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2w ago

Doom Now Runs on PineBuds Pro, With a Public Web Stream to Play

An overclocked Cortex-M4F streams MJPEG video over UART from a 1.7MB “squashware” build to overcome the earbuds’ lack of a display.

DoomBuds - Doom powered by earbuds
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Overview

  • Developer Arin Sarkisian ported the 1993 shooter to Pine64’s open-firmware PineBuds Pro and released the firmware and web client.
  • A public site at doombuds.com queues players to control his earbuds remotely, with a Twitch stream available for spectators.
  • Severe limits of roughly 4MB flash and under 1MB RAM drove a reduced asset set to 1.7MB and code changes such as precomputed tables, const-from-flash data, and disabled caching.
  • Visuals leave the displayless buds as an MJPEG stream over UART, yielding about 18 frames per second in practice, with 25 fps described as theoretical.
  • The port targets PineBuds Pro specifically due to their open-source firmware, and the Cortex-M4F is pushed to about 300 MHz to sustain the pipeline.