We have seen DOOM run on microwaves, calculators, fridges – even pregnancy tests. But now it has officially been played in orbit. A programmer named Ólafur Waage and his team managed to run the classic shooter on a real ESA satellite… and somehow made it even cooler by using actual satellite photos of Earth as the in-game sky.
How They Got DOOM to Run in Orbit
The satellite in question is called OPS-SAT – a small cube-shaped platform launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) to let teams experiment with space software. When ESA opened a hacking challenge, groups were invited to upload code and push the system however they wanted. Some teams ran AI models or diagnostics. Ólafur’s team had a better idea: DOOM.
They first tried Chocolate DOOM, a simple source port that technically worked – but since OPS-SAT has no screen, they only got basic text output like kill counts and level stats. It proved the game was running, but it was not exactly a screenshot-worthy moment.
Leveling Up the Port
To get actual visuals, they switched to doomgeneric – a version of DOOM built for weird hardware. It let them simulate a display by generating screenshots directly on the satellite. That is when the team got a new idea: If DOOM is running in space, why not show that in-game?
Turning Earth Into a DOOM Skybox
OPS-SAT regularly captures high-res images of Earth, and the team decided to use those as the new sky texture. The files were way too large and colorful for DOOM’s ancient 256-color palette, but they figured it out. Using another team’s onboard AI model, they resized and simplified the images, then adjusted the palette just enough to make it all display correctly.
It broke Doom tradition a little, but it was worth it.
The Result: DOOM, in Orbit, Looking Down on Earth
In the end, DOOM really did run on a satellite – with the Earth floating above you as the skybox. Screenshots were created in space and then sent back down. It is honestly one of the most insane DOOM ports yet. And given how many there are, that is saying something.
You can check out the official video showing DOOM running on the satellite right here:
Ólafur even joked they might try running it on Mars next. After this experiment, that sounds less like a joke and more like a very real possibility.
Source: tomsHardware
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