Doom Now Playable in PDF: Toasters Outdated

Doom, the iconic first-person shooter, has been famously ported to an array of unconventional devices, from toasters to fridges. However, the frontier for truly remarkable ports is becoming increasingly challenging to expand. Enter ading2210, a high school student who has ingeniously ported Doom into a PDF file that you can run in your browser.

While this version of Doom lacks elements like text and sound, it offers a unique way to experience the game's first level, E1M1, perhaps while you're procrastinating on those taxes you've been putting off. Inspired by the TetrisPDF project, ading2210 harnessed the power of JavaScript within a browser's PDF reader to bring Doom to life in PDF format.

Doom in a PDF? Why not? Image credit: YouTube / vk6.

The PDF specifications allow for sophisticated scripting, but browser security limits some capabilities. Despite these constraints, ading2210 utilized the JavaScript features to perform necessary computations, resulting in a functional port of Doom. The game uses a six-color ASCII grid to represent its sprites and graphics, achieving a legible display despite an 80ms delay per frame.

While you might not want to trade in your PS5 for this version, the achievement of running Doom inside a PDF file is undeniably impressive. Thomas Rinsma, the creator of TetrisPDF, acknowledged ading2210's work on Hacker News, noting that it was "neater in many ways" than his own attempt at PDF Doom.

Though this might not be the ideal way to experience Doom for the first time, the novelty of seeing it run on such unusual platforms—from files to even living gut bacteria—continues to captivate and entertain fans of the game.