Summary
- A high school student has successfully ported Doom (1993) to a PDF file, creating a slow yet playable experience.
- Doom's compact size enables it to be run on unconventional devices, such as the Nintendo Alarmo and within other video games.
- The ongoing efforts to run Doom on various platforms underscore its enduring legacy and continued relevance in the gaming community.
A dedicated high school student has achieved a remarkable feat by porting the iconic game Doom (1993) to a PDF file. This surprising development adds to the list of unexpected devices on which Doom has been played over the years.
Developed by id Software, Doom is widely recognized as one of the most influential video games ever, particularly in the first-person shooter (FPS) genre. The game's impact was so profound that it inspired the term "FPS," and for many years, similar games were simply referred to as “Doom copies.” In recent years, a trend has emerged where programmers and video game enthusiasts have attempted to run Doom on the most unconventional devices, ranging from fridges and alarm clocks to car stereos and anything with a hint of technology. This amusing yet impressive trend has now reached new heights.
High school student and GitHub user ading2210 has successfully ported the classic Doom into a PDF file. As ading2210 explained, the PDF format supports JavaScript, which enables functions such as 3D rendering, making HTTP requests, and detecting users’ monitors. While most interactive PDFs use small text boxes as pixels, Doom's 320x200 resolution requires thousands of text boxes for each frame, which is impractical. To address this, ading2210 uses one text box per screen row, resulting in a slow but playable game. A video shared by the creator demonstrates that the game lacks color, sound, and text, and has an 80ms per frame response time.
High School Student Ports Doom (1993) to a PDF
The compact size of Doom (2.39 megabytes) makes this feat possible. Recently, in November, a programmer managed to make Doom playable on the Nintendo Alarmo, using the dials on the top to move the character and the side buttons to navigate the game’s menu. However, fans haven't limited themselves to devices alone; another creative player made Doom run in Balandro. In this port, players can experience the classic FPS across Balandro’s spread cards, though with noticeable performance issues similar to the PDF version.
The primary goal of these projects is not necessarily to play Doom smoothly on these unconventional platforms. Instead, they highlight the endless possibilities creative players can explore to run the game. More than 30 years after its release, Doom's continued relevance is a testament to its enduring legacy. As players continue to experiment, it’s likely that Doom will be ported to even more unusual devices in the future.
