Doom Port Released as BIOS Payload

Doom being ported to unusual hardware has become a common recurring tech theme over the years, but now it has been ported to a BIOS. Coreboot has been updated to version 4.17 today, reports Linux-centric news site Phoronix. Originally known as LinuxBIOS, which provides a better clue to its utility value, Coreboot 4.17 supports new motherboards, delivers a new bootloader, supports AMD Platform Secure Boot (PSB), comes with a handful of fixes, and… a port of Doom.

Coreboot is a free and open-source BIOS implementation that supports numerous extensions known as Payloads. These Payloads add functionality to the minimal code that is the basis of Coreboot. Therefore, a great deal of customizability is available to Coreboot users to determine exactly what their BIOS ROMs contain via Payload choices.

This probably won't be the last of the odd Doom ports that we'll see in the wild. We recently reported on Doom being ported to the Raspberry Pi Pico and the Minimum Viable Computer, for example.

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • This is interesting ! It appears that this old-school FPS game is a favorite of too many tech enthusiasts after all.
    Reply
  • drea.drechsler
    Anything being termed a "payload" is the damaging virus...or trojan....component of an otherwise innocuous BIOS as far as I'm concerned.

    Not saying it's undesirable in this context, I just wish they'd use a less ominous term for the concept.
    Reply
  • Scottwarddd
    Old timer Nice!!
    Reply
  • Obummer
    I bet one day someone will be able to get Doom running on a single transistor.
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    Obummer said:
    I bet one day someone will be able to get Doom running on a single transistor.
    Well, you could. It'd just take a few generations worth of human civilization to verify it actually worked.
    Reply