Sure, IOCCC exercises are ones in futility, in the same way that breaking a speed running record achieves nothing real-world useful. But that doesn't mean it isn't spectacular and damn impressive.
Aside from using small variable names and odd whitespace, it isn't particularly obfuscated.
This is what I am arguing about with another IOCCC winner. What can be called obfuscation, and where are its boundaries.
That's what I was going to say. If nondescript variable names and poor use of whitespace is obfuscation, a few of my friends could submit code they write every day.
Come on there is no obfuscation here, you can literally read the code without issue. The only attempt seems to be 80*101 for 8080.
It's cool if you can read code like this without issue. I'm chasing Kolmogorov complexity, rather than obfuscation. I add things like this to fill gaps in a specific shape.