DOOM Now Runs On a Tractor, Ooh Arr
Last Updated on August 18, 2022
We’ve seen them all: DOOM on a microwave, a fridge, an ATM, a digital ad hoarding, even a Raspberry Pi. But did you image DOOM could run on a tractor?
Wired reports that white-hat hacker “Sick Codes” has presented a new jailbreak for John Deere tractors at last week’s Defcon event.
To illustrate how the jailbreak allows multiple models to be controlled via the touchscreen interfaces, he installed DOOM.
Of course, there is a serious side to all of this. John Deere (among others) is making it very difficult for farmers to repair their gear, instead forcing them to rely on specialists who might take a while to arrive in the middle of nowhere (which is, after all, where most farms are). Sick Codes had previous upset a few farmers with his previous presentation in 2021 which revealed how insecure tractor applications are.
This time around, he aimed to redress the balance, citing Right to Repair and the importance of food security.
“Farmers prefer the older equipment simply because they want reliability. They don’t want stuff to go wrong at the most important part of the year when they have to pull stuff out of the ground. So that’s what we should all want too. We want farmers to be able to repair their stuff for when things go wrong, and now that means being able to repair or make decisions about the software in their tractors.”
And what’s to stop farmer playing DOOM between harvests?
Gaming since 1984, retro gaming since 2004. Contributes to Linux Format magazine, TechRadar.com, and other publications.
