Doom, the legendary first-person shooter, has been ported to an astonishing array of devices—from toasters to fridges and beyond. Yet, the quest to find truly innovative platforms to run Doom continues to evolve. In an impressive twist, a high school student has successfully ported Doom into a PDF file that you can run directly in your browser.
While this version of Doom lacks traditional features such as text and sound, it still captures the essence of the game, allowing you to play the iconic E1M1 level while perhaps procrastinating on those pesky tax filings.
The mastermind behind this innovative project is Github user and high school student ading2210, who drew inspiration from a recent port of Tetris, dubbed TetrisPDF, to the PDF format. Motivated by this, ading2210 set out to make one of the world's most beloved shooters playable in any Chromium-based browser.
ading2210 leveraged the Javascript capabilities within a browser's PDF reader to achieve this feat. Although the official PDF specifications support advanced scripting, browser security restrictions limit the extent of these capabilities. Nonetheless, these were sufficient for ading2210 to port Doom to the PDF format successfully.
The Javascript within the PDF allowed ading2210 to perform any necessary computations, resulting in a visually impressive, albeit simplified, rendition of Doom. The game is represented using a six-color ASCII grid for sprites and graphics, with a frame rate of 80ms per drawn frame. This makes the port legible and playable, if a bit slow.
While this version of Doom may not replace your PS5 experience, the achievement of running it within a PDF file is truly remarkable, showcasing the ingenuity and technical prowess of ading2210.
Thomas Rinsma, the creator of TetrisPDF, acknowledged ading2210's work on Hacker News, noting that while he had also created his own PDF Doom, ading2210's version was "neater in many ways."
Although this might not be the ideal way to experience Doom for the first time, the novelty of seeing the game run on such unconventional platforms—from PDF files to living gut bacteria—remains endlessly entertaining and a testament to the enduring appeal and versatility of Doom.
