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The measure of any piece of hardware is whether it can run Doom. And it turns out that pretty much any modern computer can, whether it's a MacBook Pro's Touch Bar, the programmable display in a key on the Optimus Maximum keyboard or a Vtech InnoTab. Doom runs anywhere, and that's down to the labours of a community of programmers that have been working on DOOM for nearly 20 years, ever since John Carmack released Doom's Linux source code for non-profit use on 23rd December, 1997. "Port it to your favourite operating system," he wrote in its readme.txt. "Add some rendering features - transparency, look up/down, slopes, etc. Add some game features - weapons, jumping, ducking, flying, etc." Along with some other suggestions, he went over a few of his code's shortcomings and his regrets, explained Doom's fundamental workings, and expressed hope that a community would collaborate on an improved version of the game, signing off with, "Have fun".
And people really did. That source code is the progenitor of a vast body of mods, games, maps and years-long friendships. And in January, one of its longest-serving members suddenly quit.
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