If you find mowing your lawn to be a chore, one company has found a way to liven things up: by grafting classic 1993 game Doom onto a lawnmower. It brings a whole new meaning to the idea of mowing down your enemies.
The feature is coming to the Automower NERA series of mowers made by Husqvarna – which feature large screens that will display the game – and is set to launch on April 9, 2024. To be eligible, you just need to register on Husqvarna’s website and enter your mower’s serial number.
It’s one thing to load a game onto a lawnmower, but another thing entirely to play it. Husqvarna says you’ll be able to do that using the NERA mower’s display and controls. Specifically, you use the device’s control knob to turn left and right, and press the Start button to run forward. To fire your weapon and vanquish your enemies, you’ll need to press the control knob.
Doom will be available on the NERA series of mowers until September 9, 2024, whereupon a software update will uninstall it. Sign-ups close on August 26, but unfortunately for US residents it won't be available there – a full list of countries where it will be available is in Husqvarna’s press release.
Who saw this coming?
The idea to put Doom on a Husqvarna lawnmower originated at the DreamHack Winter 2023 event in Sweden. Husqvarna organized what it called a Doom “lawn party,” which it claims was “probably the first multiplayer competition of the game on a non-gaming device.” Husqvarna says it was such a success that it decided to expand the feature to all users of NERA mowers.
It’s become something of a tradition for hackers and developers to port the classic game Doom into all manner of weird and wonderful places. We’ve seen it installed on smart fridges, a home pregnancy kit, a single keyboard key, and much more. If you can think of a ridiculous object to play Doom on, someone has probably already done it.
That said, running Doom on a lawnmower probably isn’t the most efficient way to either play the game or cut your grass. But something tells us no one will be caring about that.
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