Doom is now playable on quantum computers!

A new adaptation of the iconic first-person shooter, Doom, has been engineered to run on quantum computers. This innovative version, titled Quandoom, was created by Luke Mortimer, a quantum computing researcher at ICFO in Barcelona, who develops projects under the name Lumorti. The game is crafted as a single QASM file, utilizing the language designed for programming quantum circuits and algorithms.

At present, there is no existing quantum hardware capable of running the game, yet Lumorti’s project illustrates the considerable potential for gaming on cutting-edge architectures. The quantum adaptation necessitates specifications that exceed even the most advanced classical PCs, requiring a staggering 72,376 qubits and 80 million gates just to execute the fundamental code.

Nonetheless, you can still experience Quandoom today. Lumorti has provided a lightweight QASM simulator that translates the quantum instructions into classical computation. This means that even on a standard laptop, the simulator allows for Quandoom to run at 10-20 frames per second. Early gameplay visuals resemble a classic 1980s vector graphics shooter.

While a quantum computer with the required specifications doesn’t currently exist, Quandoom can be efficiently simulated on a classic computer, achieving 10-20 fps on my laptop using the lightweight (comprising just 150 lines of C++) QASM simulator.

To play Quandoom, download the files from GitHub and drag the QASM file onto the simulator executable. Please note that you will need approximately 5-6GB of RAM to load it. Currently, only the first level of the game is playable, featuring simplified graphics and no sound or music. Lumorti also offers guidance for compilation to explore advanced technical features on various systems.

The Quandoom code file has been heavily compressed using abbreviations, but it retains a significant size of approximately 30GB without these optimizations. Efforts are ongoing to restore missing aspects of the classic DOOM into the quantum version, although development can be somewhat sporadic as Lumorti has mentioned occasional boredom with this ambitious project.

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