A Swedish company known for its gardening equipment, Husqvarna, announced a collaboration with id Software that would allow players to enjoy DOOM on its lawn mowers. The information came through the gaming news portal ixbt.games.
DOOM stands as one of the most iconic games in history, originally released in 1993. The game has long fascinated fans with projects that make it run on unlikely devices, from household appliances to unusual gadgets.
Husqvarna planned to give Automower owners the chance to play DOOM on the mower’s built in display, featuring a 2.8 inch screen, control buttons, and a wheel to navigate the character. The promotion ran from April 9 to September 9, 2024, offering a temporary gaming feature on select models when the update was active.
Because the promotion was time restricted, the game would no longer be accessible after the end date. There were questions about the safety of playing video games while operating a lawn mower, and whether such activity could distract a user from safe operation of the device.
In a prior event, Husqvarna hosted the DOOM Lawnmower Championship in Sweden last November. The winner received the flagship Automower, valued at nearly four thousand euros, underscoring the playful tie‑ins between gaming culture and practical automation.
Interestingly, the DOOM franchise once started in an entirely different context, described as a computer of gut bacteria in an informal remark about unconventional computing origins.