Doom Invades PDF Files, Expanding Accessibility to Gamers

Doom's been ported to everything from toasters to refrigerators, making truly novel ports increasingly rare. However, a high school student has achieved the seemingly impossible: running Doom within a PDF file viewable in a browser.

While lacking sound and text (minor details, really!), it allows you to play E1M1 while procrastinating on, say, your taxes.

Github user ading2210, inspired by the TetrisPDF project, leveraged Javascript within a browser's PDF reader to accomplish this feat. Browser security restrictions limit the full potential of PDF scripting, but it was sufficient for a Doom port.

Using a six-color ASCII grid for visuals, ading2210 created a surprisingly playable, albeit slow (80ms per frame), version of Doom. It's not a PS5 replacement, but the achievement is undeniably impressive.

TetrisPDF's creator, Thomas Rinsma, commented on Hacker News, praising ading2210's cleaner implementation of a similar project.

While not ideal for a first-time Doom experience, the sheer novelty of running Doom on such unconventional platforms—from devices to files, even gut bacteria—remains endlessly captivating.