Researcher ports Doom to $8,000 Hasselblad X2D
Radium Wang experiments with camera firmware and shares some of their findings on GitHub. You might want to be careful when trying this, though, as you probably don't want to brick your expensive camera.
An independent researcher has successfully developed software that allows users to play the classic first-person shooter game Doom on the high-end Hasselblad X2D camera. This innovation is part of the Hasselblad-X-System-CIM-Firmware-Research-Feature-Extensions repository on GitHub, which focuses on expanding the capabilities of professional-grade cameras beyond their factory settings.
The creator, Radium Wang, has provided source code, offline tools, tests, and research findings but emphasizes that the project is not intended to enhance the camera's functionality. This is not the first time Doom has been installed on a camera; a similar project was done on a lower-cost DSLR a few months ago. Despite the dramatic difference in price and intended use, both projects demonstrate the impressive capabilities of embedded systems and the surprising versatility of digital cameras.
In 1993, Doom's minimal system requirements were an Intel 386 processor, 4 MB RAM, and a VGA graphics card, which were far beyond what most people had at the time. However, advances in technology have made it possible to run complex software on devices that might seem out of place, such as a Hasselblad X2D camera. The meme "Can it run Doom?" has become a popular joke among tech enthusiasts, with programmers adapting the game to run on the most unusual devices, including an electric cooking pot, an orbiting satellite, and a Lightning-to-HDMI dongle.
While playing Doom on a small camera screen may not be ideal, the main purpose of these projects is to showcase the astonishing adaptability of technology. If you have a spare Hasselblad X2D and are interested in participating in this lighthearted experiment, you can download the provided repository and follow Wang's instructions to run Doom on your professional-grade camera.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
