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Yes—but not on the pregnancy test’s original electronics. In 2020, hardware hacker Foone Turing turned a digital pregnancy-test shell into a tiny Doom display by replacing its guts with a microcontroller and a 128×32-pixel monochrome OLED. The viral clip showed Doom imagery on the device; it wasn’t an ordinary test running the game as sold.
What the viral pregnancy-test Doom project actually was
The project used the recognizable casing and display window of a digital pregnancy test, not its original computing hardware. Foone Turing removed the test’s display and chip, then fitted replacement electronics into the small enclosure. Popular Mechanics’ account and PC Gamer’s coverage both make clear that the stock device was not a miniature PC.
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The display was a 128×32-pixel monochrome OLED, according to Adafruit’s December 11, 2024 roundup. That is a tiny canvas compared with a conventional game display, so Doom’s image had to be reduced and converted into a one-color, dithered picture.
Could the pregnancy test’s original chip run Doom?
No. The original segmented LCD showed a handful of fixed symbols—Popular Mechanics reports four—and the original controller was not capable of being reprogrammed to run Doom. The replacement electronics did the computing and drove the replacement OLED; the pregnancy test itself contributed its plastic shell and a strikingly familiar window.
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#1 Best Overall
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How did Doom fit inside the casing?
The key was to treat the test as a compact enclosure project, not as a computer that needed to be persuaded to run a game. Turing experimented with tiny OLEDs and chose a small Adafruit microcontroller and display that could fit inside. Doom imagery was prepared at very low resolution and sent from external hardware to the replacement display, as described by Popular Mechanics.
This distinction matters: displaying frames from Doom is not the same thing as having a self-contained, playable game. The documented demonstration establishes that Doom imagery appeared on the screen, not that the test’s original electronics ran the game or that the assembled object offered a complete, independently playable Doom experience.
Rank #2
- Developed by id Software, DOOM: The Dark Ages is the prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal that tells the epic cinematic origin story of the DOOM Slayer’s rage.
- In this third installment of the modern DOOM series, players will step into the blood-stained boots of the DOOM Slayer, in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell.
- A dark fantasy/sci-fi single-player experience that delivers the searing combat and over-the-top visuals of the incomparable DOOM franchise, powered by the latest idTech engine. With a customizable difficulty system, it’s the perfect entry point whether you’re new to the franchise or a long time fan.
- As the super weapon of gods and kings, shred enemies with devastating favorites like the Super Shotgun while also wielding a variety of new bone-chewing weapons, including the versatile Shield Saw.
- Experience the origin story of the DOOM Slayer’s rage in this epic, cinematic, and action-packed story.
What would you need to recreate the hack?
At a high level, a recreation would require a donor digital pregnancy-test shell, a suitably small microcontroller, a tiny monochrome OLED, wiring and the software or external hardware needed to render and deliver the image. The documented build used an Adafruit microcontroller and a 128×32 OLED, but the sources cited here do not establish every exact component model or a complete build recipe.
- Enclosure: a digital pregnancy-test shell with enough room for replacement components. It is a casing experiment, not a functioning test-and-game product.
- Display: a tiny, pixel-addressable monochrome OLED; the documented screen was 128×32 pixels.
- Controller and image source: replacement electronics to drive the screen, with Doom imagery reduced and dithered for its limited resolution. The original test chip is not the game controller.
- Integration work: careful fitting and wiring inside a very small housing. Buying an ordinary pregnancy test alone will not make a playable Doom device.
How to judge other tiny-device Doom projects
“Doom runs on it” can describe very different feats. When comparing projects, check whether the original electronics remain, whether the screen can address individual pixels, what hardware renders or streams the image, and how the player supplies input. Also look for stated resolution and frame rate, and whether the result is interactive gameplay or only a video or sequence displayed on the device. The pregnancy-test build is notable for its tiny replacement display and familiar shell; those details do not, by themselves, establish a self-contained game.
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Best Value
- DOOM + DOOM II on a region-free physical disc.
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- A new Deathmatch map pack featuring 25 maps
- Total of 187 mission maps and 43 deathmatch maps in DOOM + DOOM II
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Rank #4
- A Relentless Campaign: There is no taking cover or stopping to regenerate health as you beat back Hell's raging demon hordes
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- Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Content Description: Blood and gore, intense violence, strong language
Rank #3
- Developed by id Software, DOOM: The Dark Ages is the prequel to the critically acclaimed DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal that tells the epic cinematic origin story of the DOOM Slayer’s rage.
- In this third installment of the modern DOOM series, players will step into the blood-stained boots of the DOOM Slayer, in this never-before-seen dark and sinister medieval war against Hell.
- A dark fantasy/sci-fi single-player experience that delivers the searing combat and over-the-top visuals of the incomparable DOOM franchise, powered by the latest idTech engine. With a customizable difficulty system, it’s the perfect entry point whether you’re new to the franchise or a long time fan.
- As the super weapon of gods and kings, shred enemies with devastating favorites like the Super Shotgun while also wielding a variety of new bone-chewing weapons, including the versatile Shield Saw.
- Experience the origin story of the DOOM Slayer’s rage in this epic, cinematic, and action-packed story.
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