Comment by _kst_

One of the winners of the 1st International Obfuscated C Code Contest (1984) used this technique.

https://www.ioccc.org/1984/mullender/mullender.c

https://www.ioccc.org/1984/mullender/hint.text

    short main[] = {
            277, 04735, -4129, 25, 0, 477, 1019, 0xbef, 0, 12800,
            -113, 21119, 0x52d7, -1006, -7151, 0, 0x4bc, 020004,
            14880, 10541, 2056, 04010, 4548, 3044, -6716, 0x9,
            4407, 6, 5568, 1, -30460, 0, 0x9, 5570, 512, -30419,
            0x7e82, 0760, 6, 0, 4, 02400, 15, 0, 4, 1280, 4, 0,
            4, 0, 0, 0, 0x8, 0, 4, 0, ',', 0, 12, 0, 4, 0, '#',
            0, 020, 0, 4, 0, 30, 0, 026, 0, 0x6176, 120, 25712,
            'p', 072163, 'r', 29303, 29801, 'e'
    };