In 2025, Doom is still played, a video game from 1993. In reality, it is not the original game but reinterpretations by programmers and creatives. The most recent: Doom PDF and Doom The Gallery Experience. Two experiments linked to a story made of intuitions, creative freedom and virality.
Metal music, demons and a devastating arsenal of weapons. It is with this triptych of elements that the video game Doom shook up the gaming industry and changed the history of first-person shooters forever. A title launched on PC in 1993which after more than 30 years has managed to gain new lifeblood, thanks to a mix of creative freedom and web virality. This is demonstrated by two recent cases that have awakened attention to what it is in all respects a myth.
It should be noted that, within the gaming community, there has always been an obsession with “running” Doom on anything. Over the years, we’ve seen the shooter’s idSoftware played on pregnancy tests, calculators and ATMs. Now it’s time to Free playable Doom in PDF format. The feat is the work of a developer known on the web with the nickname “ading2210”. Once you open the file in your browser, you can control the protagonist, the Doomguy, and begin the carnage of demons. The commands are inserted directly into the document, but you can also play by entering them from the keyboard.
DOOM | This is what the Doom PDF splash screen looks like
Even more interesting is the experiment carried out by Filippo Meozzi and Liamo Stonetitled Doom: The Gallery Experience. Here weapons become wine glasses and demons become works of art, including paintings and sculptures. The soundtrack also changes: no metal, but classical music. Doomguy, on the other hand, wears thin intellectual glasses. Practically an anti-Doom, which abandons the frenzy and adrenaline typical of a shooter video game, to offer a relaxing and educational experience: in The Gallery Experience, you can find out more about the works present via in-depth links curated by Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. The game can be downloaded for free on itch.io.
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DOOM | A screen taken from Doom: The Gallery Experience
Why Doom is still popular today
The cult status that Doom achieved was made possible by foresight of John Cormack and John Romeroco-founders of id Software and creators of the game. Today they are icons, not only for Doom, but also for Wolfenstein 3D and Quake. As explained in High Score, the Netflix series that traces the beginnings of the video game, at the time of Doom’s launch, the developers had decided to make its source code available to those who purchased it. In other words, buyers could both play the id Software title and replace the existing characters, sounds and textures with their own creations, so as to fully personalize the experience, as well as being able to share it with other users.
This has led over the years to a proliferation of Doom “clones”.between fantasy, pirate or fight-with-a-toothbrush reinterpretations. Doom PDF and Doom: The Gallery Experience are the evolution of this collective creative process that over the years has fueled a true myth, still capable of surviving and inspiring today.
