It runs DOOM
| Meme | |
|---|---|
| Synonyms: | does it run DOOM?, DOOM on [x] |
| Date Started: | 2006 |
| Related: | DOOM |
| See Also: | But can it run Doom?, DOOM |
 "Running DOOM on a Hacked CaptionCall Landline" by Josh Max (2021) - DOOM ported to the screen of a CaptionCall Landline. | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
You may be looking for Doom running on Archive of Our Own: But can it run Doom?
It runs Doom (also known as But does it run Doom?) is an internet meme and fan activity wherein people modify or hack electronic devices to run the 1993 video game Doom, with an emphasis on novel devices or devices not considered to be a video game console or personal computer. The meme has been the subject of articles by video game news websites and various online communities and websites, such as a subreddit, a Tumblr blog, and numerous listicle articles.
History
In 1993, video game developer id Software released Doom to critical and commercial success. Later in 1997, id Software released Doom's source code. The release of the game's source code lowered the barrier of entry for modifying the game and porting it to different platforms and devices.
At first, the fans focused on taking the provided source code and getting it to simply run on other systems as the originally provided version was strictly for Linux.[1] Then, fans began taking DOOM and modding it to make various fangames. The most famous of this is likely Aliens TC,[2] which popularized the term total conversion in the DOOM modding community for a mod that replaced almost all of the original DOOM assets. In addition to speedrunning, this was the form that most of DOOM fandom took toward fanworks of their beloved game.
Then, in 2006, YouTuber KevlarGorilla released the video "Doom on Nintendo DS" where he showed the original DOOM running on a Nintendo DS (not to be confused with the GBA port of DOOM).[3] This was followed by a video from Stephen English where DOOM was being played on a Scope monitor[4] and the release of the extremely popular zDoom, which ran on Ti-83 calculators.[5][note 1] zDoom can be considered to be the most likely origin point of the meme, as many schoolchildren ended up porting DOOM to their TI-83 calculators. The novelty of playing DOOM on a calculator likely led to those students growing up and trying to port DOOM to ever more absurd hardware.
By 2013 putting DOOM onto hardware it shouldn't run on was fully a meme, leading to the creation of the It Runs Doom blog on Tumblr, which documents various devices that can or can't run DOOM.[6][note 2] Three years later in 2016, r/itrunsdoom was created for people to showcase the weird and wacky things that they've managed to get DOOM to run on.[7] Most of these efforts run Chocolate Doom, which is a source port of DOOM that aims to be as compatible with the original DOS version as possible. As a result, Chocolate Doom is a minimalist and relatively lightweight port.
In 2020, foone has made several ports of DOOM, including getting 'it running on a pregnancy test with a digital screen and uploading the source code into an online gender input form.
In 2022, when John Deere tractors were jailbroken as part of the right to repair movement, hacker Sick Codes ran a custom farm-themed DOOM on the tractors after he jailbroke the tractors.[8]
Examples
A reference to this meme in Saturday Morning BreakFast Cereal.
DOOMOSTAT by cz7asm (2017) - DOOM ported to the screen of a Honeywell home thermostat.
Videos
- How Many Potatoes Does It Take To Run DOOM? by Equalo
- i got DOOM running inside Notepad at 60fps by SamNChiet
- DOOM on a Digital Camera from 1998! by LGR
- DOOM on NES! by TheRasteri
- Can Doom Run in an Excel Spreadsheet? by Argent Caladrius
- I made a minecraft mod with which you can build computers that work as virtual machines, so they're basically real computers. You order the computer parts from space using a tablet. by DeltaTwoForce
- You can run Doom inside (DOS) Doom, for real. by kgsws
Articles
- Compute@Edge: porting the iconic video game DOOM by Justin Liew
Other
- Tweet2Doom, a Twitter where replies allow you to "play" DOOM
See Also
- How to download and run Doom on Doomwiki
- Vice's A Catalogue of All the Devices That Can Somehow Run 'Doom'
- But can it run Doom?, a port(?) of DOOM that runs on AO3
- Knitting Doom, a tumblr where someone is knitting DOOM's source code
- /r/itrunsdoom
- The It Runs Doom! Tumblr
- The D3WASM Browser DOOM 3 Demo
- Sibogy's DOOMED: Demons of the Nether
Notes and References
Notes
- ^ Technically, zDoom was predated by "Doom for Ti 83" (sometimes called "French Doom") in 2002. This hack, however, did not gain the popularity of zDoom.
- ^ The "It Runs Doom" blog was predated by a now defunct blog called "It Plays Doom," which vanished off the internet.
References
- ^ A Slightly Condensed Genealogy of DOOM Source Ports. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.
- ^ ALIENS Total Conversion Part 1 and ALIENS Total Conversion Part 2 on Doomworld. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.
- ^ Doom on Nintendo DS. Posted 12 Aug 2006. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.
- ^ Doom on a Scope. Posted 1 Dec 2006. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.
- ^ zDoom 0.12. Published 1 Jul 2007. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.
- ^ It Runs Doom. Created 26 Oct 2013. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.
- ^ r/itrunsdoom. Created 15 Mar 2016. Accessed 8 Dec 2021.
- ^ A New Jailbreak for John Deere Tractors Rides the Right-to-Repair Wave. Posted 13 Aug 2022. Accessed 3 May 2023.
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