News
Use Your Roomba to Create a ‘DOOM’ Map!
Yep, December’s not out quite yet, and another weird DOOM-related software has shown up to blow your mind. Well, that is if you have a Roomba. You know, those robot vacuums that people buy to freak out the dog? Well, coder Rich Whitehouse has another use for that contraption: Making your own DOOM maps.
Enter DOOMBA, a script for Whitehouse’s Noesis software, which is used for “previewing and converting between hundreds of model, image, and animation formats”. The script tracks and stores your Roomba’s movement data via the robot’s Clean Map reporting system, which can be imported into Noesis and then finally be converted into a DOOM map.
Currently, the script has only been tested with the Roomba 980. Plus, you’ll have to do the work of installing the software, the script itself, as well as figure out your Roomba’s IP. But once that’s done, you simply grab the Roomba’s movement data, throw it into the Noesis application, and you have a DOOM map of your living room/bedroom/kitchen.
Well, part of it. You’ll have to fiddle around with values, and according to Whitehouse, he hasn’t tested it extensively, and that could result in the map attempting to do things that DOOM can’t handle. Still, it’s a neat little something you can try over the holidays if you’re up to the challenge.
Or, you could always wait for John Romero to finish up and release SIGIL, but that’s entirely up to you.
News
Legendary Grimdark ‘Warhammer 40,000’ Artist John Blanche Has Passed Away at 78
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.

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