Game developer runs Doom in Notepad without any mods

If you have been wondering why Microsoft keeps shipping Notepad with every single PC, here's one reason to be overjoyed that it does. Game developer Sam Chiet has managed to get the popular game Doom to run on this application without any modification whatsoever, Tom's Hardware has reported.

For fans of PC games, Doom brings back so many memories of countless hours spent perfecting the game. Back in the days, when computer screens still occupied the bulk of the desktop space, the suspense of what might be lurking behind the door,kept gamers on the edge of their seats, punishingly close to the rotund displays and even closer to the visit to the optician.

Such was the impact of the game that people have tried to run the software on every electronic device ranging from exercise machines to pregnancy tests. So, it should hardly be a surprise that somebody tried to run it on an application inside a regular computer.

Doom on Notepad

The game developer, known by his username Samperson on YouTube, has a history of playing with Microsoft's often-forgotten tools and features. Like Clippy, the clickable Office Assistant. In one of his published videos, Chiet gave Clippy a voice and thinking capability using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and told it that his end was near.

Luckily, his latest project is more lively in which he replaces the graphics of the game with characters and numbers, and what you get is the ability to play Doom, right inside Notepad. If we didn't know it better, it would be easy to think that the project was a product of the frustration of being locked up with an old computer without an internet connection.

It also helped Chiet's cause that the new owners of the game, Bethesda added new features, such as support for 60 FPS, just a couple of years ago. However, since Notepad cannot write characters that quickly, we notice some screen tearing in the video clip shared by the developer.

When can I download it?

Chiet claims that the game is fully playable and the Notepad application itself does not need any modifications to play the game. He is keen and committed to launching the game for other Doom fans to try out.

On his Twitter, Chiet wrote that it would take some time to polish his work into something releasable but it was sure to happen over the next couple of days.

For those who might find it too painful to wait for the release, there is luckily a way out. Microsoft acquired Bethesda some time back and offers the option to play Doom inside Minecraft. To do so, one needs to find a Windows 95 PC inside Minecraft and a simple tap of the keyboard is all you need to get started.