The Shores of Bell: Experience Doom on Nintendo’s New Affordable Alarm Clock

Earlier this week, a creative Twitter user named GaryOderNichts caught the attention of the gaming community by transforming a Nintendo Alarmo alarm clock into a device capable of running the shareware version of Doom. Along with sharing the finished result on Twitter, Gary provided a detailed breakdown of the process for fellow enthusiasts who might want to give it a try.

Gary noted that while the hacked version of Doom running on the Alarmo doesn’t include audio support yet, he managed to overcome some technical hurdles, such as compressing and decompressing the Doom shareware .wad file to fit within the device’s USB loader memory constraints. The good news for those who are curious is that you don’t need to alter your Alarmo to replicate Gary’s work. All necessary project files are readily available on GitHub.

So, how did Gary manage this feat? According to an in-depth blog post he wrote, the journey began by taking apart a Nintendo Alarmo to examine its internal components. It turns out the Alarmo is built with an STM32H730ZBI6 Arm Cortex-M7 processor, a platform with comprehensive documentation. This groundwork allowed Gary to modify the device and link it to his Raspberry Pi.

In a nod to the wishes of his followers, Gary tweeted, featuring Doom in action on the Alarmo. What’s remarkable is that while he did initially rely on soldering and tweaking to develop the hack, the version now available on GitHub doesn’t require any modification of the hardware. You can launch Doom directly from a USB without altering the Alarmo.

Speaking of gameplay, navigating Doom on the Alarmo relies on the control buttons and the touch-sensitive dial at the top. To aim, players swipe left or right on the dial, and they use the notification button on the lower right to fire. While other potential control methods may exist, they weren’t demonstrated in the video, which features gameplay from one of the game’s initial levels.

It’s wild to think that a $99 alarm clock would become a platform for Doom—yet, it’s not alone in this peculiar category. Doom has also been seen running on unexpected devices like a smart lawnmower, a Raspberry Pi Pico RP2350 microcontroller, and even an air hockey table. There was even a project that enabled the game to run on a Commodore 64 through an expansion card.

If you’re eager for more intriguing updates like this, don’t forget to bookmark sites like Tom’s Hardware, where you can get your fill of the latest tech news and detailed reviews delivered straight to your inbox.