For years, gamers have been pushing their tech to the limits by attempting to run 1993's Doom on peculiar hardware, but one savvy gamer has been able to play Doom Eternal on their smart fridge thanks to the power of Xbox Game Pass. Doom running on a calculator was cool back in 2011, but Doom Eternal on a refrigerator is much more impressive.
Doom was released on December 10, 1993, for MS-DOS, and was later ported to many other systems, including SNES and PlayStation. It has since been made playable on a number of unconventional pieces of hardware. Sure, Doom has worked perfectly on every console released since 1993, but gamers have spent countless hours finding ways to play Doom on increasingly improbable forms of technology. Doom running on a Texas Instrument is the most popular of the unorthodox methods of playing the game, but they have gotten a lot more ridiculous in recent history. Doom has been played on a Porsche, printers, and even on a digital pregnancy test.
However, Instagram user Richard Mallard has taken the "Doom running on a..." format to an entirely different level. Thanks to Microsoft's new xCloud service, gamers are able to stream Xbox Game Pass titles straight to their Android devices. Mallard is the owner of a Samsung Smart Fridge, which is capable of sideloading the Android version of the Xbox Game Pass app. This allows Mallard to stream games from Xbox Game Pass directly to his smart fridge, and he showed off gameplay of 2020's Doom Eternal in his post. While the fridge itself technically isn't running Doom Eternal, it's still a new way to play Doom.
Although the fridge streams gameplay in portrait mode on an already small screen, this feat of ingenuity allows any Xbox Game Pass title compatible with Microsoft's xCloud to be played on a fridge. It also technically means that xCloud is available to smart fridge owners before iPhone and iPad users. Even though xCloud has hit a rough patch attempting to make its way to iOS, it has no problem making its way into the kitchen.
While it is cool to see a refrigerator turned into a streaming console, it's certainly one of the most unconventional method of playing Doom to date. Doom on a calculator helps kill boredom when on the go, and with xCloud available on Android devices, gamers can play Doom Eternal wherever they want. Regardless of how pointless it is to have a gaming fridge, it is very entertaining to watch gamers find new ways to play Doom.
Doom Eternal is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, and PC.
Source: Richard Mallard/Instagram