10 Unexpected Devices You Didn’t Know Could Run Doom

Doom was originally released in 1993 and became enormously famous for setting a new standard for the FPS genre, influencing countless games that came after and even to this day! However, another of its great merits is inspiring one of the biggest memes in gaming history.

And yes, we are talking about how fans of the Bethesda classic are extremely determined to discover every possible platform that can run the game – no matter if they were originally even intended to run games or how bizarre they may be, such as a pregnancy test, a calculator, or even a McDonald’s cash register.

No one knows for sure where this meme was “created,” but it certainly gained some serious momentum in 2013 when a Tumblr page dedicated to the idea emerged (and it is still active, although it has not been updated for about two years), encouraging more players to do the same.

That’s when the situation got out of hand (quite literally), making the joke grow over the years since then, and attracting an entire community that shares the most unusual platforms possible on Reddit to this day. So, to join in on the fun and this crazy ride, we decided to compile the weirdest devices to run Doom that we found out there!

10

Kodak Digital Camera

And From 1998, No Less

I don’t know if you have ever heard of it, but there is a popular YouTube channel called LGR, which is well known for performing unusual tests with vintage consoles and hardware to push their potential. And, naturally, one of these tests eventually involved trying to run Doom on something that definitely shouldn’t: a Kodak digital camera from 1998.

And the result is very impressive! Not only because it actually works, but also because it delivers some pretty high graphical quality and smooth performance – considering the circumstances, of course.

Its controls are even mapped to the camera’s own buttons, making it apparently comfortable to play (again, considering the circumstances), and the only downside that I can see is the lack of sound, since Doom’s soundtrack and sound effects are too good not to be heard. But hey, I would say it’s almost a respectable handheld.

9

McDonald’s Cash Register

A Big Mac with Doom Fries, Please

Back in 2019, a McDonald’s in Australia was going through a routine process of replacing its cash registers, swapping the old ones for brand-new, shiny ones. Since the old machines were outdated, the establishment decided to donate them to any employees who wanted them.

It turns out one of the old machines ended up in the hands of a very creative young man named Ryan Edgar. Upon seeing that the register had Windows XP installed, he decided to test the age-old question: “But can it run Doom?” The answer, of course, was yes – and you can check it in this video.

The process was even easier than it sounds. According to Edgar, all he had to do was copy “Doom XP” (a famous modified version of the game) to a USB drive and connect it to the machine using “AutoRun.” Following that, Doom ran without a hitch and even supported a mouse and keyboard! Fancy.

8

Christmas Tree Ornament

Merry Doomas?

During a time of holiday spirit (and a bit of boredom, I would say), the programmer Jeroen Domburg, well known for his page SpritesMods, decided to create a tree ornament that runs Doom. After all, why not?

To achieve this, Domburg used a 3D printer to create a miniature computer, added a processor to act as a battery, and included Bluetooth for controller support. He even added a shiny ribbon to hang as a decoration! And he shared the whole process in a lovely YouTube video.

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It is truly amazing that you can actually play on this tiny, improvised PC with the original, colorful graphics and even the iconic soundtrack, giving Christmas Eve a whole new vibe. If I were a talented programmer like Domburg, I would definitely just fill my entire Christmas tree with tiny, running Dooms!

7

Doom 2

Some Weird Kind of Inception

Yeah, you didn’t read that wrong! Someone really managed to make the classic first Doom run inside Doom 2, setting a brand-new standard for the meme and making it truly meta.

The person responsible for this unexpected feat was the YouTuber kgsws, who is well-known online for modifying and testing various versions of the Doom series (especially the early ones). And, in order to do this, he had to hack the game and use an “exploit,” which is basically taking advantage of a programming flaw that allows the execution of code within the title.

It is worth noting that the exploit used for this was only possible in the original DOS-based Doom 2. Despite that, the entire process is pretty awesome, and it is amazing how smoothly the game runs inside another game!

6

Potato-Powered Calculator

Two Combined Elements Result in… Doom!

Everyone knows that experimenting with potatoes to generate energy is a relatively common academic project, but a YouTuber named Equalo decided to go even further, trying to run Doom on a calculator powered by rotting potatoes, obviously.

He registered the entire process on video, where he literally shows that he needed around 700 potatoes to make this work. And it did! However, the experience wasn’t exactly positive for the player, as he ended the process feeling nauseous and full of hatred for the vegetables.

But the most important (and crazy) part was that the game actually ran on the platform, using hundreds of potatoes that had been boiled and left to rot for three days. So, I can only imagine that the smell probably matched the hellish theme of Doom.

5

Ultrasound Machine

What a Weird and Expensive PC Gamer

While some modify small objects to play Doom, others prefer unusual machines that already come with a decent-sized screen and a panel that can simulate a controller… or something close to that idea.

And that is the case of the YouTube channel BwaveTV, which decided to test the game on an ultrasound machine typically used in hospitals and specialized clinics. Why? Well, just because they felt they could, I guess!

Whatever the reason, we thank them for the courage, since the game ran with surprisingly satisfactory quality on a General Electric Vivid S5 Ultrasound machine, though the control panel left much to be desired as a keyboard. A rather unusual “gaming PC,” wouldn’t you say? For its creator, it is the “worst $50,000 gaming machine ever.”

4

A Piece of LEGO

Try Not to Step on This One

In another episode of tiny screens with surprising potential, a programmer named James Brown shared on X (formerly Twitter) that he decided to turn a LEGO brick into a small external monitor.

As you may have already guessed, this crazy idea also worked, resulting in a screen with a resolution of 72×40 (very, very small) with images generated by controllable OLEDs. Naturally, Brown wanted to test the LEGO brick’s potential as a hardware platform and chose nothing less than Doom for the task.

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The result is that the game actually ran, though it isn’t exactly a pleasant gameplay experience due to the tiny circumstances. But hey, at this point, we are all about the meme and not the framerate, right?

3

Pregnancy Test

Honey, It’s a Doom!

No, I promise you didn’t misread the title! Someone actually got Doom to work on an object whose main purpose is for people to pee on it: a pharmacy pregnancy test.

This rather unusual feat came from the mind of a programmer known as Foone Turing on social media, who needed many attempts and a lot of patience to make the game fully playable. And to make it work, they had to adapt a 128×32 monochrome OLED screen in the device so that the game could be displayed.

The processor also had to be customized a bit, which basically turned the inside of the pregnancy test into a custom minicomputer. But, in any case, the final result is a small 128×32 pixel monochrome screen with Doomguy shooting monsters instead of the classic lines that indicate you’re pregnant.

2

Cooking Pot

I Guess the Limit is the Kitchen

I really like this one because it basically proves that one of the hacker community’s strongest beliefs was right all along: if the object has any kind of screen and processor, it can run Doom. Even if it is a cooking pot whose primary purpose is to make your dinner.

And that is only real due to the efforts of the modder Aaron Christophel, who literally managed to execute the game on a Krups Cook4Me electric pot. Here’s the video so that you know that I’m not lying!

By reverse-engineering the LCD panel commands, he paved the way for a custom firmware, replacing the Krups recipe interface with the game’s execution environment. After that, the modder developed a software “wrapper” capable of translating the game’s commands to the pot’s hardware, mapping the controls to different regions of the touch screen. Man, I can’t believe I just wrote that, but it’s all true. What madness!

1

Bacteria

When Even Living Microorganisms Run Doom

This is probably the most unusual and insane “platform” on our list (and any other gaming list, to be honest), and naturally, also my personal favorite.

A few years back, a PhD student in Biological Engineering called Lauren Ramlan was cracking her head on a study about using Escherichia coli bacteria (which live in the intestines of humans and some animals, by the way) to actually form a digital display.

So, she went on to prove that limits simply do not exist and decided to use these bacteria to run Doom, finally making her study work! So yes, to sum up, she literally decided to run the id Software classic with the help of living microorganisms.

It works in a quite simple way, actually: the bacteria essentially act as pixels on a plate, forming each frame as you go on (you can check the full process here).

But there’s a catch: the bacteria take about 70 minutes to reach the desired “state” and only return to the initial state after 8 hours and 20 minutes. That means that, at that pace, beating the game on this display would take at least 599 years! Who’s got that kind of free time?

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