now go — make something awesome. 🚀

when will voting start?

📅 2026-01-15

As asked today in the forum we found out that we missed to add some informations about the voting... so we wanna change this now :-)

Voting will start after end of entry period - which is the 28th of February 2026, 24:00 CET. Voting then will be held HERE in March

The starting point depends from late input entries, which we have to check and add here to the voting system. So please stay calm, if we don't start on 1st at 0:00... but we will start as soon as every release was approved.

the year started with a bang...

📅 2026-01-02

Holy crap, the first intros were submitted and wow - what a quality we see here... We hope, that much will follow - and hey, don't be afraid to submit your entries, nobody knows who will be on number one at the end :-)

By the way, we'd like to share a few links here for anyone who hasn't seen them on csdb yet.

You find Informations about the ICC 2026 at following locations:

• Intro Creation Competition 2026 on csdb
• Discuss the Intro Creation Competition 2026 on csdb
• see the ICC 2026 announcement for inspiration

Also we mirror the releases added to the event on csdb here on our Entries page..

So we are now looking forward for YOUR CONTRIBUTION :-)

the clock is ticking...

📅 2025-12-31

Hello everyone!
The last day of the year has arrived, and we're all counting down the seconds until the start of 2026, when we can submit our intros for the awesome Intro Creation Competition 2026.

For those who haven't heard yet: A forum has been opened on csdb.dk where you can discuss the competition. You can find it here: csdb forum.

So, dust off your programming skills! We're looking forward to your cool entries that celebrate our beloved Breadbin and our hobby to keep the good old C64 alive…

Hello fellow friends of the good and old COMMODORE 64!

📅 2025-12-29

As you may have seen at the DREAM 210 we announced the INTRO CREATION COMPETITION 2026 with a small onefile demo... We hope you enjoyed this little piece of retro art and are now motivated to bring your coding skills to life to submit intros, intros, intros!!!

looking forward for your entries!

Some text was generated with using AI systems for translation purposes and final touches