You can now play Doom on a robotic lawnmower. Yes, you read that right – you can mow down demons while mowing your garden.
Swedish company Husqvarna announced the official collaboration, which they’re calling “one hell of an update” today, with a software update for their Automower NERA robotic lawnmower set to drop in April. The update will allow green thumbs to use the robotic mower’s display and controls to play Doom and will be downloadable via the company’s Automower Connect App. Apparently, you’ll be able to navigate the game by “using the robotic lawnmower’s control knob to turn left and right. Pressing the START button will make you run forward. To fire, players press the control knob.”
According to the Husqvarna website, the choice to bring Doom to yet another completely out of pocket device comes after the “amazing response” to the robo mower turned Doom machine at DreamHack Winter 2023. Players will be able to get stuck in from 9 April to 9 September – so sadly, this isn’t a permanent feature of the mowers. You’ll have to sign up before 26 August to get access to the software update, too – so if you for some reason own a mower that costs almost $3,000 AUD and also are itching to play Doom, get in quick.
As mentioned, the Husqvarna NERA robotic lawnmower will set you back a pretty penny. Based on the Australian site, the 450X model retails for about $2,679 AUD – so if you’re considering copping one purely for the bit of being able to play Doom on it for five months, hats off to you honestly. The fact that a glorified roomba for grass exists at all is pretty cool, I guess.
If you’re in the market for a cheaper Doom machine (cozzie livs and all that), there’s plenty of other janky ways to play. Recently, one Twitter user shared how they got the game running on a pair of earrings, for much less than $2.6k, I might add. A biotech researcher also recently got the game to run (only just) on E. coli bacteria, so if you’ve got that laying around, there’s an even cheaper option for you.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve seen Doom run on? Let us know in the comments.
Image: Husqvarna
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