Just because you can render a Doom-like in SQL doesn't mean you should

The world has moved on from making Doom run on increasingly ridiculous devices. Now it's all about porting it to the most inappropriate of languages. Cue DOOMQL, a version of the shooter written in pure SQL. The "pure SQL" part is important. There have been attempts to get Doom-like games up and running in the past. The …

[Korev]

Vogel used CedarDB for database services, but said: "To be honest, the database nerd in me just wanted to turn all knobs up to 11 and see what breaks."

A Virtual Pint for Herr Vogel

[A Non e-mouse]

Herr Vogel is the hero we all need.

[dwrolfe]

I have that terrible idea you were looking for....

So:

It was a long time ago. And I was a college student on a placement at Oracle.

We needed to spell out the amounts on cheques. So "150.31" would be "ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS AND THIRTY ONE PENCE".

I did it by:

1. Take your amount. Split it in whole pounds and pence.

2. Convert both of them to Julian dates (number of days since epoch)

3. Using the to_char function as Oracle to spell the julian date. So "150" is turned into "ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY"

4. Glue pounds and pence together, and add a couple of DECODES for edge cases.

5. Profit!

And the whole thing was a single SQL expression...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I have that terrible idea you were looking for....

Superb!

I used to spend hours while I was bored coming up with as many oddball things as i could in PL/SQL, once wrote Yahtzee and "Noughts and Crosses" games in PL/SQL just for shits and giggles one Friday afternoon while the boss was out!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I have that terrible idea you were looking for....

Step 2 is... horrifying. If Rube Goldberg were a database programmer he'd be proud of you.

[Evil Auditor]

Terrible idea? Let's leave the realms of programming. Can someone stick together a huge breadboard and implement Doom with a relay circuit? (I'm not talking about the likes of Zuse Z2, which uses programs on paper tape and calculates with relays. I want the hole program in relays, no fussy paper!)

_{Yep, I started my career as more of a hardware guy.}

[Martin an gof]

So the game "code" would have to be stored in latching relays (RAM) or hard-wired on (say) plugboard similar to computers of the 1940s?

Of course relay logic has been done before, but I wonder if it can be improved with things learned in the last 80 years or so?

M.

[David 132]

The world needs more mercury delay lines.

[Efer Brick]

Text adventure on 'roids

[Justin Pasher]

Impressive, but not technically right

These two projects utilize raycasting for rendering. DOOM is not a raycasting engine. It uses a precompiled BSP tree to determine sector visibility. These projects are technically Wolf3D-like, but everyone seems to use DOOM as the baseline for "basic '3D' game engine".

Now get off my lawn!

[Jamie Jones]

Re: Impressive, but not technically right

Those of a certain age will recognise this as more like 3D monster maze on the ZX81, as mentioned on the article.

https://youtu.be/tGf4jdRbCuk - skip to 3mins 22 seconds if impatient