Doom on a dongle: Running Doom on an Apple HDMI Adapter

If there’s one universal truth in the gaming community, it’s that dedicated creators will find ways to make Doom run on virtually anything. A surprising example of this recently emerged, showcasing Doom being played on an Apple Lightning to HDMI adapter.

After spotting online that the device appeared to have enough power for 1080p upscaling, a later inspection revealed that it houses a surprisingly robust Samsung 400 MHz Arm SoC along with 256 MB of RAM. Essentially, this tiny HDMI adapter is more than just a cable; it’s a mini-computer.

YouTuber Nyan Satan connected the dots and demonstrated that the hardware is fully capable of running Doom. Using a Checkm8 bootROM exploit, Nyan was able to enable custom code on the device, allowing for the classic game to run smoothly.

While the demonstration does not show user commands, the USB 2.0 connection enables keyboard inputs, making it possible to interact with the game.

This development joins the fascinating history of attempting to run Doom on unexpected hardware, including on satellites, pregnancy tests, and even bacteria. A reminder that classic games like Doom continue to push the limits of what’s possible with tech.