Doom changed the video game industry by revolutionizing the first-person shooter genre. However, it has managed to stay relevant over the decades thanks to fans who have made it run on almost any device you can think of. From printers to pregnancy tests, no platform has been left out when it comes to breaking and tearing demons.
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2025 is the year I finish Doom
I have played, but not finished, most of the Doom games. I trust the Dark Ages to correct this.
However, very few of these Doom “ports” actually have any use – you won't know if you're pregnant by completing a level on the pregnancy test. It looks like one of the latest places that can run Doom actually has some use. Instead of checking boxes that have a bus or a traffic light, you can complete a level of Doom to prove you're not a robot.
Kill three demons to prove you're human
Created by Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch through their company's AI website builder, this new twist on the Captcha verification process requires you to kill three monsters to prove you're human (thanks, TechCrunch). I'm assuming I'm a robot, because it's really hard to kill three monsters – in fact, I barely even managed to kill one in about five to six tries. Try it for yourself here.
It seems I'm not the only one who had a hard time, as one comment pointed out that “This is the secret level (E1M9) that you would normally encounter after E1M3. At this point in the normal progression you would have found a rifle, a chainsaw, a rocket launcher, and probably some armor. Starting this level with just a pistol (and it looks like maybe UV or Nightmare difficulty) is just begging. whipping”.
No matter the difficulty, this Doom Captcha is a lot more fun than identifying bikes in a box or cracking an alphanumeric code to prove you're human. Maybe it could tone down the difficulty a bit, though, so we don't find ourselves questioning our own gut feeling.
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I don't think we'll see this system implemented on any websites anytime soon, and bots can be trained to play Doom, so it looks like they might not be able to protect themselves against AI. However, there is a chance that the demons will stop taking over.
One of the most iconic and impactful games ever made, Doom puts you in the role of a Marine sent to a research facility on Mars. When a portal to Hell unleashes a horde of demons, it's up to you to blast them into oblivion.
