Playing Doom in a PDF!!!

[thewayne]

The game was released 32 years ago, and inspired by someone figuring out how to play Tetris in a PDF, someone known only by their Github alias worked out how to make Doom playable in said PDF! It has a refresh rate of 32 ms and is in glorious 6-bit monochrome, but you can actually play Knee-Deep In The Dead in a PDF!

While completely silly, this is quite awesome! People have figured out how to hack refrigerators, washing machines, coffee makers, and all sorts of things to play Doom. If it has an LCD screen of some sort, it either has Doom running on it somewhere, or someone is working on it.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/14/doom_delivered_in_a_pdf/

Comments

[richardf8]

"The game was released 32 years ago"

Shuddup! Shuddup! Shuddup! **Shakes fist at cloud**

No not The Cloud, a cloud. Back in the day, if we wanted new software, we went to the store and bought it on disk, dadburnit!

[thewayne]

Sometimes buying a pack of CDs that was five feet long!  Yeah, I know.  When I worked for the police department through most of the '90s, I was one of the three network admins.  We had some other IT guys in our little cluster.  We bought a small switch, ran some ethernet cables through the ceiling, and at lunch time on Fridays we'd sign off the network, switch cables, and run Quake or Unreal, or other games for a couple of hours.  Sometimes we'd make lunch runs out to Fry's Electronics to buy video cards or what have you.

Classy!

[garote]

https://youtu.be/1GPcr6O_Smk

Re: Classy!

[thewayne]

I read about that last week!  I thought it was pretty cool.

[disneydream06]

They are playing games on appliances? LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Like I said, if there's an LCD screen, then there's a CPU or programmable controller behind it.  And that means there's something hackable!

[ranunculus]

There was a conversation last night on the "Renewable Energy Hour" (local public radio, this program on the air for almost 30 years); about being super careful what electronics you install on an alternative energy system. And the need for really good passwords. I love that our area has a long running program like that. Another segment of last night's program was the proper venting of battery banks.
Edit: I am absolutely sure someone has tried to run Doom on even quite small renewable energy screens.

[thewayne]

There was an article that I read a few months back where a guy brute-forced the password on his smart thermostat.  And being a bit of a tinker, he tried to go a level higher into the electric grid.  AND SUCCEEDED.  He was able to go so much higher that he had control over something like 10,000 "smart meters".  He documented everything then went to the utility to help them fix their problems, which was that they never changed away from default passwords.  Strong device administrative passwords are a must when equipment is attached online.  And yes, batteries must be vented properly or explosive gas can build up - depending on the battery chemistry.

[ranunculus]

That was exactly the kind of thing they were talking about on the program. Just don't be lazy!

[disneydream06]

YIKES.......

[silveradept]

I think DOOM-on-PDF is a fine demonstration of the vulnerabilities of the document format, in the same way that any other document that can execute code should be considered untrustworthy. It's funny to see how many things can run the game, but it's also a reminder of how much electronics and code we have in our lives that's not being properly maintained.

[thewayne]

The fact that so many things are insecure is the sad testimony that we just can't have good things. ;-)