TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 1,971
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Is there anything on earth that can't run Doom at this point?
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Doom runs on just about everything. From 100 pounds of mouldy potatoes to a pregnancy test, creators have endeavoured to run everyone's favourite demon-blasting fest on all sorts of hardware—but cramming its code inside DNS text records is a new one on me.
That's what Doom Over DNS does, and it's a remarkable bit of lateral thinking from the mind of Adam Rice. Essentially, the entirety of shareware Doom has been split into 1,964 DNS text records that can be stored across a single Cloudflare zone, which in turn is reassembled by a PowerShell script making public DNS queries. Resulting in... well, Doom, as we've come to know and love it.
As this breakdown explains, the Domain Name System (DNS) turns domain names into IP addresses, acting a bit like a phonebook for the internet.
However, it also supports text records, with fields that are usually used for mundane entries like email authentication data. Each record can hold around 2,000 characters, and they're not validated, which means you can put anything you like inside them.
Apparently. This is all news to me, as I understand the internet as a series of tubes. Props if you got the reference without clicking the link.
With an initial goal of storing an encoded movie collection within that text data (I wonder how many records that would take?) the project was pivoted to first Base64-encode a picture of a duck (why not), with a metadata record that would allow a reassembly script to piece it back together.
Duck test successful, the scope of the project was adjusted. Sure, a small .jpg of a duck is easy enough, but a 1 GB .mp4 file? That'd take roughly 670,000 text records. What's needed is something smaller, something easily compressed... something like Doom.
After using Claude to re-write some of the game code to run from a memory stream rather than on-disk system files (and cutting the audio to keep the file size down) Doom was then compressed into code chunks that would fit inside multiple text records, which were then contained within a single CloudFlare Pro DNS zone.
The script that runs Doom is a neat little 250 lines of standalone Power...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
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Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Join the club
Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards.
Doom runs on just about everything. From 100 pounds of mouldy potatoes to a pregnancy test, creators have endeavoured to run everyone's favourite demon-blasting fest on all sorts of hardware—but cramming its code inside DNS text records is a new one on me.
That's what Doom Over DNS does, and it's a remarkable bit of lateral thinking from the mind of Adam Rice. Essentially, the entirety of shareware Doom has been split into 1,964 DNS text records that can be stored across a single Cloudflare zone, which in turn is reassembled by a PowerShell script making public DNS queries. Resulting in... well, Doom, as we've come to know and love it.
As this breakdown explains, the Domain Name System (DNS) turns domain names into IP addresses, acting a bit like a phonebook for the internet.
However, it also supports text records, with fields that are usually used for mundane entries like email authentication data. Each record can hold around 2,000 characters, and they're not validated, which means you can put anything you like inside them.
Apparently. This is all news to me, as I understand the internet as a series of tubes. Props if you got the reference without clicking the link.
With an initial goal of storing an encoded movie collection within that text data (I wonder how many records that would take?) the project was pivoted to first Base64-encode a picture of a duck (why not), with a metadata record that would allow a reassembly script to piece it back together.
Duck test successful, the scope of the project was adjusted. Sure, a small .jpg of a duck is easy enough, but a 1 GB .mp4 file? That'd take roughly 670,000 text records. What's needed is something smaller, something easily compressed... something like Doom.
After using Claude to re-write some of the game code to run from a memory stream rather than on-disk system files (and cutting the audio to keep the file size down) Doom was then compressed into code chunks that would fit inside multiple text records, which were then contained within a single CloudFlare Pro DNS zone.
The script that runs Doom is a neat little 250 lines of standalone Power...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?