The Shores of Bell: Play Doom on Nintendo’s New $99 Alarm Clock

Earlier this week, the gaming community was buzzing when Twitter user GaryOderNichts shared an incredible feat: he hacked a Nintendo Alarmo alarm clock to run the shareware version of Doom. Yes, you heard that right—Doom on an alarm clock! He shared a video of this quirky achievement on Twitter, capturing the interest of gamers and tech enthusiasts alike.

In his Twitter thread, Gary explained how he pulled this off, although there are a few limitations. Currently, there’s no audio support, and to manage memory constraints, the Doom shareware .wad file has to be compressed and then decompressed upon startup. But here’s the good news: you don’t need to modify your Alarmo to try this yourself. Gary has generously uploaded all the necessary project files on GitHub for you to tinker with.

So, what makes this possible? Gary delved into the hardware of the Alarmo, which houses an STM32H730ZBI6 Arm Cortex-M7 processor—a familiar and well-documented piece of tech. This made it feasible for him to hack into the Alarmo and connect it with his Raspberry Pi.

Gary’s initial process involved some soldering and tinkering to make the hack work. However, the simplified version he has now shared on GitHub doesn’t require any physical modifications to the Alarmo to launch Doom via USB.

When it comes to controls, Doom on the Alarmo makes clever use of the clock’s features. Navigation and shooting are managed through two buttons and a touch dial on the device. Players can aim by swiping on the dial and fire using a notification button at the bottom right. The video demonstration highlights the first level of Doom, but not all controls have been documented.

The idea of running Doom on a $99 Nintendo Alarmo might seem outlandish, but it’s not the only unexpected gadget hacked to play this iconic game. In the past, enthusiasts have managed to get Doom running on a smart lawnmower, a miniature Raspberry Pi Pico RP2350 microcontroller, and even on an air hockey table. An enterprising individual also designed an expansion card for the classic Commodore 64, enabling it to handle Doom’s demands.

For those intrigued by innovative tech experiments or the nostalgia of classic gaming, endeavors like this continue to highlight the creativity and ingenuity within the gaming community. Stay tuned for what unlikely device might play Doom next!