Game developer Sam Chiet (opens in new tab) has found another use for Microsoft Notepad. The ingenious creator has gotten Doom (1993) to run at 60 FPS through the boring text editor in Windows.
Chiet highlighted that he didn't have to modify the Notepad application. Dubbed "NotepadDOOM," the project is fully playable. Although Chiet didn't explain how the mod works, has committed to launching NotepadDOOM for other Doom fans to try out. Chiet said in a subsequent tweet (opens in new tab) that "it'll take some work to polish NotepadDOOM into something releasable, but it'll almost certainly happen over the next couple days."
John Romero, one of Doom's creators, was impressed and replied to Chiet in a tweet (opens in new tab) that the mod was "incredible."
You can see the iconic 1993 shooter running in its full glory on Chiet's YouTube (opens in new tab) channel. It's Notepad, so obviously, Chiet replaced the graphics with characters and numbers. The gameplay looks pretty smooth, although we did catch some screen tearing. However, that could be because Notepad can't write the text fast enough on screen.
Although Doom is over two decades old, the game still holds a special place in gamers' hearts. Bethesda updated Doom with support for 60 FPS and other add-ons in 2020. Over the years, fans have found creative ways to play Doom, such as on a Raspberry Pi Pico, CaptionCall phone, $15 Nokia N-Gage-looking PC, or inside your motherboard's BIOS.
