Doom crashes after 2.5 years of non-stop gameplay on a Windows Mobile PDA

The Legendary Doom Glitch Finally Catches Up After 2.5 Years of Uninterrupted Play on a Pocket PC

In a tale that reads like a digital fairy tale, the iconic first-person shooter Doom has finally succumbed to a long-foreshadowed glitch after an astonishing two and a half years of continuous operation on a venerable ASUS MyPal PDA. This isn't just a story of a crashing game; it's a testament to the enduring, albeit sometimes peculiar, nature of early digital software and the ingenuity of its admirers.

A Rigged Setup for Epic Endurance

The scene of this remarkable digital longevity was a PDA, likely an ASUS MyPal A620, powered by the then-contemporary Windows Mobile 2003 operating system. The device had been thoughtfully, if unconventionally, modified. Its owner, Minki, an administrator on the LenOwO website, describes a custom uninterruptible power supply (UPS) built from 18650 lithium cells, tethered to the USB port of a router for a steady 5V power flow. This setup essentially created a dedicated, battery-backed shrine for the game, largely forgotten until an error message jolted its caretakers back to attention.

The Inevitable Overflow: A Journey to the Ticks' Limit

The cause of Doom's ultimate demise was not a hardware failure or a novel exploit, but a deeply embedded bug, a relic of its 1997 codebase. WinDOOM, the version likely running on the PDA, is a port based on the original Doom source code, faithfully replicating its quirks and, crucially, its errors. One such persistent anomaly involves the game's internal timer, which tracks playtime. This timer increments at a relentless 35 Hz (35 times per second), irrespective of the actual in-game rendering speed or whether the game was even actively displayed. Over extended periods, this seemingly innocuous counter accumulates an astronomical number. The critical threshold is 2,147,483,647 ticks, the maximum value for a signed 32-bit integer. Upon reaching this limit, the value “overflows,” resetting to its minimum negative counterpart: -2,147,483,647. The game's engine, unprepared for such a dramatic numerical reversal, simply cannot cope, leading to an abrupt and inevitable crash.

The Math of Doom's Endurance

Given the 35 Hz tick rate, reaching this maximum value was always a theoretical inevitability. The calculation suggests it should take approximately 1.95 years of continuous operation to hit the overflow. However, the exact duration in this case remains a touch elusive, as the exact moment the error became noticeable isn't specified. It's also plausible that Doom4CE, a Windows CE port of WinDoom potentially used in this experiment, might have further adjusted the game's tick rate, perhaps to 30 Hz, to better suit the hardware and pacing – a common practice in console ports of the era to optimize performance.

A Testament to Longevity, Past and Present

John Carmack, the visionary behind the Doom engine, was almost certainly aware of this peculiar timer behavior. However, the notion of anyone playing the game continuously for nearly two years was likely beyond the scope of practical consideration. Yet, here we are, over two decades later, witnessing this obscure bug brought to light through sheer, unwavering dedication. It certainly begs the question: could any modern game boast such a prolonged, uninterrupted operational lifespan without succumbing to its own internal ticking clock?