Running Doom on an Android Stereo Head Unit with Steering Wheel and Pedal Controls

“But can it run Doom?” is a long-running joke in the maker community. Doom is one of the most well-known and influential video games of all time, and it requires very little processing power to run, at least by modern standards. It’s a fun test to try to run the game on a new device, and we’ve seen it done on everything from an old GPS receiver to a thermostat to an oscilloscope. But YouTuber RND_ASH has taken things to the next level by running Doom on his Android head unit with the steering wheel and pedals being used for control.

RND_ASH first hit our radar a couple of months when he went through the lengthy process of integrating that Android head unit with his Mercedes’ CAN bus. That gave him the ability to display information about the car’s status on the head unit screen and also to control various systems through the head unit. Now, he has taken advantage of that capability to play Doom. The game runs on the Android head unit, but the CAN bus integration allows him to control the game in an unusual way. Spinning the steering wheel causes the in-game character to turn. Pushing the accelerator pedal moves the character forward. The media controls on the steering wheel can be used to perform actions like swapping weapons, and the control stalks are used to fire. The gauge cluster screen even displays the currently-equipped weapon, which is as cool as it gets.