A foreign content creator specializing in technology managed to run Doom on a printer controller manufactured four decades ago!
The equipment is an Agfa Compugraphic 9000PS , a Raster Image Processor (RIP) originally designed to interpret PostScript files and convert them into images for high-resolution printing plates.
The adaptation required replacing the original firmware , installing a video card compatible with home computing projects, and adding audio output.
The architecture of prepress hardware
The equipment used by Adrian Black , who runs the Adrian’s Digital Basement channel , is not electronic junk (quite the opposite).
The Agfa Compugraphic 9000PS operated as a bridge between files sent by prepress operators and plate-making machines.
The device received resolution- independent PostScript files , processed the vector calculations, and rasterized them for the next stage of the graphics chain.
Due to these computational requirements, the RIP’s main motherboard incorporates a Motorola 68020 processor operating at 16 MHz . The Input/Output ( I/O ) controller board connected to it also has its own CPU , model 68000 .YouTube (@Adrian’s Digital Basement)
Reverse engineering and replacement of the original firmware.
The YouTube video focused part of its time on analyzing the code design contained in the ROM memory . The originally stored Adobe PostScript was removed to make way for custom firmware based on the AGFA-MON code , publicly available on GitHub .
This new monitoring software allowed the creation of startup options for different operating systems. The package included a BASIC interpreter , enabling a minimal programming layer directly on the hardware.
Physical adaptations for audiovisual support.
Displaying graphics required the installation of an 8-bit VERA video card , a common component in homemade computer builds . Using this card was the necessary step to send the image to an external monitor.
After just over an hour of recording, the Agfa RIP began showing the first visual demonstrations, indicating that everything was going well (at least conceptually). Therefore, Adrian Black started testing with programs from the CP/M operating system and moved on to Unix OS ( Minix ).
Game execution and performance limitations
The full shareware version of Doom 1.9 was run in the Minix environment . Adrian highlighted in the video the unusual nature of the feat, which is running the game on a framework that originally operated exclusively as a printer controller .
In any case, the 68020 processor, familiar to users of older machines like the Amiga 1200, delivered disappointing performance when trying to run Doom.
The low frame rate (FPS) , however, did not represent the biggest difficulty for the experience. The lack of support for PS/2 standard keyboards , however, was a major drawback, as it prevented efficient control of the character during gameplay.
Finally , the channel concludes the demonstration by reinforcing the great achievement (transforming the equipment into a machine capable of running games), which went from obsolete hardware to a retro testing platform, even though the version of Doom installed there remains far from playable (just like our friend’s RDR2 here).
Source: Tom’s Hardware
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