Azure CTO pastes Doom into Paint one frame at a time
Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich created a project that displays Doom inside MS Paint by sending each frame through the Windows clipboard. The setup uses ViZDoom to run the game headlessly while Paint merely renders the copied bitmap frames, and sound is handled by the game engine. The experiment is presented as a playful demonstration rather than a serious research effort.
- ▪Russinovich developed "MS Paint Doom" where each Doom frame is copied to the clipboard and pasted into Paint's canvas.
- ▪The game runs via ViZDoom headlessly, with a low‑level keyboard hook capturing inputs while Paint is in the foreground.
- ▪Sound effects are still produced by the Doom engine even though Paint does not handle audio.
- ▪The project was built with AI assistance from Claude and is described as a frivolous, off‑beat experiment.
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| Canonical URL | https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026/08/06/azure-cto-pastes-doom-into-paint-one-frame-at-a-time/5283559 |
| Publication time | Thu, 06 Aug 2026 10:30:00 +0200 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-06T08:30:47.544Z |
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Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
(function() { let windowUrl = window.location.href; windowUrl = windowUrl.substring(windowUrl.indexOf('?') + 1); let messageElement = document.querySelector('.shareableMessage'); if (windowUrl && windowUrl.includes('code') && windowUrl.includes('expires')) { messageElement.style.display = 'block'; } })(); OFFBEAT Azure CTO pastes Doom into Paint one frame at a time It computes nothing, renders everything, and even has sound Richard Speed Richard Speed MICROSOFT ECOSYSTEM REPORTER Published thu 6 Aug 2026 // 09:30 UTC Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich has taken a break from the cloud to turn Paint into a monitor for Doom, using the Windows clipboard as plumbing.Dubbed "MS Paint Doom" or "DoomPaint" – either will work – the project is the product of a spare-time experiment.
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