Before Nintendo’s Alarmo smart alarm clock went on limited sale, enthusiasts have already adapted it to play the classic shooter Doom, released in 1993 by id Software.
Image Sources: Nintendo and id Software
In addition to the functions to awaken users, Nintendo equipped Alarmo with a 2.8-inch display, which made it possible to run the iconic shooter on the device.
At the end of October, GaryOderNichts, an enthusiast who is passionate about reverse engineering the Nintendo Wii U console, found a way to run third-party code on Alarmo and showed an image of a cat on the device’s screen to prove his words.
Image source: GaryOderNichts
Less than a week later, GaryOderNichts gave in to the pressure of fans’ requests and demonstrated in a two-minute video that Doom can also be run on Alarmo. True, no sound yet.
Elements of the device itself are used for control. The confirm button/adjuster at the top of Alarmo is used to turn the character and move forward, and the keys on the sides are used to shoot.
To work around memory limitations when using a USB bootloader, .wad had to be compressed and then decompressed to external memory when the game was launched. Those interested can view the project’s source code on GitHub.
It’s worth noting that the Alarmo smart alarm clock isn’t the strangest place to launch Doom. Previously, enthusiasts adapted the Balatro roguelike, a lawnmower, standard Windows applications, and so on to play the cult shooter.