Entertainment · Gaming · 6 hrs ago
Doom is playable in a browser through an IBM Z text terminal
WND Software's browser demo lets people play Doom through an IBM Z mainframe using a text terminal.
It connects to the mainframe over SSH and shows the game as colored characters instead of conventional graphics.
The text-based game is fully playable, but it has no sound and distant objects can be hard to make out.
Players do not need to install anything or log in, and each session is limited to five minutes.
The demo can host up to 50 users at once.
Doom has been made to run on many kinds of devices, so the unusual achievement is playing it through a terminal rather than getting it onto a mainframe.
The demo is a short, practical showcase of WND Software's terminal emulator.
WND Software’s browser demo lets users play Doom through a text terminal connected to an IBM Z mainframe.
The game’s graphics are rendered as colored ASCII characters, and there is no sound.
Each session is limited to five minutes, and the demo supports up to 50 simultaneous users.
No installation or login is required.
The demo uses Wojciech Graj’s DOOM-ASCII.
- Who
- WND Software provides the browser demo, which uses Wojciech Graj’s DOOM-ASCII.
- What
- Users can play Doom through a text terminal, with graphics rendered as colored characters.
- When
- The Register published its report on 2026-11-08.
- Where
- The demo runs in a browser and connects to an IBM Z mainframe over SSH.
- Why
- Not stated.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
An IBM consultant got Doom running on IBM Z and LinuxONE using VNC.
The Register reported on WND Software’s browser demo for playing Doom through a text terminal.
- Mainframe
- IBM Z
- Session limit
- Five minutes
- Simultaneous users
- Up to 50
- Text graphics
- Colored characters
- Connection
- SSH
What people are saying
because I can