Doom Is Now Playable On a Lawnmower

Landscaping tech company Husqvarna has partnered with Bethesda to bring the original 1993 Doom to its $2,000+ robotic lawnmowers. Kotaku reports: This new way to play Doom arrives in April on all Nera robotic lawnmower models. You don't have to pay for the game, either, just a $2,000+ lawnmower. Instead, just download it and play the shooter via the robo-mower's built-in screen. To rotate your view, you turn the knob and to shoot demons, you press it down. You hold the start button to move forward.

A few caveats to mention. First, this isn't available in the United States. Why? I don't know. Perhaps we can't be trusted with video games on lawnmowers? Secondly, this isn't all of Doom. Instead, it's just the first episode -- Knee Deep In The Dead -- which is arguably its most famous one, sure, but just keep in mind you won't be able to play the rest of the beloved shooter in the middle of your backyard on a tiny LCD screen. Sorry.

Sadly, this won't be a permanent feature that you can show off to family and friends for years to come. Instead, Doom and all its demons and guns will be removed from lawnmowers on September 9. So enjoy it while you can.

But shouldn't it be mowing the lawn?

[rossdee]

While you're playing doom on your phone, the robot lawnmower should be mowing the lawn.

Anyway having seen robotic vacuums screw up, I don't have a good forecast for robotic lawnmowers.
(what happens with children, pets etc, and hills.)
I am however looking forward to plenty of FailArmy videos.

Re:

[Tablizer]

It will enter itself into BattleBots.

Lawnmower

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

That should be a proper weapon and not a port.

Re: Lawnmower

[Junta]

Actually, these mowers are really not viable weapons, which is part of why they are neat. The have like one inch blades mounted on swivels. They also cut off if tilted enough for you to get your fingers in there.

Since a human isn't waiting on them to cut the yard and they can cut the yard multiple times a week, then they can get away with supremely puny cutting capability that takes an eternity to now compared to a big traditional mowing deck.

Re:

[ThePhilips]

It will be. Just recently I read on Slashdot that AI is coming to everything.

P.S. Though I personally would prefer "Lawnmower Man" (1992) version of the reality. It certainly is less scary.

Re:

[uvajed_ekil]

Honestly, I think AI is the next internet. It's a little hard to harness, it's widely misunderstood, and it has obviously incredible potential, and could lead to developments we can't even begin to predict today. Anyone who tells you they know what it (or the world) will look like in a few years is full of shit, but it's undeniable that AI has progressed at a breakneck pace for a couple years now, and though it is in it's infancy, AI is already a transformative concept, and who knows what is yet to come.

IDDQD & IDDKFA

[JDShewey]

Please tell me that they changed out the chainsaw for a lawnmower and I can just run around in god mode with the weapons cheat on murdering aliens in all kinds of gorey glory with a lawnmower...

Could have been really impressive

[EldoranDark]

If lawnmower had adjustable blade hight and could track it's position enough to render a frame on your lawn ever couple of weeks.

Misread that, "playable with lawnmower"

[drnb]

I misread that initially as "playable with lawnmower". Thinking there was a lawnmower mod for the chainsaw.

"Doom" replaced with "Chex Quest"?

[drnb]

Doom and all its demons and guns will be removed from lawnmowers on September 9. So enjoy it while you can

So "Doom" was replaced with "Chex Quest"? The Doom mod that was bundled in boxes of Chex serial in your local supermarket?

Chex Quest replaced weapons with these little devices that safely transported the invading aliens back to their own dimension. Not making this up. Gotta check e-bay to see what the CD is worth now.

Re:

[drnb]

Gotta check e-bay to see what the CD is worth now.

$20. But the unopened box of cereal is $200, damn, I foolishly opened the box.

Sales? No, not really.

[geekmux]

The company announced a “partnership” for something that was made quite famous in the United States, but they won’t actually deploy this to US products, and they’ve already announced the dead-end date for this. So, the hell was the point again?

I’ll just say it now. No way this will actually amount to a single additional sale of a $2000 lawnmower.

Talk about marketing for fucks sake.

Re:

[Sir Realist]

Think of it this way: Some retro-hacker who works for Husqvarna managed to talk the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation into paying for his hobby for a few weeks. Go them!

That's not bad

[uvajed_ekil]

I'm old enough to have been enthralled with Doom in the early 90's. And my current lawnmower requires me to control most of its movements for the duration of its activities. So this sounds like a great idea. Maybe I just want a regular, non FPS-capable, autonomous robotic landscaper, but running Doom is an aesthetic choice I'd pay a couple bucks for. Just look at the variety of mowers out there these days - some already have some ridiculous capabilities, so why not?

More ensmartification

[Waccoon]

So the company just confirmed there's some kind of DRM or killswitch built into their $2,000 lawn mower. Another expensive toy that I can't own? No thanks.

Who cares about lawnmowers?

[Bu11etmagnet]

I'm waiting for a Doom port on a chainsaw. Are you listening, Husqvarna?

Removed on September 9th?!

[Anubis IV]

Sadly, this won't be a permanent feature that you can show off to family and friends for years to come. Instead, Doom and all its demons and guns will be removed from lawnmowers on September 9. So enjoy it while you can.

Enjoy it while you can, indeed! After that, you’ll have to fall back to playing it on your John Deere tractor [tumblr.com] instead, or else an Apple Pippin, pregnancy test, Elgato Stream Deck, or a Honeywell thermostat (all real examples you can find on that amazing site).

What a missed opportunity.

[eggstasy]

They should have simply added a lawnmower weapon to doom and turned lawnmowing into an AR game.