Doom can run on an Apple Lightning to HDMI adapter.
Developers and enthusiasts continue to find new ways of running Doom on increasingly unusual hardware, the latest of which is an Apple HDMI adapter cable.
In a video uploaded on February 2, first shared by MacRumors, developer nyan_satan showed off a port of the classic video game Doom running on Apple’s Lightning to HDMI adapter. The YouTuber is known for their work in creating tools and dual-booting different versions of iOS.
This is only possible because the Lightning to HDMI adapter features a dedicated system-on-chip with a processor inside. It also runs a basic version of iOS, stripped down to only the most basic of features, allowing the dongle to process video signals but not much else.
It’s worth pointing out, though, that getting the game to run on Apple’s adapter was no easy task, as the company’s accessories feature restrictions prevent them from being used beyond their intended purpose. Audio and video output occurred on a connected Mac.
Even so, this isn’t the first time an enthusiast has managed to get Doom running on an unusual device, as developers often use the game to test the boundaries and capabilities of newly released hardware, some of which was never meant to run games at all. Stuff like refrigerators, keyboard keycaps, the Google Search bar, and even Microsoft Word have run the classic game.
In 2016, for instance, Adam Bell managed to get the original Doom running on the MacBook Pro Touch Bar, a touch-sensitive strip with a small display that replaced the function keys on certain Apple laptops. Quake, another id Software game from 1996, was similarly ported to the Apple Watch in 2022.
Doom is an iconic first-person shooter game launched in 1993. The game is archaic by today’s standards, so it doesn’t need a lot of power to run. Enthusiasts and developers have thus managed to get the game running on numerous different devices with ingenuity and creativity over the years.
