It was the OLED strip nobody really asked for, yet it became the ultimate playground for developers with too much time on their hands. When Apple dropped the redesigned MacBook Pro in 2016, the tech world was... let's say "divided." Professionals hated losing the physical Esc key. Casual users found the sliding volume bar a bit finicky. But the "can it run Doom?" crowd saw something else entirely. They saw a 2170 x 60 pixel window into hell.
MacBook Touch Bar Doom isn't just a meme. It’s a testament to the absurdity of modern computing.
Think about it for a second. We have reached a point where a secondary input device—a glorified function row—has more processing power than the entire computer used to create the original game in 1993. That’s not just progress; it’s a flex.
How a Tiny OLED Strip Became a Gaming Icon
The original port of Doom to the Touch Bar didn't take long to surface. It was actually developer Adam Bell who first showcased the game running natively on the strip shortly after the laptop's release. He didn't just stream a video of the game; he got the actual id Tech 1 engine code to output to the Touch Bar’s specific resolution.
It looked ridiculous.
Because the Touch Bar is extremely wide and incredibly short, the aspect ratio is completely broken. You’re looking at a version of Doom that is stretched to the point of being unrecognizable, where a Cacodemon looks like a flattened pepperoni pizza. But that’s sort of the point.
The technical hurdle here wasn't just the screen size. The Touch Bar actually runs on a variant of watchOS (specifically on the T1 and later T2 chips). Getting code to execute on that specific hardware sub-system required a deep understanding of how macOS communicates with its sub-processors. It’s a bridge. A bridge that leads directly to the Phobos base.
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Why do people keep doing this?
Hardware enthusiasts have a weird obsession with porting Doom to things that shouldn't have screens. We've seen it on pregnancy tests (which turned out to be a screen replacement, but still impressive), John Deere tractors, and even digital cameras. The MacBook Touch Bar Doom phenomenon fits perfectly into this lineage because it highlights the "over-spec'd" nature of modern peripherals.
Most users just wanted their brightness keys back.
Hackers wanted to see if they could turn a $2,500 laptop into a $2,500 version of a 90s calculator game. It’s charming in its uselessness. Honestly, playing the game on the Touch Bar is a miserable experience. You can't see what's coming at you from the top or bottom because those pixels simply don't exist. You’re essentially playing "Hallway Simulator 1993."
The Technical Reality of the Touch Bar
Apple’s T-series chips were the unsung heroes—or villains, depending on who you ask—of the Intel Mac era. The T1 chip was essentially a modified version of the S2 processor found in the Apple Watch Series 2. This meant that the Touch Bar was, for all intents and purposes, an independent computer living inside your computer.
When you see Doom running there, you're seeing a feat of cross-platform compatibility.
- Resolution: 2170 x 60 pixels.
- OS: A stripped-down watchOS.
- Input: Multi-touch capacitive sensors.
Because the Touch Bar is a touch interface, the controls for Doom had to be mapped strangely. Some versions used the screen itself for movement, while others relied on the physical keyboard. It’s a chaotic way to play. Yet, the fluidity is shocking. It runs at a crisp 60 frames per second because, well, the hardware is overkill for a game that required a 486 processor and 4MB of RAM.
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The Death of the Touch Bar (And Its Legacy)
Apple eventually admitted defeat. With the launch of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros in 2021, the physical function keys made a triumphant return. The Touch Bar was relegated to the "experimental" pile of Apple history, alongside the puck mouse and the G4 Cube.
But for those who still own these machines, the MacBook Touch Bar Doom legacy lives on through GitHub repositories and niche forums.
It represents an era where Apple tried to change how we interact with desktops. They wanted to merge the tactile world of the keyboard with the dynamic world of the iPhone. It didn't work for productivity—most people found themselves accidentally hitting the Siri button while trying to press Delete—but it worked brilliantly for the "homebrew" community.
Is it still possible to run it?
Yes, but it's getting harder. As macOS moves further away from the Intel architecture and deep into the Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4) era, the way the OS handles external displays and sub-processors has changed. Most of the original Doom ports were written for the Intel-based MacBooks with the T1/T2 chips.
If you have an old 2016-2019 MacBook Pro gathering dust, you can still find the source code on GitHub. You'll likely need to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) to get that deep into the hardware, which isn't something I'd recommend for a daily driver. But for a weekend project? It’s a rite of passage.
What This Taught Us About Hardware
The obsession with putting Doom on the Touch Bar wasn't just for the laughs. It actually pushed developers to understand the "BridgeOS" that Apple was using. This knowledge eventually helped the community understand how the T2 chip handled security, SSD encryption, and even the "Hey Siri" functionality.
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Sometimes, the most "useless" projects lead to the most significant security and hardware insights.
It’s also a reminder that hardware longevity is often determined by the community, not the manufacturer. Apple might have stopped supporting the Touch Bar conceptually, but as long as someone is trying to slay demons on a 60-pixel-high screen, the hardware isn't truly dead. It’s just repurposed.
How to Experience the Absurdity Yourself
If you’re sitting there with a Touch Bar-equipped Mac and you want to try something similar without potentially bricking your OS, there are "lighter" versions of this madness.
- TouchBarDino: A port of the Chrome "no internet" dinosaur game. It’s actually playable.
- Nyan Cat: Probably the most famous use of the Touch Bar. A cat trailing a rainbow across your keyboard.
- KnightTouchBar2000: Turns your Touch Bar into the scanner from K.I.T.T. in Knight Rider.
But let's be real. Nothing beats the original Doom port. It’s the gold standard of hardware hacking.
Actionable Insights for Mac Enthusiasts
If you own a MacBook with a Touch Bar and you’re tired of it being a useless strip of glass, here is how you actually make it better before you resort to installing 90s shooters:
- Install BetterTouchTool: This is the "gold standard" app for Touch Bar owners. It lets you completely bypass Apple's presets and map specific actions, widgets, and even crypto tickers to the bar.
- Pock: This is a free, open-source tool that puts your Dock inside the Touch Bar. It frees up screen real estate and actually makes the bar useful for multitasking.
- MTMR (My TouchBar. My Rules): For the more technically inclined, this allows for JSON-based customization of every single pixel on that strip.
The Touch Bar might have been a "failure" in terms of mass-market appeal, but it remains one of the most interesting pieces of hardware Apple ever shipped. Whether you use it for actual work or for running MacBook Touch Bar Doom, it's a piece of tech history that deserves a bit of respect for its sheer weirdness.
If you are planning on trying to run the port, ensure you have a full Time Machine backup first. Messing with BridgeOS and the T-series security chips can occasionally lead to "activation lock" issues or boot loops if you aren't careful with how you're injecting code. Stick to the well-documented GitHub repos and avoid anything that hasn't been updated in the last three years, as modern macOS versions have tightened the screws on what third-party apps can do to system hardware.
The era of the OLED function row is closing, but the demons are still there, hiding in a 60-pixel-tall version of hell.