DOOM now runs on vape and calculator — because why not

If there’s one thing more enduring than DOOM’s legacy as a genre-defining shooter, it’s the global obsession with making it run on the weirdest hardware. Over the years, the iconic game has made appearances on everything from oscilloscopes and fridges to power supplies and even a digital pregnancy test. Now, in perhaps the quirkiest twist yet, DOOM has made its debut on an electronic vape.

The latest twist in this saga comes via Reddit, where users have recently shown off two particularly creative DOOM exploits. The first is a throwback: a port of DOOM running natively on a scientific Casio calculator — a clever mod that’s become almost a rite of passage in techie circles. It’s such a common hobby now that there are entire online communities and websites dedicated to calculator hacks, where you’ll find not just DOOM, but Minecraft mods and even an NES emulator. For students, it’s an inventive way to turn an ordinary calculator into a pocket-sized entertainment device — no smartphone required.

But calculators are old news. The real surprise comes from a much smokier source — a vape. Specifically, the Aspire PIXO, a budget-friendly €30 device that, as it turns out, packs some surprisingly robust hardware. While DOOM isn’t running natively on the vape (yet), a clever developer managed to stream live gameplay to its tiny LCD display with a 323 × 173 pixel resolution using custom firmware and a USB connection.

The mod was made possible thanks to the device’s Puxa PY32F403XC ARM microcontroller, which is paired with 64KB RAM, 256KB of onboard flash, and an additional 16MB SPI flash chip. The developer behind the project has even released firmware backups and a browser-based tool — dubbed VapeCloudStreamer — to simplify the screen sharing process.

Is it practical? Absolutely not. Is it hilarious? Absolutely yes. The community is already debating whether the PIXO might someday run a true, stripped-down port of DOOM without the need for streaming — after all, if the display works, why not the rest?

One thing is clear: the modding community’s obsession with running DOOM on anything and everything isn’t going away anytime soon. If a device has a screen and can be programmed, chances are it’s only a matter of time before someone finds a way to play DOOM on it.