Somewhere between landing on the Moon and putting a computer in a vape, we may have lost track of just how much computing power surrounds us.

In December 1993, DOOM arrived on personal computers and promptly began consuming evenings, weekends, and whatever productivity remained in college computer labs.1

It was a demanding game for its time. You needed a reasonably capable computer, enough memory, and preferably a roommate who didn't mind the occasional demonic screaming.

More than thirty years later, people are trying to run DOOM on everything.

Pregnancy tests. Refrigerators. Calculators. Printers. Smart toothbrushes.

And now, apparently, a vape.

Yes, a vape.

A device designed to turn flavored liquid into vapor has become another unlikely participant in humanity's unofficial hardware benchmark.

Naturally.

Some of these gadgets actually run the game. Some just show it. That difference turns out to matter, and we'll get to it.

Houston, We Have a Perspective Problem

In 1969, NASA landed humans on the Moon.

The Apollo Guidance Computer helped navigate spacecraft on missions that carried astronauts farther from Earth than anyone had traveled before.

Today, the smartphone in your pocket has vastly more computing power.

So does a surprising amount of the electronics surrounding us.

Some modern microcontrollers, including those found in inexpensive consumer products, exceed the Apollo Guidance Computer's raw processing capabilities.2

Think about that for a moment.

We have developed everyday accessories containing computing hardware more powerful, by some measures, than the computer that helped navigate humans to another celestial body.

And we use those accessories to charge, monitor, or communicate with other computers.

Which, incidentally, may be busy showing us a video of someone playing DOOM on a vape.

Not every microcontroller is more powerful than the Apollo Guidance Computer. Some are intentionally tiny, specialized, and designed to perform one task while consuming almost no electricity.2

To be fair to NASA, the Apollo computer was an extraordinary piece of engineering. It was designed for reliability, real-time control, and surviving a mission where restarting the computer wasn't always an attractive option.

Your smart refrigerator may have more processing power, but I wouldn't trust it to land on the Moon.

It occasionally struggles with ice cubes.

“Let’s master ice cubes first.” A fictional lunar refrigerator takes the computing-power comparison a little too far.

AI-generated illustration created with OpenAI image generation, directed by Codex for Renaissance Solutions.

Running DOOM Is Only Half the Fun

There's an important distinction hiding inside the DOOM experiments.

Sometimes the device actually runs the game.

Sometimes another computer runs the game, and the unusual device acts as a display.

And sometimes the device is simply a controller.

These are three very different accomplishments.

Three ways to join the game: run it on your own chip, display pictures from another computer, or send the commands. Cartoon roles, not demonstrations of particular products.

AI-generated illustration created with OpenAI image generation, directed by Codex for Renaissance Solutions.

The famous pregnancy test comes with an asterisk. The builder replaced the chip and the screen, so only the plastic case was original, and a PC did the thinking.3

The DOOM-playing refrigerator was a screen, too. The game was streamed to it from the cloud.4

But a calculator,5 a printer6 and a smart toothbrush7 really did run DOOM on their own chips.

Consider the vape.

An early demonstration used the vape's screen to display DOOM while a separate computer performed the calculations.8

The vape wasn't running DOOM. It was displaying DOOM.

Does that make the experiment less interesting?

I don't think so.

In some ways, it makes it more interesting.

Someone looked at a device designed for one purpose and recognized that one of its components could serve another.

And then the story got better. About a year later, someone got DOOM running on the same vape's own chip, with no PC involved.9 Nobody changed the hardware. They just kept asking what it could do.

A display is a display.

A sensor is a sensor.

A processor is a processor.

Of course, the details matter. Interfaces, firmware, power requirements, and proprietary designs can make repurposing difficult.

But the principle remains.

A product's intended purpose doesn't necessarily define the limits of its components.

And once we begin looking at devices this way, the possibilities become considerably more entertaining.

But Can It Control DOOM?

Years ago, following prostate surgery, I was encouraged to perform Kegel exercises.

These exercises strengthen the pelvic-floor muscles, which can be important for recovering urinary control after prostate surgery.10

And because humanity apparently cannot resist turning anything into a video game, someone had developed a device that connected to a smartphone and let me control a game using those muscles.

Yes, I was playing a video game with muscles that most people don't ordinarily associate with gaming.

And it was a legitimate rehabilitation exercise.

Which raises an obvious question.

Could I have used it to play DOOM?

I'm not claiming anyone has done this with that particular device.

But the principle is sound. If a sensor can translate muscle contractions into game commands, those commands could potentially control another game.

Move forward. Turn left. Fire.

Admittedly, I'm not sure how my physical therapist would have felt about my attempting a speedrun.

And this opens an entirely new category of possibilities.

Could we control DOOM using a smartwatch's motion sensors?

A fitness tracker?

A smart ring?

A toothbrush? (The smart toothbrush that ran DOOM already had a motion sensor. Its builder steered with a mouse anyway.7)

What about the pressure sensors in a bathroom scale?

Could two people cooperate, one controlling movement and the other firing, using nothing but household appliances?

I suspect the gaming experience would be terrible.

But that's never stopped the DOOM community before.

The Computer Nobody Knows They Own

Here's where the joke gets interesting.

Look around your home.

Your television contains a computer.

Your car contains multiple computers.

Your thermostat may contain a computer.

Your washing machine probably has at least one microcontroller.

Your watch contains sensors, processors, memory, and wireless communications hardware that would have seemed extraordinary a few decades ago.

Even some charging accessories contain surprisingly capable processors.2

Many everyday devices have computational capabilities their owners never see.

We buy them for one purpose.

We use them for that purpose.

And when they stop being useful, or when a newer version comes out, we throw them away.

Often without realizing what else might be inside.

It's a little strange when you think about it.

We have surrounded ourselves with computers, but we've become so accustomed to them that we no longer recognize them as computers.

A smartwatch is a watch.

A thermostat is a thermostat.

A vape is a vape.

Until somebody gets DOOM running on it.

Then, suddenly, we remember.

The Second Life of a First-World Problem

Most of us don't retire a phone because it broke. We retire it because a new one came out. The old one often still works.

That adds up. In 2022, the world threw away about 62 million metric tons of electronics, and only 22.3% of it was documented as formally collected and recycled. The United Nations says e-waste is growing about five times faster than documented recycling.11 By the UN's count, anything with a plug or a battery qualifies. Yes, that includes the vape.

Now, I'm not suggesting we dismantle our refrigerators to build gaming consoles.

Nor am I proposing that we repurpose medical equipment, vehicle safety systems, or other devices whose reliability matters.

But there are plenty of less consequential devices that deserve a second look.

Consider an old smartphone.

It may no longer receive software updates. Its battery may be tired. Its camera may be unimpressive by today's standards.

But it still has a processor, memory, a display, speakers, sensors, and perhaps wireless connectivity.

Could it become a dedicated home automation controller?

A digital picture frame?

An offline learning device for a child?

A local sensor dashboard?

An offline reference library?

Perhaps.

An obsolete phone isn't necessarily an obsolete computer.

The same thinking applies to old tablets, routers, cameras, and other electronics.

And we don't necessarily need to repurpose the entire device.

Perhaps its screen could serve another purpose.

Perhaps its sensors could become part of a science experiment.

Perhaps its processor could be programmed to do something completely different.

Perhaps a discarded game controller could become an accessibility tool.

Or perhaps taking the device apart could simply teach someone how it works.

That has value, too.

When we stop thinking of technology as a collection of finished products and start thinking about the capabilities inside them, we discover possibilities that weren't obvious before.

We Used to Call This Hacking

Hacking in the old sense, that is: tinkering to see what's possible.

There's something wonderfully familiar about the DOOM experiments.

They remind me of the early personal computing era, when computers were things we explored rather than simply consumed.

People wrote programs because they were curious.

They connected devices that weren't designed to communicate.

They took things apart.

They learned how they worked.

Sometimes they even put them back together.

That spirit never left. It just moved to vapes.

The goal isn't necessarily to produce a useful product.

Nobody needs DOOM on a vape.

Nobody needs DOOM on a pregnancy test.

And the world will continue turning if we never develop a pelvic-floor-controlled first-person shooter.

Probably.

The value lies in discovering what's possible.

In asking what else a device might do.

In recognizing that the technology surrounding us is often more capable than its intended application suggests.

And occasionally, in making something completely ridiculous work.

A Little Reality Before We Get Carried Away

Before everyone starts disassembling household appliances, a few cautions are worth mentioning.

Not every electronic device can be repurposed, and not every device should be.

Batteries can be hazardous. Don't toss lithium batteries in the trash; take them to a battery drop-off.12 Capacitors can retain dangerous electrical charges. Some equipment contains components that should only be handled by trained professionals.

Medical devices and safety-critical systems are particularly poor candidates for experimentation.

Security matters, too. An old smartphone or router may still function perfectly well, but unsupported software can introduce vulnerabilities if the device is connected to a network.13

And sometimes the effort, materials, and energy required to repurpose something outweigh the benefits.

Recycling remains an important option.

The point isn't to save every discarded gadget.

It's to recognize that reuse, repair, repurposing, and recycling are different options worth considering before something becomes waste.

The Question Isn't Really About DOOM

The next version will always be coming. That's fine. Before the old one goes to a drawer, a recycling center, or a landfill, consider giving it a moment of curiosity.

What kind of processor does it contain?

What sensors are inside?

Can it be programmed?

Could it serve another purpose?

Could someone learn something by taking it apart?

Could it become part of a completely different project?

Some old gadgets out-compute the Apollo computer. Others hold one tiny chip that does one job well.

Either discovery is interesting.

Because the real lesson of the DOOM experiments isn't that everything can run a thirty-year-old video game.

It's that we've become surrounded by extraordinary technology, and much of it has become ordinary to us.

Perhaps it's time to become curious about it again.

We don't always need something new. Sometimes we need to understand what we already have.

And if someone manages to control DOOM using a Kegel exercise device, I'd be interested in seeing the results.

From a safe distance.

Preferably with the controller remaining off-camera.

Footnotes

  1. Doomworld /idgames archive, DOOM v0.99 shareware, released December 10, 1993. https://doomworld.com/idgames/historic/doom1_0 ↩

  2. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
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  4. The Verge, October 13, 2020. https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/13/21514030/microsoft-xcloud-samsung-smart-fridge-doom-enternal-xbox-games-android ↩

  5. DoomWiki, nDoom (TI-Nspire port). https://doomwiki.org/wiki/NDoom ↩

  6. Ars Technica, September 2014. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/09/hacker-exploits-printer-web-interface-to-install-run-doom/ ↩

  7. Hackster.io, 2024. https://www.hackster.io/news/even-toothbrushes-run-doom-these-days-9471529d77a3 ↩ ↩2

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  12. U.S. EPA, used lithium-ion batteries. https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-lithium-ion-batteries ↩

  13. UK National Cyber Security Centre, guidance on buying and selling second-hand devices. https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/pdfs/publication/buying-selling-second-hand-devices.pdf ↩