It’s almost a cliché at this point, getting id’s 1993 classic, Doom, running where it shouldn’t (opens in new tab), but enterprising gamers continue to raise the bar in terms of where they stash the classic FPS, including one of those vaguely dystopian McDonald’s ordering screens (opens in new tab) (thanks to GameSpot (opens in new tab) for the uh… spot.)
I know it would bring me no end of joy to walk into the Golden Arches and see Carmack and Romero’s masterpiece playing on the awful touchscreen that’s replaced another point of valuable human contact in our lives. But that’s another sort of doom entirely. Bottom line, this isn’t exactly the most practical way to hit up E1M1.
The most glaring issue is the viewing angle: you’d have to crane your neck 90° to have a normal view of the action, and that just goes against all ergonomic best practices. Another issue is controls—maybe the credit card number pad can stand in for WASD? Kinda harkens back to the early days of keyboard-only controls in FPS.
Ultimately there may be a kernel of something practical here—what better way to soak up the consumer rage so often directed at service workers than with a little bit of Doom? Work that stuff out before yelling at someone for your nuggies.
If nothing else, hacking Doom onto this kiosk certainly feels in line with early id’s shareware, hacker ethos. I wish the presumably disgruntled employee who did this a fine PC gaming day, they’re clearly way too talented for what McDonald’s is paying them.