Doom in a PDF: What Else Do You Need to Know?

Created by ading2210, who describes themselves as a high school student passionate about programming, web development, and cybersecurity, the Doom PDF project is a fascinating example of creativity and technical know-how. This ambitious endeavor takes advantage of the PDF format’s Javascript capabilities to bring the iconic first-person shooter, Doom, to life in a text-based format. While it’s not the most seamless or smooth version you’ll play, there’s something truly impressive about witnessing it in action.

On the game’s GitHub page, ading2210 shares insights into their approach: “Most interactive PDF projects I’ve encountered rely on separate text fields that toggle on and off to simulate individual pixels,” they explain. “Given Doom’s 320×200 resolution, that would require toggling thousands of text fields every frame, which isn’t feasible. Instead, I opted for a different strategy by using a unique text field for each row on the screen and setting these fields to display various ASCII characters. This technique allowed me to create a 6-color monochrome output, ensuring everything in the game remains readable.”

Doom PDF is designed to run on Chromium-based browsers like Chrome, Edge, and Opera. It also supports custom WADs, which are modified Doom files such as the recent Gallery Experience, although you do need the original Doom WAD to make them functional.