The original Doom is 25 years old as of 2018, which might put life, the passage of time and the transient nature of our times in perspective for some of us.
For others, it just means more reasons to have some fun.
Game developer Rich Whitehouse decided to celebrate the Doom anniversary with the help of his Roomba instead. Whitehouse developed a script for the Noesis data conversion tool that can use the floor map data from the robot and convert it into Doom levels.
Obviously, the robot has been quickly renamed the Doomba.
“I soon realized that there was a clear opportunity to serve the Dark Lord by conceiving a plethora of unholy algorithms in service to one of the finest works ever created in his name.” Whitehouse writes on his blog, in pure Doom fashion “Simultaneously, I would be able to unleash a truly terrible pun to plague humankind. Now, the fruit of my labor is born. I bring forth DOOMBA, a half-goat, half-script creature, with native binary backing for the expensive parts, to be offered in place of my firstborn on this fine Christmas Eve.”
If you too, would love to turn your house into a hellscape (and maybe save your firstborn), Whitehouse detailed how you can make use of your Roomba as well – all you’ll need is a download of the recent Noesis and from there on, all you’ll have to do, according to the game developer, is access “optionalplugins\python, and copy the tool_roomba.py file in there over to plugins\python. Under the Tools menu in Noesis, you’ll have a new “Roomba Tracker” item. Activate it to bring up the Roomba Tracker interface“
From there on, you’ll be able to scan for the Roomba LAN and move onwards. If you need step-by-step instructions, they’re available on Whitehouse’s blog.
While the feature does not look very useful at first glance, I’m sure other hellish-oriented brains will be poked at enough to make something even bigger of this revelation but honestly? It’s a fun concept to play with and, as Whitehouse himself says: “Some will say that it’s pointless, but I have faith in my heart that the Dark Lord will wipe these people from the face of the earth and trap them in a dimension of eternal hellfire. Their suffering will be legendary.“
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