Doom Now Playable in PDF Format

The legendary game Doom has been run on an astonishing variety of devices, from toasters to fridges, pushing the boundaries of what's possible. However, the frontier for truly remarkable platforms to run Doom is becoming scarce. Enter a high school student who has ingeniously ported Doom into a PDF file that you can run directly in your browser.

This unique version of Doom, while missing traditional elements like text and sound, offers an engaging way to play the iconic E1M1 level—perhaps even while you procrastinate on those taxes you've been putting off. Github user and high school student ading2210 drew inspiration from a recent Tetris port, named TetrisPDF, to the PDF format, and set out to bring one of the world's most celebrated shooters to your Chromium-based browser.

ading2210 cleverly utilized Javascript within the browser's PDF reader to make this port possible. Although the official PDF specifications allow for sophisticated scripting, security restrictions in browsers limit the capabilities. Yet, these were sufficient for ading2210 to create this innovative version of Doom.

Leveraging Javascript's computational power within PDF specifications, ading2210 was able to craft a functional port of Doom. The game uses a six-color ASCII grid for its sprites and graphics, resulting in a surprisingly legible rendition, albeit with a response time of 80ms per frame. While you might not want to trade in your PS5 for this version, the feat of running Doom inside a PDF file is undeniably impressive.

Thomas Rinsma, the creator of TetrisPDF, acknowledged ading2210's achievement on Hacker News, noting that the high schooler's version of Doom was "neater in many ways." Although this PDF version of Doom might not be the ideal introduction to the game, the novelty of seeing Doom run on unconventional platforms, from files to even living gut bacteria, continues to captivate and entertain gamers worldwide.