If you're familiar with the classic video game Doom, you might know that it's historically been played on surfaces that weren't meant for gaming. But here's something we never thought we'd see: Someone just hacked, of all things, a pregnancy test to display the popular game on its screen.
A programmer who goes by Foone on Twitter is responsible for this incredible hack. This sort of thing is nothing new to the gaming enthusiast, who initially admitted that they didn't actually play a game of Doom on the pregnancy test, they just played a video featuring the game back on the test's result screen.
But it didn't stop there: A subsequent tweet from the gamer reveals they did find a way to actually enact a game on that pregnancy test's screen. Amazing, right? And the juxtaposition of placing a game that explores the concept of death and destruction on an item that signifies the start of a new life? It's pretty unusual, to say the least.
We probably don't have to tell you that pregnancy tests don't exactly seem like the optimal playing surface for a video game. Then again, these tests have certainly come a long, long way. If you've taken one in recent years, you know they're often downright high-tech right now—many of them even have digital displays that say "pregnant" or "not pregnant", which eliminates that whole "is-that-a-second-line-or-not" dilemma. But a full-on game displayed on a pregnancy test? That's taking it to a whole new level.
Obviously, this is something completely unlike anything we've seen in the world of pregnancy tests. But this convergence of gaming technology and reproductive technology does feel a little bit like a sign of the times. We've seen so much innovation spring from all aspects of the pregnancy journey, from ovulation tests that connect to apps, to wearables that help us track our fertility statistics, to platforms that tell us exactly how big our growing babies are in the womb.
Gaming enthusiasts will likely be amazed by the ingenuity behind this game-changing (er, no pun intended) move. But as parents and people who know how complex the process of getting pregnant, being pregnant and giving birth can be, we're excited about the potential this move represents in the world of pregnancy and the like.
What's next in the world of reproductive technology? We have no idea, if we're being honest—but if someone can play a full video game on that tiny screen, we're pretty sure the possibilities are endless.