It was only a matter of time, after all, which is a phrase that doubly applies when you consider that this time Doom has been ported onto an alarm clock. Yes, Nintendo’s newest machine has passed the ‘does it run Doom’ test with flying colours, proving to be much better at running the game than some of the consoles it was made for back in the day!
The modder in question is GaryOderNichts, a Nintendo fan who has taken the little Pikmin and Breath of the Wild sprites out of the equation in favour of Doom Guy and Demons galore. If we’re being honest, it’s the first thing that we and gamers across the world thought about as soon as we clocked eyes on the device (there will be many more clock jokes, so get used to it). I mean, after seeing Doom running on everything from lawnmowers to ‘private bedroom toys’, the question of ‘will it arrive on Alarmo’ was pretty much a certainty… we just didn’t know how long it would take.
According to Eurogamer, GaryOderNichts had to figure out how to get custom code onto the device first. Writing on his blog, GaryOderNichts took just 5 days to go from Alarmo showing a picture of a cat to it running Doom, which is a pretty impressive feat! He says that it’s actually possible to load a shareware version of Doom onto the alarm clock without modifying it beyond repair too, but there’s no audio support as of yet. That’s ok, you can always play the Doom soundtrack on vinyl to create a more immersive sound!
Nintendo must have known that people were going to turn their clock into a console, but I bet they didn’t think it would happen this quickly. Using the bells and buttons as controls to play a game on their fancy timepiece looks pretty fun, and it follows the recent trend of fusing games and clock watching with Pokémon on the Apple Watch and Space Invaders getting its own Play Watch.
If you want to discover more about how GaryOderNichts managed to modify his Alarmo and try the hack out for yourself, then head on over to his GitHub page.
