Husqvarna is, among other things, a manufacturer of expensive robotic lawn mowers and chainsaws. And for reasons best known to itself, it is now preparing to distribute Doom to around 30,000 owners of its Husqvarna Automower NERA range.
The manufacturing company showed off what it's currently working on at Dreamhack Winter 2023 with an “LA(w)N” party (sorry), which was said to be the first multiplayer championship to be held on a non-gaming device was hosted. But now it's ready to bring the thing to a group of (presumably slightly confused) keen gardeners, with the original shareware episode of Doom arriving as a free update for their lawnmowers, playable between April and September 2024.
“The original id Software team had some of the best developers ever,” says Björn Mannefred, robotics software engineer at Husqvarna. “What they did with Doom in 1993 was world class and set the stage for many of today's great games. They are also a great inspiration for us at Husqvarna. This is one hell of an update that both highlights the pioneering spirit that characterizes the engineers at Husqvarna and serves as a tribute to the originators of Doom.”
Doesn't really address why it's a lawnmower, but damn, I guess after that Pregnancy tests And Jailbroken tractors We are running out of household electronics that we could use for other purposes. “The list of 'Things That Run DOOM' is absolutely incredible,” says id Studio director Marty Stratton, “and we're excited that robot lawnmowers have finally been added to the list.” […] We appreciate the imaginative and entertaining tribute.”
The influence and impact of Doom is so widespread it's unfathomable, and when one of these stories comes up I always wonder what's next. Pianos, printers, an oscilloscope? Done, done and done. Rotary phone? old news. 1 milliwatt neural chip: simply. However, my favorite remains the guy who looked at it from a different angle and trained rats named Carmack and Romero to actually play Doom. And I think we're just left with the question of why people are trying to make this thing work on everything potatoes to lawnmowers. But the answer is simple: it's cool.
