Move Over Toasters: Doom Is Now Playable Inside a PDF

Doom's been ported to everything from toasters to refrigerators, seemingly exhausting the possibilities. Yet, a high school student has achieved the seemingly impossible: running Doom within a PDF file, playable directly in your browser.

While lacking sound and detailed visuals, the core gameplay of E1M1 is present. Perfect for procrastinating on those overdue 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, but it proved sufficient for a functional Doom port.

Using a six-color ASCII grid for sprites, ading2210 created a surprisingly playable, albeit slow (80ms per frame), version of Doom.

Although it won't replace your PS5, the accomplishment of running Doom inside a PDF file is undeniably impressive. Thomas Rinsma, creator of TetrisPDF, 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 platforms—from devices to files and even bacteria—remains endlessly fascinating.