Doom Now Playable in PDF Format: Toasters Outdated

Doom, the iconic first-person shooter, has been adapted to run on an astonishing array of devices, from toasters to fridges, pushing the boundaries of what we think can host this legendary game. However, the frontier for truly groundbreaking ports seems to be diminishing—until now. A high school student, under the GitHub username ading2210, has managed to port Doom into a PDF file that you can run directly in your browser.

Sure, this version might lack traditional elements like text and sound, but who really needs those when you can tackle E1M1 while procrastinating on those taxes you've been dodging?

Inspired by the innovative TetrisPDF, ading2210 took on the challenge of bringing one of the world's most celebrated shooters to life within a Chromium-based browser. The student harnessed the power of JavaScript within the browser's PDF reader, leveraging the capabilities allowed by PDF specifications to perform complex computations. Despite security restrictions that limit the full potential of PDF scripting, it was enough to successfully port Doom to this unconventional format.

Using a six-color ASCII grid to represent sprites and graphics, ading2210 crafted a surprisingly legible version of Doom, albeit with a response time of 80ms per frame. While you might not be ready to trade in your PS5 for this experience, the sheer novelty 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 the high schooler's version of PDF Doom was "neater in many ways." Although this might not be the ideal way to experience Doom for the first time, the endless entertainment of seeing the game run on everything from ridiculous devices to files, or even living gut bacteria, continues to captivate and inspire.