Doom's been ported to everything from toasters to refrigerators, seemingly leaving little room for truly novel platforms. However, a high school student has achieved the seemingly impossible: running Doom within a PDF file viewable in a browser.
While features like text and sound are absent, the ability to play E1M1 while procrastinating on taxes is undeniably appealing.
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, but sufficient functionality remained to port Doom.
Using a six-color ASCII grid for visuals, ading2210 created a surprisingly playable, albeit slow (80ms per frame), version of Doom. The result is remarkably legible, considering the platform.
Although it won't replace your PS5, the achievement of running Doom within a PDF file is impressive. TetrisPDF creator Thomas Rinsma even commented on Hacker News, praising ading2210's "neater" implementation of a similar project.
While not ideal for a first-time Doom experience, the continued porting of Doom to unusual devices, files (and even gut bacteria!), remains a consistently entertaining spectacle.
