Doom's Unlikely PDF Port: A Testament to its Enduring Legacy
A high school student's innovative feat has added a new chapter to Doom's (1993) legendary portability. This remarkable achievement involves porting the iconic game to a PDF file, resulting in a playable, albeit slow, experience.
Doom's compact size (a mere 2.39 megabytes) has always been a key factor in its adaptability to unconventional platforms. This inherent characteristic has fueled a long-running trend among programmers and gaming enthusiasts, pushing the boundaries of where Doom can be played. Previous examples include ports to devices like refrigerators, alarm clocks, and car stereos, showcasing the game's remarkable resilience and the ingenuity of its fans.
GitHub user ading2210, the high school student behind this latest port, leveraged the PDF format's JavaScript capabilities—including 3D rendering, HTTP requests, and monitor detection—to make it possible. However, the limitations of the PDF format necessitated compromises. Instead of using individual text boxes for each pixel (as the 320x200 resolution would require thousands per frame), ading2210 cleverly employed one text box per screen row. This approach sacrifices visual fidelity and speed (resulting in an 80ms per-frame response time and the absence of color, sound, and text), but maintains playability.
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This PDF port follows other recent examples of Doom's remarkable adaptability. A programmer recently made Doom playable on a Nintendo Alarmo, utilizing the device's dials and buttons for control. Another creative player even managed to run Doom within the game Balandro, albeit with performance limitations similar to the PDF version.
These projects aren't simply about achieving optimal performance on unusual platforms. They underscore the boundless creativity of Doom's community and the game's enduring legacy. Over 30 years after its release, Doom remains a source of inspiration and experimentation, a testament to its lasting impact on the gaming world. The ongoing exploration of its portability suggests that even more surprising ports are likely to emerge in the future.
