The size limited demos are use techniques like in the OP, scrapping the runtime, no std, filling the unused exe header sections with own data, quantizing floati

The size limited demos are use techniques like in the OP, scrapping the runtime, no std, filling the unused exe header sections with own data, quantizing floating point values, etc. And/or exe packers like Crinkler and kkrunchy. COM's are no longer used.