1993 is a year to mark a milestone in video game mode. It was in fact that year that the id Software studio, founded by John Carmack and John Romero, launched the FPS which gave its name to this category of subjective view games: Doom. For 30 years now, this title, initially released on PC, is perhaps the one that has seen the most adaptations. Almost all gaming machines have been entitled to it, from the Game Boy Advance to the Atari Jaguar via the Panasonic 3DO, the first PlayStation of the name, the Nintendo 64 or even the Sega 32X.
But above all, Doom has also been the subject of ports on devices, each more eccentric than the last. Obviously, the game can run on mobile phones, under Android or iOS for that matter. And Apple lovers can fragger of the demon on their iPodmini, their Apple Watch or the Touch Bar of their Mac Book Pro. But there is of course much better, since some clever people have managed to make it work Doom on calculators, treadmills, ATMs, microwave ovens, oscilloscopes, karaoke machines, vapes and even (even!) pregnancy tests.
The porting on a lawn mower will therefore perhaps not really surprise the community of lawn mower aficionados. Doom. Nevertheless, this adaptation produced on the occasion of a giant LAN party (DreamHack Winter) received the blessing of the robot lawnmower manufacturer Husqvarna, whose model The Nera was used for this exploit. This event was also an opportunity to organize the world’s first multiplayer championship on a non-gaming device.
Obviously, things won’t stop there and all Husqvarna Nera mowers should receive Doom via an update. The machine’s control panel will serve as a game controller: it will still be complicated to destroy the demonic threat while following the robot while it mows the lawn.