this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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I don't get the joke. Wouldn't you need to study the architecture of the alien CPU to see what registers it uses if any and where data goes, and what format the data is expressed in (is it even binary?) so you can write an assembly language for it? Then you would need to write a compiler and then you could get a higher level language going and port Doom. Are we assuming that the alien computer just runs our code?
The joke is that Doom, specifically, will run on anything.
In fact, for many years now, people have been trying to make Doom run on the most ridiculous things possible (printers, refrigerators, pregnancy tests . . .) just for the heck of it. There are worse hobbies.
That is one of my favorite niche subcultures online. Just a group of people dedicated to a singular purpose that isn't doing any harm to anyone. I always get excited when I see a new article that ___new device can run Doom