It's the new trend among tinkering fans: spinning Doom in the most unlikely document formats. After the amazing version of the game in a PDF file or the Excel version, it is now possible to play Doom in Word. So, if you are curious, here is how to test this rather incredible achievement.
Playing Doom in Word is possible
For many years, the modding community has had fun running Doom in totally unexpected formats. But recently things have accelerated. After the feat of a Doom in a PDF, it is Word's turn to welcome this great classic of video games. This challenge was achieved by Wojtek Graj, a talented programmer and hacker.
The idea is crazy, because text documents, like PDFs, were not designed to run real-time games. They can display images or videos, but a game? That's another story... until now.
How to Play Doom in Microsoft Word
Before embarking on this unusual adventure, you will need to check these few prerequisites. First of all, you need a modern version of Microsoft Word. You don't necessarily need the latest one, but you will need a sufficiently recent version. It must be compatible with the technologies used.
Then, you need your computer be equipped with a processor x86 64-bit. Forget ARM processors, they are not compatible.
Finally, you will need to enable Visual Basic (VBA) macros in Word. These macros are what make Doom work, but they also represent a security risk, as they are often used to introduce malware. So if you are testing this project, consider disable macros when finished.
The version of Doom that you can download is called Doom-docm and it was specifically designed by a certain Wojtek Graj to work in a Word file. You can find it on GitHub (link at the bottom of the article).
An impressive technical feat
The performance of this port to play Doom in Word is impressive, because Word is not designed to handle real-time images. To get around this limitation, each frame of the game is converted into a bitmap image, generated and displayed live in the document. This allows for a playable rendering with a fairly decent frame rate.
In this video you can see the result. Actually, the game works quite well, despite some bugs:
In the end, the entire game (actually the free levels available) is stored in a 6,6 MB Word document. As for the controls, it's simple: use the arrow keys to navigate, the left and right keys to navigate. numeric keypad to choose your weapon, as well as CTRL to shoot and the space bar to perform an action.
Doom, the legendary game that popularized 3D graphics in FPS, continues to establish itself as a playground for programmers around the world. With this new adaptation in Word, it conquers yet another new territory. And let's be honest, it surely won't be the last!
So, are you ready to try playing Doom in Word, or would you rather move on and wait for the Powerpoint version… who knows?
DooM-docm to be retrieved on GitHub
Article updated on September 15, 2025 by Byothe
