Doom finally ported to quantum computers, and you can play it now

A new port of the first-person shooter Doom has been developed to run on quantum computers. Known as Quandoom, the version was created by Luke Mortimer, a quantum computing researcher at ICFO in Barcelona who releases projects under the name Lumorti. It is written as a single QASM file with the language used to program quantum circuits and algorithms.

While there is currently no quantum hardware capable of playing the game, Lumorti's work shows the potential for gaming on new architectures. The quantum port pushes the limits with specifications that dwarf even the most powerful classical PCs. It requires 72,376 qubits and 80 million gates just to execute the basic code.

However, Quandoom can still be experienced today. Lumorti included a lightweight QASM simulator that translates the quantum instructions into classical computation. Even on an ordinary laptop, the simulator allows Quandoom to run at 10-20 frames per second. Early gameplay footage looks like a 1980s vector graphics shooter.

Although such a quantum computer doesn't exist right now, Quandoom is efficiently simulatable on a classical computer, capable of running at 10-20 fps on my laptop using the accompanying lightweight (150 lines of C++) QASM simulator.

To play Quandoom, download the files from GitHub and drag the QASM file onto the simulator executable. You should be aware it will take around 5-6GB of RAM to load. Only the first level is playable for now with simplified graphics and no sound or music. Lumorti provides tips for compilation to test advanced technical aspects on other systems, too.

The Quandoom code file was significantly compressed using abbreviations, but it is still sizable at an estimated 30GB without them. Work continues to reinsert missing parts of classic DOOM into the quantum version over time, with development sometimes a little slow since Lumorti admits that he sometimes gets bored with the ambitious project.

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