A Milky Way Candy Bar Can Actually Run Doom

If you've been on the internet for any amount of time, particularly the parts of the internet that talk about video games, then you're probably familiar with "Doom." A landmark series in gaming history, the first "Doom" was originally released in 1993 and quickly became a classic. In the decades since, it has helped pioneer the genre of first-person shooter games. And if you are in those online communities, then you've probably heard the following question: Can it run "Doom"?

The phrase has become a popular meme among gamers online, looking to see one of their favorite old games in more new places. And, as Hackster.io writes, running a game from 1993 is an easy task for any modern computer, so the question is most often applied to technology that's designed specifically for tasks other than gaming. One software engineer even figured out how to run the game using a $15 lamp from Ikea (via PC Mag). There's even an entire community on Reddit dedicated to finding new and strange hardware to run the '90s classic.

And while one of the more popular ways to get "Doom" on your computer today is through a custom program called "Chocolate Doom," according to Lifewire, it's safe to say nobody expected to see "Doom" running on an actual piece of chocolate.

A tech company called Adafruit Industries posted a video on Twitter last week, inviting parents to thoroughly check their children's Halloween candy, in case it's running "Doom." In the video, a candy bar is pulled from its wrapper, revealing a small screen installed in the middle of the chocolate. Unexpectedly, the piece is running "Doom." The tongue-in-cheek caption accompanying the video read, "We found 'Doom' running inside this Milky Way bar."

This is actually quite the clever combination of two different memes: Every October, as Halloween approaches, there's a new selection of memes lampooning the myth that there are drugs or poison hidden in candy given out to trick-or-treaters. According to Snopes, stories pertaining to the mixing of Halloween candy and drugs, poison, needles, or razor blades are largely fabricated. Combining the fresh seasonal meme with a tried-and-true internet classic like "Can it run Doom?" is a smart move on Adafruit Industries' part.

According to the company's website, Adafruit Industries is a company that focuses on helping people learn how to create their own technology, from hardware to coding. Since the "Can it run Doom?" meme often speaks to a coder's ability to port the game onto new machines, according to Hackster.io, this post seems like a match made in heaven for Adafruit. It's especially perfect because, outside of the U.S., Milky Way bars are called Mars Bars (per Beth Kimmerle's "Candy: The Sweet History"), meaning they share the name as the red planet where some of the "Doom" games are set.