Subj : Never mind a gaming keyboard  how about a keycap that can run Doo
To   : All
From : TechnologyDaily
Date : Thu Aug 10 2023 12:15:03

Never mind a gaming keyboard  how about a keycap that can run Doom?

Date:
Thu, 10 Aug 2023 11:11:59 +0000

Description:
Inventive ways to run Doom on weird hardware just witnessed an even stranger 
turn of events.

FULL STORY
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Age-old first-person shooter Doom has, at this point, a history of being run 
on all sorts of improbable hardware, and the latest achievement is running 
the game in a keycap. 

Yes, you read that right. You may be scratching your head at this point  a 
keycap, meaning the actual plastic key molds that make up the letters and 
characters on your keyboard  cant do anything, right? 

Right, but in this case, its a keycap with a tiny little computer board 
embedded inside. 

 Toms Hardware spotted that Bob from TheKeebProject took a Raspberry Pi 
RP2040 chip, put it in a tiny custom-built PCB (printed circuit board), and 
inserted that inside a keycap (the slightly larger backspace key). 

The tiny RP2040 is able to run Doom, albeit a heavily modified version of the 
game. In fact, it runs a fork of a Doom port for the RP2040 (by Graham 
Sanderson), one thats derived from Chocolate Doom (a minimalist port of the 
game). Analysis: Doom running on a chip that costs next to nothing 

The best gaming keyboards have all sorts of perks, but weve never seen a game 
embedded on a dedicated chip inside a keycap before  this is very definitely 
a first, and an eye-opening one at that. 

Remember, Doom is running on an RP2040 microcontroller with two CortexM0+ 
CPUs pitched at 133MHz and coupled with just 264K of RAM. This is a computer 
board that costs less than a buck, and it can run Doom  with caveats, as 
mentioned above, but still. 

Bob observes that the ported version of Doom keeps a lot of the original 
functionality, such as the resolution of 320 x 200, stereo sound, and network 
multiplayer is even in here. 

Doubtless we'll continue to see the title that changed PC gaming forever 
running in all sorts of weird ways , because this has definitely become a 
thing (TM) with Doom in contemporary times. At this point, if Doom was 
spotted running on a pair of nail clippers, we wouldnt be too shocked.



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Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/computing/never-mind-a-gaming-keyboard-how-about-a-k
eycap-that-can-run-doom


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