90s FPS game Doom runs on Dogecoin via Ordinals

Dogecoin, a blockchain born out of memes and creativity, is now hosting the classic 1990s first-person shooter game Doom after a developer inscribed the game into the network. 

Using the Dogecoin Ordinals protocol, also called “Doginals,” pseudonymous developer “Mini Doge” inscribed Doom on the Dogecoin blockchain. With this, anyone can play the classic game on their computers or mobile phones by accessing the inscription link. 

Doom was first released in 1993 and became one of the most popular games at the time. According to Mini Doge, the free version of Doom was inscribed into the Dogecoin network to celebrate the game’s 30th anniversary. The game inside the blockchain contains nine game levels that can be published without running into legal issues. 

After its inception on Bitcoin, the Ordinals protocol made its way onto the Litecoin network after an anonymous X user with the username Indigo Nakamoto offered $500 worth of Litecoin (LTC) to anyone who could bring the Ordinals protocol onto the blockchain. After this, Dogecoin enthusiasts Doge Labs followed suit, enabling the protocol to be deployed on Dogecoin. 

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Users can inscribe images, videos and audio onto the two blockchains. On May 18, the Dogecoin network reached a new 24-hour transaction record of 1.2 million transactions, driven by the arrival of the Ordinals protocol. 

Shibes, it’s officially decided by the one and only @MilkRoadDaily: It’s #Doginals on #drc20.

 #Cardinals it has been a nice few days with you! pic.twitter.com/ta2ZDIXrbB

— Doge Labs | Dogecoin Ordinals (Doginals) & Drc-20 (@verydogelabs) May 18, 2023

Before Doom was deployed onto Dogecoin, other developers inscribed a classic game emulator onto the Bitcoin blockchain using Ordinals. On Jan. 8, developers at the Bitcoin Ordinals portfolio tracker Ninjalerts deployed an emulator for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on a satoshi. 

As the team announced the inscription, Ninjalerts CEO Trevor Owens cited a study showing that 90% of classic video games were endangered. The executive also argued that Bitcoin was the best place to preserve games that were “cultural digital artifacts” for future generations. 

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