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How to Create Matrix-Style Falling Green Text in a Batch Script

The "digital rain" from the movie The Matrix is one of the most iconic visual effects in cinema. Creating a simulation of this effect is a classic and fun exercise in batch scripting, perfect for a harmless prank or for impressing your friends with your command-line skills. While batch scripting cannot create the exact graphical effect, it can produce a surprisingly cool and convincing imitation.

This guide will teach you how to create this effect using a simple batch script. You will learn how to set the classic green-on-black color scheme, how to generate a continuous, random stream of characters, and how to use a loop to make the "digital rain" fall forever.

The Core Concepts of the Effect​

The Matrix effect is an illusion created by a few simple components working together:

  1. The Color Scheme: A bright green text on a pure black background.
  2. The Content: A rapid, seemingly endless stream of random characters.
  3. The "Falling" Motion: This is achieved by continuously printing new lines of random text, which pushes the old lines up and off the screen, creating the illusion of falling.

The Key Commands: COLOR, %RANDOM%, and GOTO​

We only need a few simple, built-in commands to create this effect.

  • @ECHO OFF: The standard first line to prevent commands from being displayed, keeping the output clean.
  • COLOR 0A: The COLOR command sets the background and foreground colors. 0 is for a black background, and A is for light green text.
  • %RANDOM%: The built-in dynamic variable that generates a random number from 0 to 32767. We will use this to create our random character stream.
  • :Loop and GOTO :Loop: A GOTO command combined with a label creates a simple, infinite loop.

The Script: A Simple "Digital Rain" Effect​

This is the most basic version of the script. It uses random numbers to create the stream.

@ECHO OFF
TITLE The Matrix
COLOR 0A
CLS

:Loop
    ECHO %RANDOM% %RANDOM% %RANDOM% %RANDOM% %RANDOM% %RANDOM% %RANDOM% %RANDOM%
    GOTO :Loop
note

When you run this, your command prompt window will immediately fill with a fast-scrolling, green wall of random numbers on a black background.

How the script works:

  1. @ECHO OFF: Hides the commands for a clean look.
  2. TITLE The Matrix: Sets the window's title bar for extra effect.
  3. COLOR 0A: Sets the iconic green-on-black color scheme.
  4. CLS: Clears the screen to start with a fresh black background.
  5. :Loop: This is a label that marks the beginning of our infinite loop.
  6. ECHO %RANDOM% ...: This line is the engine of the effect. It prints a line of eight random numbers. Because ECHO automatically adds a new line, it pushes all previous lines up.
  7. GOTO :Loop: This command tells the script to immediately jump back to the :Loop label and run the ECHO command again. This repeats forever, creating the continuous stream.

How to Stop It: An infinite GOTO loop will not stop on its own. The only way to stop the script is to close the command prompt window by clicking the "X" button.

Making it Better: Using More Characters​

The basic version only shows numbers. To make it look more like the movie, we can use a string of characters and randomly pick from it. This is a more advanced script that uses Delayed Expansion.

@ECHO OFF
TITLE The Matrix Has You...
COLOR 0A
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

SET "MatrixChars=0123456789ABCDEF"
SET /A "CharCount=0"
:CountChars
IF NOT "!MatrixChars:~%CharCount%,1!"=="" (
    SET /A CharCount+=1
    GOTO CountChars
)

:Loop
    SET "Line="
    FOR /L %%i IN (1,1,80) DO (
        SET /A "rand=!RANDOM! %% CharCount"
        SET "Line=!Line!!MatrixChars:~%rand%,1!"
    )
    ECHO !Line!
    GOTO :Loop

How this advanced version works:

  • SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION: This is required to use variables that change inside a loop (!Var!).
  • SET "MatrixChars=...": We define a string of all the characters we want to use.
  • SET /A "rand=!RANDOM! %% CharCount": This generates a random number within the range of our character string's length.
  • !MatrixChars:~%rand%,1!: This is a substring operation that extracts a single, random character from our MatrixChars string.
  • FOR /L ...: This inner loop builds a single line of 80 random characters before the main :Loop repeats.

Common Pitfalls and How to Solve Them​

  • Window is Too Small: This effect looks best when the command prompt window is maximized to fill the whole screen. You can either do this manually or add MODE 1000 at the start of your script to force a large size.

  • User Can't Stop It: As mentioned, the user must close the window. It's a good practice to include an ECHO message at the very beginning to tell them this.

    @ECHO OFF
    ECHO Starting Matrix effect... Press the 'X' on the window to close.
    PAUSE
    ...

  • Performance: A very fast GOTO loop can consume a significant amount of CPU. This is normal for this type of script.

Conclusion​

The Matrix "digital rain" effect is a fun and visually impressive trick that is surprisingly easy to create with a batch script.

  • The core of the effect is an infinite GOTO loop.
  • The COLOR 0A command sets the classic green-on-black look.
  • The %RANDOM% variable is used to generate the stream of unpredictable characters.
  • For a more advanced effect, you can use Delayed Expansion and substrings to create a wider variety of characters.
  • Remember that the only way to stop the script is to close the window.

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