In a nutshell: Netherlands-based software program engineer Wojciech Graj has created one other uncommon port of the enduring first-person shooter Doom, ingeniously embedding it inside a Microsoft Phrase doc. His mission is a testomony to the continued fascination with Doom and its adaptability to numerous platforms.
The standalone Phrase doc, weighing in at 6.6MB, accommodates a supply port of doomgeneric and is obtainable for obtain through GitHub. To run this model of Doom, customers want a contemporary model of Microsoft Workplace or Phrase on an x86 laptop system. It is essential to notice that gamers should enable the VBA macro within the doc to run, which can require bypassing safety warnings.
Doom has been formally ported to recreation consoles, PC methods, totally different working methods, cell gadgets, and basically each new computing platform developed for the reason that Nineteen Nineties. Graj’s inspiration for this mission got here from efforts to port the sport to extra unconventional codecs, resembling DoomPDF and Pdftris. Nonetheless, this Phrase-based model of Doom seems to supply a extra genuine expertise in comparison with its PDF counterparts. The graphics carefully resemble the unique FPS, and it runs at a decent velocity.
This is not Graj’s first foray into unconventional Doom ports. His portfolio consists of initiatives like Doom-ascii, Doom in Stardew Valley, and Doom in Minecraft.
The WordDoom (or DoomWord, because the creator hasn’t expressed a choice for both identify) doc accommodates the doomgeneric_docm.dll library and the doom1.wad recreation knowledge, each encoded in base64. When the doc is opened, a VBA macro extracts the encoded knowledge and hundreds it, permitting the sport to run inside the Phrase atmosphere.
Behind the scenes, Doom’s mechanics are notably spectacular. For every recreation tick, the doomgeneric.dll creates a bitmap picture containing the present body and makes use of GetAsyncKeyState to learn the keyboard state. This strategy could clarify why the sport viewport is comparatively small, probably sustaining the unique 320 x 200 decision to make sure easy efficiency.
Gamers can management the sport utilizing acquainted keys: arrow keys for motion, Management for firing, House for interplay, and quantity keys 1-7 for weapon choice. Nonetheless, it is value noting that this model doesn’t embody sound, focusing solely on the visible expertise.
Whereas this Phrase-based Doom port is a formidable technical achievement, it is essential to notice that some customers could encounter compatibility points. Working the sport on older Phrase variations, resembling Phrase 2007, could fail regardless of accepting macro safety warnings.
