Of all the wild and wacky things I have seen this year, Doom running on a pregnancy test surely takes the cake. I honestly have no words, just a whole heap of admiration.
Foone Turing is the absolute legend who got Doom (1993) to run inside a digital pregnancy test, and although this method isn’t the most efficient way of playing the game, it sure is cool.
After some tinkering and twisting of a few screws, the footage is here before us, and is just as unbelievable as you’d think.
I tried zooming in and turning up the in-game gamma a bit, so you can see what’s going on slightly better.
(It’s a 128×32 pixel monochrome display, it’s never gonna be great) pic.twitter.com/dAU7LZ1pkT— foone🏳️⚧️ (@Foone) September 7, 2020
“This is a replacement display AND a replacement microcontroller,” Turing said. “I’m not using any of the original tester other than the shell.
“The existing CPU can’t be reprogrammed and the existing LCD can only show 4 things, so I had to replace both to make any changes.”
So sure, the pregnancy test may not actually be running the game, but it sure is displaying it, which deserves just as much praise.
This whole mission began when Turing was dismantling a digital pregnancy test to see how they operate inside. Spoiler alert, they aren’t all that legit after all.
A few comments asked if Turing could program something on the screen, and to that they said, challenge accepted.
I saw a tweet recently that I wanted to confirm. Sadly I can’t find it right now, but it was about digital pregnancy tests.
So, I went out and grabbed a 2-pack for 7 dollars: let’s tear it down! pic.twitter.com/1a0drwi7N5— foone🏳️⚧️ (@Foone) September 4, 2020
You can find more cool explorations of the pregnancy test’s tech on Turing’s Twitter, @Foone.
the next phase of the pregnancy test hacking:
the fully autonomous 90s nostalgia pregnancy test pic.twitter.com/D2fPiNOv2O— foone🏳️⚧️ (@Foone) September 8, 2020
Turing says they plan on posting more explainers and instructional vids for Doom soon, just in case you wanted to play along on your nearby pregnancy test.
