Play the classic 1993 FPS on your WiFi Pineapple Pager!

Darren Kitchen demoing DOOM on the Pager — watch the full video

If you have the general → Pull Payload PR payload on your pager, type PR 130 to install.

Copy the pre-built files to your Pager:

scp -r payloads/user/games/doom root@172.16.52.1:/root/payloads/user/games/

Then find DOOM in: Payloads → Games → DOOM

Bring your own WADs! Only the shareware doom1.wad is included. Place your legally obtained WAD files in the wads/ directory to play the full games.

1. Place your WAD files in the wads/ directory
2. Run the installer:

./install-wads.sh list      # Show available configurations
./install-wads.sh install   # Create payload directories
./install-wads.sh deploy    # Deploy to Pager via SSH

• SIGIL uses the "compat" version which replaces Episode 3 (select Episode 3 in menu)
• SIGIL II is NOT compatible (requires UMAPINFO support)

External USB keyboards work alongside the Pager's built-in buttons. Plug in your keyboard before launching the game - input devices are detected at startup.

Connect to our public DOOM servers for multiplayer deathmatch!

Run the DOOM Deathmatch payload from: Payloads → Games

Connection Modes:

• Auto - Instant matchmaking to best available server
• Browse - Manual server selection with real-time status
• Direct - Connect to specific IP:port

Desktop players can join with Chocolate Doom:

chocolate-doom -iwad doom1.wad -connect 64.227.99.100:2342

• Chocolate Doom 3.1.x protocol compatibility
• Works with vanilla Chocolate Doom server
• POSIX socket-based network layer (no SDL dependency)

./build.sh

This will:

1. Download the OpenWrt SDK (~400MB, cached in build/)
2. Clone our doomgeneric fork (pager branch)
3. Cross-compile for MIPS
4. Deploy to Pager (if connected)

For experimental builds, use ./build.sh --dev which pulls from the dev branch and creates a separate DOOM DEV payload.

• Linux (tested on Ubuntu/Debian)
• curl, git, make
• qemu-user-static (on non-x86_64 hosts)

sudo apt install curl git make qemu-user-static

Capture a screenshot from your Pager's framebuffer and save it locally:

./screenshot.sh                  # Landscape (default)
./screenshot.sh -n               # Portrait (raw framebuffer)
./screenshot.sh my_shot.png      # Custom filename

• CPU: MIPS 24KEc @ 580MHz (soft-float, 8-stage pipeline)
• RAM: 64MB DDR2
• Display: 222×480 RGB565 via SPI (~20 FPS refresh limit)
• Input: GPIO buttons via /dev/input/event0

The vanilla DOOM engine has static limits that can cause crashes on complex maps like SIGIL. These have been increased:

Display Pipeline

• 16-bit RGB565 framebuffer support with direct writes
• 90° CCW rotation for portrait display orientation
• Full-screen stretched scaling with widened FOV (gameplay)
• Aspect-correct rendering with letterboxing (menus/title)
• Precomputed lookup tables for X/Y scaling (32-byte cache-aligned)

Frame Pacing

• Default 35 FPS cap matches DOOM's native TICRATE
• clock_nanosleep() with absolute timing for precise frame pacing
• Reduces CPU usage and heat compared to uncapped rendering
• Display limited to ~20 FPS via SPI, but 35 FPS ensures smooth game logic

Input System

• GPIO button mapping (red/green buttons)
• Button combo detection with proper state tracking
• Strafe combos: Green+Left/Right for strafing
• USB keyboard support (detected at startup)

Performance Optimizations

Compiler Flags (MIPS 24KEc @ 580MHz, GCC 13.3)

-O3 -flto -march=24kec -mtune=24kec -mbranch-likely
-ffast-math -funroll-loops -fomit-frame-pointer -finline-functions
-fprefetch-loop-arrays
-fipa-pta -fmodulo-sched -fsched-pressure -fsplit-paths

The payload scripts stop background services before launching DOOM to maximize available CPU and RAM:

# Services stopped during gameplay
/etc/init.d/php8-fpm stop    # PHP FastCGI
/etc/init.d/nginx stop        # Web server  
/etc/init.d/bluetoothd stop   # Bluetooth daemon
/etc/init.d/pineapplepager stop
/etc/init.d/pineapd stop

All services are automatically restored when DOOM exits.

├── build.sh              # Main build script
├── install-wads.sh       # WAD installer tool
├── screenshot.sh         # Pager screenshot utility
├── doomgeneric/          # Engine fork (github.com/lmacken/doomgeneric-pager)
├── wads/                 # Place your WAD files here
├── img/                  # Screenshots
├── ansible/              # Deathmatch server playbook
└── payloads/             # Pager payload directories
    └── user/games/
        ├── doom/              # Base DOOM (shareware)
        ├── doom-deathmatch/   # Multiplayer
        ├── doom2/             # DOOM II
        ├── doom-sigil/        # SIGIL
        └── ...

• UMAPINFO support for SIGIL II compatibility
• Kernel module (doom_fb.ko) for bypassing fbtft overhead and direct USB bulk transfers
• DMA transfers for framebuffer writes (CH347 USB-to-SPI bridge currently lacks DMA)
• Dirty rectangle tracking to only update changed screen regions
• Vibrate when hit using the Pager's vibration motor
• DOOM theme ringtone using the piezoelectric buzzer

• DOOM source code: GPL-2.0
• doomgeneric: GPL-2.0
• doom1.wad: Shareware (freely distributable)