Doom, Played over Curl

2026-04-12 | original

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Why This Matters

This innovative project demonstrates how classic games like DOOM can be played directly over HTTP using cURL, showcasing a novel way to stream interactive content in the terminal without traditional dependencies. It highlights the potential for lightweight, browser-agnostic gaming experiences and creative uses of HTTP streaming in the tech industry.

Key Takeaways

Enables playing DOOM over HTTP with minimal dependencies.
Uses a single TCP connection for bidirectional streaming of game frames and keystrokes.
Showcases innovative use of cURL and terminal raw mode for interactive streaming applications.

cURL DOOM

DOOM, played over curl .

HTTP server rendering DOOM frames into ANSI half-blocks, streamed to the terminal over HTTP with cURL.

No install, no dependencies except curl and bash .

Two ways to play

1. The friendly way: curl | bash

curl -sL http://localhost:3000 | bash

How does it work?

GET / is content-negotiated: a curl gets back play.sh with __SERVER__ rewritten to whichever host you fetched it from. The script runs the per-keystroke /tick loop, handles stty , the alternate screen, the cursor, and cleanup.

A browser hitting the same URL gets a tiny landing page that just shows the one-liner.

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