Doom Is Now Playable On Potatoes

If your device has a screen and even the barest minimum of computing power inside of it, it could be capable of running Doom. The 1993 game has become a meme benchmark, used to find out if the unlikeliest of gadgets are capable of running a playable version of Id Software's cult classic.

Fridges and home pregnancy kits have been home to Doom, but YouTuber Equalo looked to raise the bar by running the iconic first level of the game on nothing but pure potato power. Equalo used the naturally occurring chemical reactions within potatoes, zinc, copper to power a Raspberry Pi Zero for his experiment.

A single potato would not have been enough to provide electricity due to the incredibly small current that it produces, and a bigger potato would not have helped either. Equalo eventually found the perfect formula, creating a gigantic battery from over 700 potato slices that were wired together. With a TI-84 Plus graphing calculator as the screen that Doom could be played on, Equalo succeeded in his potato-powered test.

The only downside to this ambitious experiment? A garage that was soaked in the stomach-churning smell of several hundred potatoes that had begun to rot after being left out in the open for a few days.

"Please don't ever try to do this yourself, it's not worth it," Equalo concluded.

A less odious version of Doom is also headed to the Playdate, a small handheld console that includes a hand crank that can be used to power the game's iconic gatling gun. Alternatively, you can also avoid having a garage full of rotting potatoes by checking out the impressive PC/console ports of the classic game.