DoomPDF

Games

game port

SHOW HN2025

369points
74comments
#131of 3,837 in 2025
Top 4%of 2025 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

8 positive, 17 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 5 critical, out of 31 comments about the project. Thread score +0.16.

Idea: 5 for, 1 againstExecution: 0 for, 4 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Impressive hack and neat ASCII-rendered graphics

    From 3 comments
    • this is wild! the ascii-rendered graphics are a neat workaround
      fasten on HN
    • Biggest one up in history.
      LorenzoGood on HN
    • So I find this neat, I can see a potential practical application as being able to demonstrate a piece of engineer work INSIDE a resume when you apply for a job which I think is…
      Uptrenda on HN
  • Fun and creative demonstration

    From 3 comments
    • You monster.
      RajT88 on HN
    • That's Super Awesome, I know, this is a dumb comment, but, come on!!!
      PierCecco on HN
    • I think this is amazing. And reading the threads regarding JS i PDF I feel the urge to write a PDF reader in a PDF document. It’s PDF:s all the way down.
      maCDzP on HN

Objections

  • Only works in Chromium-based browsers with PDFium

    From 1 comment
  • Only works on a single PDF engine, not portable

    From 1 comment
    • Not that portable since it only works on a single PDF engine.
      Narishma on HN
  • Security concerns about embedded JavaScript in PDFs

    From 2 comments
    • JS is what made these file types into the Pretty Dangerous Format. Numerous vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat surfaced thanks to the embedded JS engine. Updating the Acrobat…
      p_ing on HN
    • The concern isn't that it was JS, the concern is that there's a scripting system inside of PDF at all. Why? What? Form validation is a lousy excuse because forms themselves were…
      lolinder on HN

Requests

  • Support for custom WADs

    From 1 comment
    • Now how do I add another WAD file to this. Someone needs to play sigil on this.
      armSixtyFour on HN
  • Use freely licensed FreeDoom instead of shareware

    From 1 comment
    • Stop restricting yourself to a shareware episode. Use the full legal replacement from https://freedoom.github.io
      anthk on HN

Questions

  • Does it work in readers other than Chrome?

    From 2 comments
    • oh so that why neither version worked for me in any reader
      ikari_pl on HN
    • I think it should work in acrobat also, since that implements more of pdf's embedded javascript. I don't know of any other pdf readers which implement javascript. I assume…
      extraduder_ire on HN
  • Can the PDF be made smaller with compression?

    From 1 comment
    • As PDF supports DEFLATE compression, it should be possible to shrink the size of the PDF document considerably.
      MarekKnapek on HN

Alternatives named

  • PDF Tetris

    From 1 comment
    • Author of "PDF Tetris" here. Great work! We had the same idea at the same time, here's my version of PDF Doom: Source: https://github.com/thomasRinsma/pdfdoom Playable here:…
      ThomasRinsma on HN
  • Bad Apple in Vim

    From 1 comment
    • One of my formative experiences as a freshman in CS (I learned to program in college) was accidentally opening a PDF with Emacs and watching as it displayed not weird binary data…
      antics on HN
  • JSLinux

    From 1 comment
    • Pandora's box has been opened. Next step: embed Bellard's JSLinux (https://bellard.org/jslinux/) and have a fullblown OS with development environment, office suite and all inside…
      luismedel on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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