Earlier this week, a Twitter user known as GaryOderNichts stirred up quite a buzz in the gaming community by showcasing the popular shareware version of Doom running on a Nintendo Alarmo alarm clock. He shared a video of his successful hack in a Twitter thread, which quickly captured the attention of many enthusiasts.
Gary offered a detailed explanation of the process in the thread, though he noted that there’s currently no audio functionality. To make Doom run on the device, the game’s shareware .wad file needs to be compressed and then uncompressed on boot-up. This step is crucial to get around the limitations of the USB loader’s memory. For those curious enough to try this out, Gary has generously provided all the necessary project files on GitHub, and reassured that no modifications are needed on the Alarmo itself.
So, how did Gary manage this feat? In a more in-depth blog post, he revealed that he first dissected the Alarmo to get a good look at its inner workings. He found that it uses an STM32H730ZBI6 Arm Cortex-M7 processor, a well-documented piece of hardware, which allowed him to interface the clock with his Raspberry Pi.
Gary did some initial soldering and modding to get everything up and running, but the final version available on GitHub is much simpler. It doesn’t require altering the Alarmo’s internal hardware to execute Doom from a USB drive.
When it comes to controlling Doom on the Nintendo Alarmo, Gary ingeniously mapped the controls to the device’s features, which consist of two buttons and a touch dial that can be pressed or swiped. Swiping helps players aim left and right, and the notification button serves as the fire button. The demonstration video mostly covers one of the game’s opening levels, leaving some controls either undocumented or perhaps unnecessary for basic play.
The novelty of running Doom on a $99 Nintendo alarm clock might seem odd, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen the game appear in unexpected places. Enthusiasts have previously managed to run Doom on devices as varied as a smart lawnmower, a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2350 microcontroller, and even an air hockey table. One dedicated fan even constructed an expansion card for the beloved old Commodore 64 just to give it the power it needed to play Doom.
As the trend of running Doom on unusual platforms continues, it’s clear that the gaming community’s creativity knows no bounds.
