When it comes to videogames, there are two certainties in life: Guile's theme goes with everything and everything can play Doom.
From ATMs to calculators and even pregnancy tests, the groundbreaking MS-DOS videogame from 1993 has been played on what seems like every piece of technology. And now, the latest tech to answer the question "Can it play Doom?" is a DSLR that's over a quarter of a century old.
The Canon EOS 550D – known as the Rebel T2i in the US and the Kiss X4 in Japan – isn't just one of the best cameras for beginners; it's the best camera if you want to play one of the most iconic first-person shooters of all time.
While it was reported back in May that someone got Doom running on a Nikon Zf, there is some doubt online as to whether it was real or a sneaky bit of video playback.
However, the feat has been performed on the 550D using Magic Lantern – custom firmware developed in 2009 for Canon cameras that runs from a memory card and adds a host of features such as dual ISO, RGB histogram, zebras, new grids like the Fibonacci spiral… and now, the ability to run Doom, as you can see below:
Canon is always telling us how clever its Digic processors are, but I'll bet the company never envisioned that the Digic 4 chip in its 2010 camera would be used to run a videogame!
As you'd expect, the D-pad on the back of the camera is used to navigate while the SET button fires your weapon. The hack even employs the 550D's speaker to emit in-game audio and effects, which again is something I bet Canon's engineers could never have predicted.
According to Tom's Hardware, the developer said that the port only works on a Canon EOS 550D running firmware version 1.0.9, specifically noting, "Do not install this binary on another camera model or firmware version."
There are full instructions on how to install and run everything in the Tom's Hardware report, but I cannot stress strongly enough that Magic Lantern is a completely unofficial project and is in no way endorsed or supported by Canon.
In fact, running it could potentially brick your camera and also invalidates your warranty – so think carefully before you go blasting Martian monsters on your camera.
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