Doom's remarkable portability has reached a new low—or high, depending on your perspective. While it's been ported to everything from toasters to refrigerators, a high school student has achieved the seemingly impossible: running Doom within a PDF file viewable in a browser.
Naturally, some features are absent—text and sound, for instance. But who needs them when you can conquer E1M1 while procrastinating on your taxes?
Github user ading2210, inspired by the TetrisPDF project, leveraged Javascript within a browser's PDF reader to accomplish this feat. Browser security limitations restrict the full potential of PDF scripting, yet it proved sufficient for this ambitious undertaking.
Using a six-color ASCII grid for visuals, ading2210 created a surprisingly readable, albeit slow (80ms per frame), version of Doom. While it won't replace your PS5 anytime soon, the accomplishment is undeniably impressive.
TetrisPDF's creator, Thomas Rinsma, acknowledged ading2210's superior implementation on Hacker News.
Though not ideal for a first-time Doom experience, the sheer novelty of running Doom on such unconventional platforms—from unusual devices to files, and even gut bacteria—remains endlessly captivating.
