As part of a long and storied tradition, creative modders have ported the original 1993 Doom to many unlikely platforms, including a calculator, a pregnancy test, and even a PDF. The latest unexpected device to run the classic game is a smart-charging station by Anker–which can run Doom with no hardware modifications.
The Doom charging station was created by Aaron Christophel on YouTube, who noted the relative power of the chip inside Anker’s Prime smart-charging station and knew what he had to do next.
Doom runs surprisingly smoothly on the Anker Prime, with a simple control scheme making the most of its limited inputs–turn the dial to move forward or back, click it to fire or open doors, and click and turn at the same time to turn left to right.
The processing power comes from the Synwit SWM34S SoC (system on a chip) with 8MB SDRAM and 16MB External Flash, which is connected to the Anker Prime’s smart display. In normal use, this chip and screen are mostly used to display charging rates and progress for each of the hub’s ports. The charging station also has Wi-Fi capabilities, mainly to allow for app integration, but it means the smart device has lots of potential for savvy hackers.
Running Doom on low-powered and unusual devices has become a common challenge for developers and modders, leading to the creation of the Can It Run Doom archive: a collection of the many creative Doom ports that have been devised over the years.
