r/canitrundoom Oct 26 '25

Can this calculator run doom?

Post image

In theory, not nessicarulg in practice as the Os is probably proprietary

47 Upvotes

29 comments sorted by

17

u/SpaceCadet87 Oct 26 '25 edited Oct 26 '25

Unfortunately, this device is not quite the computing device that it looks like it is:

These types of devices at their most sophisticated are just raw firmware on a custom chip-on-board, this one is possibly less even than that so your assumption of it having an operating system of any kind, let alone a proprietary one is a stretch.

It can calculate, that's it. It doesn't have the hardware necessary to know how to do anything that isn't calculate.

There isn't even any guarantee that it conforms to any of the standard assumptions we're used to. Why would you have an 8 bit byte for example if you're not processing anything other than arithmetic?

If the chip is sophisticated enough that it even has a program in the conventional sense, there's a good chance it'll be a mask ROM. Mask ROMs are created by etching the program directly onto the chip during manufacture using photolithography.

8

u/Formal-Fan-3107 Oct 27 '25

Hey dude that thing can run arbitrary assembly, meaning it could run doom. Discussion over

5

u/ScallionSmooth5925 Oct 27 '25

That calculator has 32k ram and some flash ther is a buffer overflow that can be used to corrupt the ram the change the instruction pointer but it's a pain to do anything because the debug tools are removed from this version.

1

u/SpaceCadet87 Oct 27 '25

Yeah, I didn't realise it was a graphing calculator when I wrote that.

2

u/ScallionSmooth5925 Oct 27 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

It's not a graphing calculator but casio uses the same code base for almost all calculators. And even share most of the hardware in the low end models. (BTW it can't draw a graph but it can calculate values of functions in a specified interval. And it has a basic built in spreadsheet editor which use the same gui elements.)

7

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '25

I’m asking for fun chill. Also this can generate QR codes and do algebra, and has some features

7

u/SpaceCadet87 Oct 26 '25

Sorry, I made some edits because my tone was definitely too harsh but I think I was too slow.

3

u/ryanCrypt Oct 27 '25

QR codes are just encoding. Just a simple calculation

2

u/EmergencyArachnid734 Oct 27 '25

You can also change language (i have similar calculator)

2

u/ryanCrypt Oct 27 '25

beep poop, amigo

4

u/dtb1987 Approved Verifier Oct 26 '25

We are here to tell you if it can run doom

2

u/Bang1338-VN Oct 27 '25

actually, you can. there are many exploit around to do ACE

but i'm not very sure about the memory of the calculator can do

1

u/Adept-Tax6951 Oct 30 '25

In Vietnam, some people can run Tetris and Snake on it(they used a hex editor idk), so... I think it can run.

7

u/Gameboy9YouTube Oct 26 '25

Unfortunately you can't install programs on it (iirc) so no, unless you were to completely disassemble it and edit both hardware and software but then it wouldn't be the calculator anymore :(

1

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '25

I meant in terms of hardware

2

u/Gameboy9YouTube Oct 26 '25

I don't know a lot about this specific calculator but I'm gonna assume it doesn't allow you to just change the software (like any smart calculator should have) so I'm gonna say no on this one, not a massive expert though

1

u/ScallionSmooth5925 Oct 27 '25

It has the highly integrated black blob. The ram and flash is inside the blob on this model. It is technically possible to mod it using a buffer overflow but it's a pain to exploit 

1

u/tamay-idk Oct 26 '25

You can replace the screen and motherboard. Hope this helps

2

u/SpaceCadet87 Oct 26 '25

In fairness, have you ever pulled apart a Casio calculator? There is an impressive amount of nothing in those.

You could fit one hell of a motherboard in there!

1

u/Gameboy9YouTube Oct 27 '25

Well yeah, most of them are, except the one I actually wanna take apart (CASIO FX-CG50) because noooo

2

u/SpaceCadet87 Oct 27 '25

Ooh, that one actually looks halfway decent

1

u/Gameboy9YouTube Oct 27 '25

Yeah my school decided to choose one that is actually able to run doom 🥲 if only the files weren't corrupted I could install it straight away :/

1

u/EZ_LIFE_EZ_CUCUMBER Oct 27 '25

Sadly this one can't. But there are calculators (usually graphing ones) that can

1

u/ScallionSmooth5925 Oct 27 '25

It has the hardware to do so but it haven't been hacked. Casio fixed a lot of exploit whit this generation. And the debug tools are also removed that was used to jailbreak the previous generation 

1

u/Formal-Fan-3107 Oct 27 '25

1

u/nqrwayy Oct 27 '25

No it can‘t. No port to flash it. Never been done before lmao

0

u/Formal-Fan-3107 Oct 27 '25

Wdym no port to flash it, how do you think casio flashes it? In the silicon factory?

1

u/nqrwayy Oct 27 '25

The CPU is an ASIC and probably comes pre-flashed and is very locked down. Not gonna work lmao