Someone just got DOOM running inside RollerCoaster Tycoon using an exploit, because of course they did

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I remember playing a lot of RollerCoaster Tycoon and Doom, but never at the same time.

Doom running inside of Roller Coaster Tycoon
(Image credit: Rick de Jager | id software | Hasbro | Edited with Gemini)

The meme of running the classic 1993 first-person shooter (FPS) Doom on anything never ceases to amaze me. The FPS that many argue pioneered the genre and inspired modern remakes like Doom: The Dark Ages refuses to go away, even if it's now mainly used to show off modding prowess.

Such is the case when, recently, modders were able to get Doom running inside of Hytale before the game publicly launched. Something similar happened in 2025 when a modder built a PC that runs Windows 95 inside of Minecraft. The first game to boot up on the virtual system? Doom.

Getting Doom running inside RollerCoaster Tycoon is a project from security researcher Rick de Jager as part of a Districtcon "Junkyard" competition. Essentially, an out-of-bounds access bug is triggered when the game attempts to render a gate tile upon loading, allowing it to be pointed elsewhere.

Pointing it at a modified RCT save file containing a doom1.wad file causes the FPS to pop up inside the RollerCoaster Tycoon window. It appears to be fully playable with RCT just casually hanging out in the background.

The detailed process of how this was achieved is a bit over my head, but you can check out de Jager's GitHub page with a full explanation of how the exploit was performed.

Key takeaways from de Jager's RCECoaster Junkyard 2026 presentation include a note about the "potential impact of downloading custom content for games, or custom content for any program which you will run on a personal device." It's fun to mod, but you don't always know what's going on behind the scenes.

For their efforts, de Jager and teammate Shiloh Smiles (@artic0x78) were awarded the best meme target award at the Junkyard competition.

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Have you been able to get Doom running on anything out of the ordinary? Let me know in the comments below!

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Cale Hunt
Cale Hunt
Contributor

Cale Hunt brings to Windows Central more than nine years of experience writing about laptops, PCs, accessories, games, and beyond. If it runs Windows or in some way complements the hardware, there’s a good chance he knows about it, has written about it, or is already busy testing it.

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