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

Earlier this week, an intriguing development in the gaming community caught our attention. GaryOderNichts, a Twitter user, managed to hack Nintendo’s Alarmo alarm clock to make it run the shareware version of Doom. Gary shared a video of this unique achievement in a Twitter thread, showcasing the game in action on this unsuspecting device.

In his detailed thread, Gary explained that while the hacked version of Doom operates without audio support, there’s an interesting workaround involved. The shareware Doom .wad file needs to be compressed and decompressed during startup to bypass the USB loader’s memory size restrictions. For those eager to try this out, Gary assures you won’t have to modify your Alarmo alarm clock. All the necessary project files are available on GitHub.

Curious about how this was possible? Gary’s extended blog post sheds light on the process. It all began by dissecting an Alarmo to examine the internal hardware. Powered by an STM32H730ZBI6 Arm Cortex-M7 processor, the device’s components are well-documented, which made it feasible for Gary to hack his Alarmo and connect it with a Raspberry Pi.

Interestingly, while Gary undertook some initial soldering and modding to enable this project, the finalized version available on GitHub is much more user-friendly. You can launch Doom from a USB without modifying your Alarmo.

The Alarmo’s controls become the makeshift gamepad for this version of Doom. Its interface consists of two buttons and a touch dial that can be pressed or swiped. In this setup, swiping is used to aim left and right, while shooting is done using the notification button on the lower right. Other controls weren’t heavily featured in the video that showcased the game’s first level.

Now, playing Doom on a $99 alarm clock might seem odd, but Nintendo’s gadget isn’t the first unusual platform for this beloved game. Enthusiasts have previously made Doom work on a smart lawnmower, a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2350 microcontroller, and even an air hockey table. In a particularly nostalgic twist, someone even crafted an expansion card allowing the ancient Commodore 64 to run Doom.

In a world where tech creativity knows no bounds, these unexpected Doom ports continue to entertain and inspire the gaming community, reminding us that sometimes the journey of getting a game to run is as exciting as the game itself.