Earlier this week, a Twitter user named GaryOderNichts managed to achieve something quite remarkable: he hacked Nintendo’s Alarmo alarm clock to run the shareware version of Doom. He even shared a video of this feat on Twitter, setting the gaming community abuzz with excitement and curiosity.
In a series of tweets, Gary explained some specifics of this hack. Notably, there is no audio support at the moment, and the Doom shareware .wad file needs to undergo a process of compression and decompression on boot to sidestep the USB loader’s memory limitations. For those brave souls wanting to try this out themselves, Gary assures that there’s no need to tinker with your Alarmo. Instead, all the project files you might need are readily available on GitHub.
So, how did Gary pull off this impressive stunt? He provides a deep dive into the process on his blog. The journey kicked off with opening up an Alarmo to examine the hardware. Inside, he found an STM32H730ZBI6 Arm Cortex-M7 processor. Thankfully, this component is well-documented, offering Gary the insights he needed to link his hacked Alarmo to a Raspberry Pi.
In his Twitter post, Gary quipped about the popular demand for Doom on the Alarmo, sharing, “After my last post, it was pretty clear what everyone wanted to see on the Alarmo. So, here it is – Doom running on the Nintendo Alarmo!”
Despite the initial hardware explorations involving soldering and modding, the final method he shared on GitHub simplifies the process significantly. There’s no need for a modified Alarmo to run Doom from a USB—quite a relief for DIY enthusiasts.
As for controls? Gary designed them using the buttons and touch dial on the Alarmo. Swiping across the dial allows players to aim, while the notification button takes charge of firing. The video shows Gary navigating through one of Doom’s early levels, although not all controls were demonstrated or explained.
Nintendo’s Alarmo might be a quirky and expensive $99 gadget, but it seems it’s just the perfect candidate for running Doom, adding it to the long list of unexpected hardware conquering the game. From a smart lawnmower to a vintage Commodore 64 with a custom expansion card, Doom has found its way into myriad places—each more surprising than the last.
