Doom's Unlikely PDF Port: A Testament to its Enduring Legacy

A high school student has achieved the seemingly impossible: porting the iconic 1993 first-person shooter, Doom, to a PDF file. While the resulting experience is undeniably slow, it remains playable, adding another bizarre platform to Doom's already impressive list of unconventional hosts.

Doom's compact size (a mere 2.39 megabytes) has always been a key factor in its adaptability. This has led to numerous creative ports over the years, from the Nintendo Alarmo (using its dials and buttons for control) to within other games like Balandro. These projects often suffer from performance limitations, but the PDF version, created by GitHub user ading2210, is no exception. Utilizing JavaScript's capabilities within the PDF format, ading2210 cleverly employs a single text box per screen row to render the game's 320x200 resolution, resulting in a playable, albeit sluggish, monochrome experience devoid of sound and text. The 80ms frame rate reflects this performance trade-off.

The enduring appeal of these unconventional ports transcends mere playability. They showcase the boundless creativity of the gaming community and serve as a powerful testament to Doom's lasting influence on the gaming landscape. The fact that, over three decades later, programmers continue to find novel ways to run Doom underscores its enduring legacy and ongoing relevance within gaming culture. The future undoubtedly holds even more unexpected platforms for this gaming legend.