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Retro fans rejoice: DOOM Neo Geo port may be possible, as new breakthroughs challenge old assumptions and fuel fresh excitement for the iconic FPS.
The Unthinkable: Can DOOM Run on Neo Geo?
There’s a special thrill in seeing a beloved classic refute what everyone thought was “impossible.” For years, the notion of a DOOM Neo Geo port seemed like wishful thinking—something you’d joke about in gaming forums, not actually expect to play. Now, recent developments have me questioning everything I thought I knew about retro hardware boundaries.
Not long ago, the well-known retro YouTuber and game developer Modern Vintage Gamer (MVG) made his skepticism clear. He’d challenged the homebrew community to pull off the impossible: get DOOM up and running on the Neo Geo. It was, frankly, hard not to agree with his doubts. After all, this was a system built for sprites and fighting games, not for the complex 3D sorcery DOOM demands.
But sometimes, all it takes is a spark—and a few passionate coders—to turn “no way” into “wait, really?”
Challenging the Impossible: A Change of Heart
It’s not every day you hear a retro authority admit, “I was wrong.” In his latest video update, MVG does exactly that, surprising his nearly one million subscribers. He’s now convinced that a DOOM Neo Geo port isn’t just a pipe dream—it might actually be within reach. This reversal didn’t come out of nowhere; it’s the result of a fascinating surge of experimentation within the homebrew scene over the last five weeks.
“About a month ago, we made a video talking about the complexities of running a game such as DOOM on the Neo Geo. This is because the Neo Geo does not have the concept of a frame buffer, meaning everything that you see on a screen on a Neo Geo is rendered as a sprite.”
— Modern Vintage Gamer
I’ll admit, I shared his doubts. The Neo Geo’s lack of a conventional frame buffer seemed like a deal-breaker. Unlike platforms where you can draw directly to a screen, Neo Geo’s visuals are all about sprites. That’s perfect for SNK’s stable of fighters, but for a fast-paced, multi-angle shooter like DOOM? It felt like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
Reinventing the Wheel: The Raycaster vs. DOOM Engine Dilemma
Let’s rewind for a moment. Early efforts to bring “DOOM-like” experiences to Neo Geo revolved around raycasting engines. These engines can work wonders on limited hardware, but they’re fundamentally different from what powers the real DOOM. Raycasters are built around grids—think Wolfenstein 3D—with blocky rooms, right angles, and uniform heights. DOOM, by contrast, has sloping floors, angled walls, lifts, stairs, and all sorts of architectural quirks.
MVG put it best: “[A] raycaster and a DOOM-style engine are not the same. A raycaster can only handle a grid, which is square blocks, which means everything has to be the same height and all the walls are at right angles. Doom, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated. You can have walls that are on any angle. Rooms at different floor heights. There are staircases, lifts, doors, sloped sightlines — nothing like this fits on a raycasting game.”
For years, that technical gulf seemed insurmountable—until the community decided to challenge the very hardware limitations that defined the Neo Geo.
The Homebrew Uprising: New Approaches Emerge
What’s changed? Over the last month, a trio of new projects has emerged, each one finding its own way to sidestep or overcome the Neo Geo’s quirks.
DOOM 64KB: Two Paths to the Same Goal
The first two projects MVG highlights are both attempts to port DOOM 64KB—a tiny, stripped-down version of DOOM for PC—onto the Neo Geo. Each takes a unique approach:
- Frenkels’ Port: This version uses “real BSP” (binary space partitioning) and “real map geometry,” carefully shrinking the original DOOM rendering code to fit Neo Geo’s constraints. Instead of a true frame buffer, it leverages the fixed/text layer as a makeshift mini frame buffer. It’s a clever workaround, and surprisingly effective, even if the visuals naturally take a hit.
- Sabino’s Sprite Framebuffer: Sabino chose a different path, creating a microframebuffer out of sprites instead of using the fixed or text layer. The result? A less blocky picture, though it comes with a performance cost. It’s a bold experiment and a testament to just how creative Neo Geo homebrew developers are willing to get.
It’s almost dizzying to see how rapidly these approaches are evolving. I have to confess, when I first saw screenshots, I scoffed at the visual compromises. But after watching the gameplay in motion, I found myself reconsidering. Even with the expected trade-offs, it’s thrilling to see DOOM’s DNA running through Neo Geo silicon.
Going Beyond: The “Vslice” Renderer and Retro Port’s Approach
The third standout project, known as Retro Port’s DOOM Neo Geo, takes the experimentation even further. Rather than rehashing the old raycaster trick, this version uses a new renderer called Vslice. The trick here is to combine the best parts of raycasting—no frame buffer, minimal per-pixel CPU work—with the map-building smarts of a real DOOM engine.
MVG describes it like this: “It keeps the hardware scaler to draw all the pixels, so there’s no frame buffer, and there’s no per-pixel CPU work, just like the raycaster. But instead of casting rays through the grid to decide what’s visible, it warps through an actual BSP tree… the data structure that builds out the map for you.”
The result is something that defies easy explanation. It’s not quite DOOM as we know it, but it’s a massive leap over previous efforts—a game that looks and feels closer to the original than I would have thought possible on this hardware.
Reality Check: How Close Are We to a Playable DOOM Neo Geo?
It’s easy to get swept up in the excitement, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As MVG points out, none of these projects is “finished”—not by a long shot. Nobody’s expecting a full release anytime soon. But the progress is undeniable, and for the first time, it feels less like a theoretical exercise and more like a countdown to something tangible.
I’ll admit, there’s still uncertainty swirling around these breakthroughs. Will performance be good enough to make the game truly enjoyable rather than just a technical curiosity? Will the inevitable compromises—visual or otherwise—detract too much from the DOOM experience? Only time (and more tinkering) will tell.
That said, seeing these passionate developers crack open new possibilities has made me revise my old, stubborn stance. Maybe the impossible isn’t so out of reach after all.
FAQ
- Is DOOM really running on the Neo Geo, or are these just tech demos?
These projects are real and running on actual Neo Geo hardware, but none are finished games yet. Right now, they’re technical demonstrations, showing that a DOOM Neo Geo port is possible in principle. - What’s the biggest challenge in porting DOOM to Neo Geo?
The Neo Geo doesn’t have a conventional frame buffer, so all graphics have to be managed as sprites or using clever tricks. This limitation makes classic DOOM rendering a major technical hurdle. - Will the final version look and play like the original DOOM?
Visual compromises are inevitable due to the hardware, but the goal is to get as close as possible. Some features, like angled walls and multi-level architecture, are now being tackled in new ways. - How can I try these Neo Geo DOOM ports myself?
At this stage, the projects aren’t publicly released as playable games. Keep an eye on the developers’ GitHub pages and retro gaming forums for updates and possible future releases. - Why is a DOOM Neo Geo port so important to retro gaming fans?
It’s a testament to community ingenuity and hardware mastery—pushing the boundaries of what was thought possible and breathing new life into old consoles.
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