A QR Code Bringing Doom to Life

There’s an undeniable charm in the origins of shareware classic Doom, particularly the obsession people have with making it operate on nearly anything. If someone is armed with the game’s open-source code, you can bet they’ll try to run it on the simplest hardware possible.

For instance, developer Kuber Mehta has embarked on an incredible challenge: turning the entire game into a playable version that fits within a single QR code. This transformation leads to a big question: how does it handle the limitations of QR codes, which can only store a mere 3 KB of data?

Mehta details in a recent blog entry the complexities of this task, revealing that some graphics used in the original game, like the chaingun sprite, occupy a significant amount of space on their own. As a result, the end product isn’t Doom per se, but rather a game inspired by it, dubbed ’the backdooms’, taking cues from the surreal atmosphere depicted in 1993 shooter simulations and experimental narratives from gaming culture.

With mechanisms like raycasting techniques reminiscent of the original Doom, Mehta showcases not only creativity but also an entertaining homage to classic gaming. You can discover the details of this project and perhaps even jump into the gameplay via GitHub.

Ultimately, while compressing a well-known game into something as modern as a QR code may sound unusual, it captures the spirit and ingenuity of gaming history. And who knows? Maybe one day, we will see even more advancements manifest in unique formats.