Does Doom Run on Potatoes?
In theory, it should. Equalo documents a roughly month-long project, in which he tried to power a Raspberry Pi Zero with the old-time favorite shooter game loaded onto it.
The Raspberry Pi Zero is relatively low-power and runs off of 100-120mA of electricity (roughly five volts). The humble Russet potato generated the most electricity according to the YouTuber.
Potatoes and Electricity Is Yesterday’s News
Even elementary schools explain the concept of batteries and building circuits with potatoes. However, while a potato might do the trick for a science experiment in school, it’s not nearly powerful enough to run a Raspberry Pi.
Equalo estimated that he’ll need roughly 770 potatoes to generate enough power to run Doom. He created a monstrous potato grid of about 100 pounds of boiled potatoes. Boiling the potatoes breaks down the scratch, which in turn magnifies the amperage, but still, this wasn’t enough.
The Last Minute Solution
When a man sits next to a potato mold colony growth, regretting his life decisions, you might think this is the end. But not for Equalo. Instead, he decides to ditch the Raspberry Pi Zero for a trusty old TI-84 graphing calculator which requires a lot less energy than the Raspberry microcomputer. The result?
Doom runs on potatoes.
However, the Youtuber advises the viewers not to try the experiment themselves as it’s not worth it. He even compares his experiment to an abusive relationship. This doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t expect more crazy experiments from his channel, however.