Quake ported to Chumby makes for an adorable first-person shooter

At first glance, you may wonder if Chumby is simply too lovable to rock a version of Quake, but after peeping ChumbyLurker's port of the game, we'll be darned if the two aren't perfect for each other. He's been gracious enough to make it available as both source code and a disk image, and installing the game is as easy as plugging in your USB drive and turning the machine on. On the video we've seen, the 350MHz device appears to keep up with things quite well, but the best part would have to be that the mouse and keyboard control inputs have been eschewed in favor of the accelerometer -- when Chumby leans forward you move forward, ditto left and right. The bend switch is used to fire, and the touchscreen used to jump or activate items. Unfortunately, there's no network support at the moment, so if you feel the need to go multiplayer, it looks like you'll be stuck with your Nokia handset. You can see a video of the thing in action after the break.

[Via Bunnie's Blog]

[Orris @ Dec 10th 2008 1:56PM]

WOOOOWWW!!!

[Coolty @ Dec 10th 2008 2:01PM]

Affordable? Go buy a Dreamcast for $15 or less. There's affordable quake.

[absinthe party @ Dec 10th 2008 2:05PM]

@ Coolty

Who said anything about affordable? And why are you jacking the first post like this?

[OneLove @ Dec 10th 2008 2:44PM]

...she gave me a Chumby!!

[Jhongerkong @ Dec 10th 2008 2:51PM]

it says adorable not affordable

[Chuckles McGee @ Dec 10th 2008 5:51PM]

But can it play Doom?

[aznofazns @ Dec 10th 2008 6:09PM]

My 2004 Toshiba Gigabeat F40 can play Doom with its 300mhz cpu and 32mb ram so I'm pretty sure Chumby can as well... but it seems like the controls are just awful.

[guy @ Dec 10th 2008 2:01PM]

I'd totally get one of these if it were under the $100 price point and had a good rechargeable battery.

[Vianon @ Dec 10th 2008 2:07PM]

Is he playing on his knee, or on the head of an hairless friend?

[Inane_Asylum @ Dec 10th 2008 2:21PM]

He has his own personal Howie Mandel...

[DirtyVegas @ Dec 10th 2008 2:10PM]

You like saying Chumby, don't you?

[Lowest Ranked @ Dec 10th 2008 8:16PM]

The guy in the video has some very chumby thumbs.

[Nerd Ferguson @ Dec 10th 2008 2:14PM]

what? no stupid "crysis" jokes? sweet.

[Leo @ Dec 10th 2008 2:17PM]

...but can it run Supreme Commander?

[Kali4 @ Dec 10th 2008 2:18PM]

That was wicked. I had to watch it a couple of times. It even made me look up the device for sale. I didn't see any used prices, but the new prices made my eyes pop out (eerily reminiscent of the fluids leaking from the dog in the video.) $200!?!?! It's cool, but not that cool. Great job on the port, by the way! Big ups for that. :D

[Farris @ Dec 10th 2008 2:22PM]

I wonder if you can load WAD files from other games built on the same engine (ie Doom, Duke Nukem, or Chex Quest. Yes. I said Chex Quest)

[Anonymous Coward @ Dec 10th 2008 3:19PM]

Doom and Chex Quest were built off of id Tech 1, and Duke Nukem 3D was built off of the Build Engine. None of the above use the same or similar technology as Quake, though if it can run Quake I'm sure getting it to run them also would be trivial.

[Rainier @ Dec 10th 2008 3:09PM]

Wow, that video of Quake brought back memories of my spiffy 100MHz Pentium with 8MB of memory!! I used to play Quake before and after work. Heck, I use to day dream about it while at work!

[absinthe party @ Dec 10th 2008 3:43PM]

I dream about boobs while I'm at work all day. Priorities, sir!

[Chidi @ Dec 10th 2008 3:17PM]

*yawn* my nokia can do that.

[Kade Miller @ Dec 10th 2008 3:44PM]

Yet another reason why a netbook is more affordable than a chumby, look at the terrible control!

In Australia, Chumby is too expensive.

[miko34 @ Dec 10th 2008 3:55PM]

I've already played Quake. What else you got?

[mercurysunblast @ Dec 10th 2008 4:21PM]

Wow, that made me dizzy just watching that. But, kudos to the guy who ported it! I'm all for having Quake ported to any device with a screen!

[McPOW @ Dec 10th 2008 6:15PM]

thats badass, just tried it on my bosses chumby. the framerate is really impressive and the controls are quite responsive... lookout nintendo...

[Bent @ Dec 10th 2008 6:22PM]

what's a chumby?? What's 'Quake'?

[JoeMama @ Dec 10th 2008 9:21PM]

But can it play Crysis?

huh-huh huh huh he said WAD

i've got a Chumby right now ;)

i think they should add nipples to Chumby and they would be the L and R fire buttons.

[andres @ Dec 10th 2008 11:01PM]

A.D.D.

[ManekiNeko @ Dec 10th 2008 11:20PM]

How large is this thing? Can it fit inside an old Coleco tabletop arcade game? I can just imagine turning it into the world's tiniest MAME cabinet.

[Boards of Canada @ Dec 11th 2008 2:15AM]

heu... this look awfully slow to turn or react. WeNeedButtons!

[Austin @ Dec 11th 2008 9:56AM]

Not bad. I work for inventors dad so I'm definitely going to mess around with this on his when I get into the office after winter break.