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 use of PDF’s inherent Javascript capabilities to bring the legendary first-person shooter to life through text. While its performance leaves much to be desired in both speed and playability, witnessing it in action is a true spectacle.
On the GitHub page, ading2210 explains, “Interactive PDF projects I’ve come across before usually deploy individual text fields switched on or off to create pixels. However, given Doom’s 320×200 resolution, it would require toggling thousands of text fields per frame – not practical. Instead, this version employs a distinct text field for each row on the screen and fills them with various ASCII characters. This approach enabled a 6-color monochrome display, which is sufficient for in-game visibility.”
For those eager to give it a whirl, Doom PDF operates solely on Chromium-based browsers, such as Chrome, Edge, and Opera. It accommodates custom WADs (modded Doom files like the newly popular Gallery Experience), yet you’ll need the original Doom WAD to make them functional.
