You don’t have to imagine DOOM on the Atari ST any more — it’s here, and it actually looks pretty good.

Hold onto your joysticks, Amiga fans (and try not to laugh too hard)! It seems the relentless march of progress – or should that be the relentless march of the DOOM Marine – continues to conquer even the most unexpected retro hardware. The latest frontier? The humble Atari ST!

A brave (or perhaps slightly mad) programmer has reportedly achieved the seemingly impossible, porting id Software’s genre-defining shooter to the 16-bit wonder that was the ST. And they’ve even taken to Twitter to share the initial, albeit fascinatingly noisy, results.

At first, it was just in greyscale.

DOOM on the Atari ST… in colour!

But then, in a tweet that sent ripples through the retro community, the developer declared, “Goodbye grayscale: DOOM on the Atari ST, now in 16 colors with a lot of dithering. Palette effects (screen going red when taking damage) supported as well.” Attached, presumably, was a glimpse of the game in action, a screenshot that likely showcased the promised (or perhaps threatened) “lot of dithering.”

For those unfamiliar, the Atari ST was a capable machine for its time, but pushing the original DOOM‘s fast-paced, texture-mapped 3D environments was always considered firmly in the realm of fantasy. The ST’s limited colour palette was a known hurdle, and this intrepid coder hasn’t shied away from that challenge.

However, they were also quick to acknowledge the visual compromises, noting, “The high amount of visual noise is probably due to two things: – The subset of colors from the palette could probably be optimized. 16 colors is such a small palette… – The colors used for dithering should be more restricted. The algorithm is mixing in some wild colors.”

What is “dithering”?

Dithering, for those who don’t speak retro-graphics, is a technique used to simulate more colours than are actually available by creating patterns of the existing colours. It can be effective, but as the developer themselves points out, it can also lead to a rather “noisy” or grainy image if not handled delicately. Mixing in “wild colours” in the process certainly sounds like it could produce some… interesting visual results. We’re picturing a demon that looks like it’s been tie-dyed!

Interestingly, the port isn’t currently struggling for speed, with the programmer stating, “Yes, running way faster than an original 8 MHz machine. I’m not at the point yet where I’d implement any optimizations but having a lot of fun integrating into the ST‘s (graphics, input) hardware.” Of course, there’s a catch for the purists, as a follow-up tweet clarified, “Not quite. It’s running in an emulator, with 14 MB and at accelerated speed. I’ll start optimizing once the basics are in place.”

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So, while it’s not exactly DOOM tearing through a stock standard Atari ST at a blistering pace just yet, this is still a remarkable achievement. Getting the foundational elements of such a demanding game running on the architecture, even in an emulated environment, demonstrates the programmer’s skill and dedication.

What about DOOM on the Amiga?

Of course, DOOM was not a game for the 16-bit home computers. Instead, it was the game that sold a million (if not more) IBM compatible PCs, the ultimate MS-DOS game. Consequently, sales of the Amiga began to drop, as the computer was replaced. The Atari ST had largely been abandoned by this stage, certainly outside of the musician community, and while games like Gloom existed on the Amiga, they missed the energy of DOOM.

Since then, things have changed somewhat in the Amiga world, with amazing DOOM clones like Grind. It hasn’t been the same for the Atari ST, however.

Could DOOM on the Atari ST run like a 486?

The promise of further optimization down the line is also intriguing. Could we eventually see a version of DOOM that runs at a respectable speed on real Atari ST hardware? It seems like a monumental task, but this initial breakthrough offers a glimmer of hope – or at least a fascinating glimpse into what’s possible when retro enthusiasm meets coding wizardry.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on this project. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll be blasting Cacodemons in glorious (if slightly dithered) 16-bit ST colour! After all, it adds to the list of things you can play DOOM on…

What are your thoughts? Is this a retro dream come true, or a step too far into visual noise? Let us know in the comments below!

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This writer contributes retro gaming news to the site.

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