If anybody remembers the old “Can it run Crysis?” meme, the joke has long since fallen flat as more games have long exceeded the specs requirement on that 16-year-old game. On the flip side, “Can it run Doom?” has a separate connotation. It belies the ingenuity of tinkerers and DIYers trying to find the most unique system to support a game that first hit store shelves on Dec. 10, 1993.
But there’s more than memes propelling folks to find new places to play Doom. ID Software published the source code to the game many moons ago, making it easy to access and recompile. Developers have routinely said the engine powering Doom is well put together and organised, making porting the title that much easier. It is made in the C coding language, and most platforms have access to a C compiler, but more importantly, people have kept the game up to date through ports such as Chocolate Doom.
And, of course, let’s not forget a whole heap of nostalgia for the original game.
We’ve dug deep to find our top 30 wild ways folks can run Doom, from the best Inception-style game-within-game to the strangest contraptions capable of playing a 30-year-old title. Who knew combining a hoard of rotting potatoes with a graphing calculator would be an extreme way to play Doom? Try getting the game running on the fingernail-sized screen of a pregnancy test.
We should also thank multiple blogs and forums that inspired our search, including the ItRunsDoom Tumblr and Reddit, which has long cataloged these entries into Doom history. There’s also Twitter user @Lord_Arse, who catalogued a whole curated selection of excellent Doom ports to some very interesting mediums.
Through This Christmas Tree Ornament
What better way to celebrate Doom’s near-Christmas birthday than with a little electronic device to spruce up your Christmas tree that features Doom guy blasting demons? Just remember that the fires of hell have the capacity to set fire to your holiday fern.
On Top of a Keycap
Folks have tried hard to find ways to miniaturise computers that can run Doom, but the most exciting thing about these attempts is all the unique places you can stick to these devices. How about a dedicated keycap for your keyboard that does nothing but play Doom? Creator TheKeebProject said you can even use a full keyboard to control it.
On a LeapFrog Children’s Toy
Kids should learn early that demons need to stay in hell. That’s why it only makes sense to get Doom running on a LeapFrog learning tool. It even controls using the LeapFrog’s face buttons and touch screen, which, at least based on the video, does not seem to hinder the gameplay much at all.
On a Playdate
While Panic’s hand-cranked Playdate console only plays relatively games in black and white, folks on the company’s own dev forums saw the small GameBoy-like device as a challenge to overcome. One of the company’s own moderators, Nic Magnier, devised a way to play ID Software’s OG shooter.
On a Flipper Zero
While the Flipper Zero proved to be a very controversial piece of tech despite its routine functionality, that didn’t stop the best and brightest from finding ways to plug Doom onto its barebones orange and black screen. Sure, the enemy imps appear as dark silhouettes while the walls are simple black jail cell bars, but that doesn’t mean the gameplay isn’t the same fun FPS you know and love.
Inside a Tractor
John Deere may be finally coming down off the anti-right-to-repair hill it appeared ready to die on, but that doesn’t mean we can’t mod Doom onto the company’s tractors to prove a point. That’s just what some enterprising developers did to spectacular effect last year. The developers showed off their creation at Defcon, modifying it with a farming-themed Doom mod to seal the deal.
On a Lego Computer Brick
Graphics Engineer James Brown, who works at Weta Workshop, has been experimenting with ways to use Lego computer bricks with actual screens. This rendition takes the simple brick component and does something incredible with the small design: installing Doom on a device measuring just a few centimeters in length.
Through This Ring
Using the same design from his Lego brick, James Brown figured out how to make his ultra-portable rendition of Doom even more portable. Now, you can hand Doom off to your significant other with a promise that wherever the demons of hell might lie, you’ll be there with a super shotgun in hand.
On an Ultrasound
Is that the baby kicking? Perhaps the baby is kicking ass. So—yes—some brilliant people at the Buy it Fix it YouTube channel managed to mod Doom onto an ultrasound, even with the probe still attached.
Through Twitter (Don’t You Dare Call it “X”)
While it lasted, the Twitter channel Tweet2Doom was a magnificent use of the Twitter API. Users could call out moves to the character on screen akin to Twitch Plays Pokemon. Unfortunately, changes to the Twitter API under the “X” overlord Elon Musk quashed the experiment in July this year.
On a Peloton
Doom Guy must practice a lot of cardio. On low-gravity Mars, who knows what kind of technology he uses to train for the marathons he runs throughout the original Doom games? For those of us who only have current-day technology, why not load up the original Doom onto your Peloton to kill some demons while you bike your way to success? At this point, the original Doom might last far longer than Peloton will, judging by its recent business hurdles.
On a NordicTrack Treadmill
Similar to the Peloton, playing Doom on a treadmill makes a fair deal of sense, as the heart-pumping action may make you want to keep going as far as you can before Doom Guy inevitably kicks it.
On a MacBook Pro Touchbar
The 13-inch MacBook Pro might be dead after this last iteration of the M3 MacBook Pros, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find new, interesting use cases for the perfunctory semi-screen. Hardware hacker Adam Bell managed to get ID Software’s megahit running on the slim screen, including all the music and sounds. Sure, it’s definitely not the most optimal setup for the game (although it meets the very definition of “ultra-wide”), but then again, what about any of these Doom iterations that are truly optimal?
On a Nintendo Game & Watch
The YouTuber who goes by stacksmashing proved that you could hack Nintendo’s modern iteration of the Game & Watch, but he also proved the tiny system could indeed power the original Doom as well. It’s not an ideal solution, as he had to remove textures and effects. It also chugs hard when there’s a big enough room with multiple enemies on the screen, but it does show just how far the homebrew Game & Watch scene has come.
On an Office Phone
If you’ve ever had to use one of these old-school office phones, you know they can be a bit of a pain in the ass. Software engineer Neil Bostian proved you can make work much more fun by dialing “1″ for Doom on an old Polycom VVX600 office phone and its 4.3-inch LCD touchscreen. The phone was running Linux, which made hacking the phone’s software a fair bit easier.
On an Electronic Pregnancy Test
This is one of the all-time greats of the Doom hacking scene, not the least because of just how ludicrous the idea truly is. Programmer Foone Turing made his name back in 2020 by showing they could reverse engineer an Equate electronic pregnancy test and get it to play videos. Then, he one-upped himself by managing to get the device to run Doom.
On an Oscilloscope
There’s something truly magical and exhilarating about oscilloscopes, especially because of that old-school Alien aesthetic. While YouTuber Gears and Gear has played around with plenty of Oscilloscopes, he managed to configure Windows 98 on an HP Infinium device to play everybody’s favorite 1993 megahit.
On These Ancient Kodak Cameras
“Now that’s what I call a point-and-shoot camera,” said YouTuber LazyGameReviews. These DC260 cameras from Kodak cost close to $US1,000 when they were first released in 1998, but since then, some developers have managed to port full games onto the device’s small digital display. One Doom port called “DoomD” can be downloaded onto a compact flash disk that the camera is capable of reading. After that, it’s just a case of using the camera’s button controls to move and shoot.
On an ATM
There are a few instances of folks managing to get Doom running on an ATM, but Australian game developer Louie Roots shared one of the most complete redesigns of an old CashConnect ATM that controls the game directly through the Numpad and side buttons. After that, he showed how he could get Doom mod BrewDoom working on the same ATM.
On a Piano
Yes, that’s correct; in order to play this version of Doom, you need to jam on the full row of piano keys. YouTuber SosSosowski’s video came out nearly 10 years ago, but it’s still referenced today as one of the ultimate Doom hacks if nothing else but for their creativity.
On a McDonald’s Cash Register
The notorious POS machine found in most McDonald’s is a prize hacking device for modders if nothing else than for its novelty. The problem with this particular Doom mod is we’ve been burned before by fakers who pretended they got the game running on a full-scale McDonald’s kiosk. Thankfully, there are plenty of pictures and videos showing folks managing to get the game running on the fast food restaurant’s registers. Yes, I’m loving it.
Inside Minecraft
No need for any redstone. Minecraft modders managed to stick a full version of VirtualBox inside the game, allowing you to build out the computer parts with the old grid-based crafting system and run a version of Windows 95. And guess what? That virtual machine can indeed run Doom. Reddit user UDrunkMate showed off his game-within-a-game in a thread back in 2020.
In Sonic Mania
What, you wanted to see Doom run in even more different games? Fine, how about playing the 1993 classic inside the 2017 classic, which is meant to pay homage to the original Sonic games from the Genesis era? This comes thanks to the Sonic Mania mod that also lets you play Doom II, The Ultimate Doom, and Final Doom.
On a Myki Card Reader
The Myki card readers are used for Australian public transportation, so it’s a small miracle that anyone managed to procure one. Don’t worry; it’s not being used for any municipal fraud. One Reddit user going by zbios showed how Doom could run on an older, obsolete card reader that’s running Windows CE, thanks to Chocolate Doom.
On an Old School iPod
Plenty of iPod Doom mods are out there, but it’s always more impressive to see it running on the older models. If you thought the original Doom controls were tanky. Try playing it with a click wheel at low FPS. This is through the RockBox Doom plugin, which doesn’t take that much technical knowledge to install if you’re interested in some truly demonic controls.
On a Canon PIXMA Printer, Thanks to a Security Flaw
Printer companies have come under fire for their obtuse DRM that restricts users to specific inks or from fixing their own devices. That’s why it’s always fun to see how modders manage to get around the restrictions to make a point. As detailed by Wired back in 2014, researchers at the firm Context Information Security hacked a Canon Pixma printer through its browser-based interface.
On a Raspberry Pi-enabled Toy Chainsaw
What better way to pay homage to the original Doom Guy than with a revving chainsaw rebranded to a “Painsaw.” Unfortunately, you don’t control it with the chainsaw itself but with an external controller or keyboard. Still, that doesn’t detract from the work and effort of getting Doom to run on an Echo Junior Chainsaw toy.
On a Calculator Powered by Rotting Potatoes
Sure, your first question seeing this headline and image is, “why?” But instead, treat it like a massive science experiment. Plenty of mods show Doom can run on the TI-84 graphing calculator, but the YouTuber Equalo wanted to find out how many potatoes it would take to run Doom on the low-power device with a Raspberry Pi Zero. Well, to answer the question, it took over 100 pounds of boiled russet potatoes slowly rotting over a week to finally play ID Software’s famed game.
On This Hologram Christmas Tree
T’is the season, after all. Holograms are spinning death machines, though you must admit they’re still eye-catching after all these years. Earlier this year, the YouTuber Sean Hodgins shared how he got Doom to play on a persistence-of-vision spinning LED tree. You shouldn’t stick any presents under the tree for your own safety, but with that being said, this tree allows players to deck the halls… in demon blood.
Playing Doom Inside Doom
There is nothing that epitomizes the quest for the ultimate Doom port than managing to get the 1993 game running inside Doom. The hack from YouTuber kgsws exploits a flaw inside the DOS version of Doom II to play the Chocolate Doom as a moving texture. The modder made a custom movie theater level inside the game to try it out, and while it won’t run with sound, it still controls surprisingly well for a 30-year-old game running inside a 30-year-old game.