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Re:DOOM on Husqvarna Automower by diggan on Sunday February 25, 2024 @04:06PM (#39504760)
It's a bit strange to find something worthwhile from my hometown of Huskvarna, Sweden (population ~24,000) to submit to HN, but apparently they've planned a software update that enables you to play DOOM on the lawnmower. If that isn't HN worthy, I don't know what is.

If you're ever in central Sweden, do plan a visit to the museum that is at the birthplace of Husqvarna (the company). The company has existed since at least 1757, older than the US itself and got started as a weapons factory, and the museum has a lot of interesting stuff from the early days.

Re:DOOM on Husqvarna Automower by readthenotes1 on Sunday February 25, 2024 @05:14PM (#39505434)
I am pretty sure that the grass still feels like they are a weapons factory...
Re:DOOM on Husqvarna Automower by diggan on Monday February 26, 2024 @05:50AM (#39509769)
At the museum? As I recall, there isn't much grass there at all, it is an old factory after all. It's a waterfall, a little river and a bunch of buildings basically.
Re:DOOM on Husqvarna Automower by SOLAR_FIELDS on Sunday February 25, 2024 @07:57PM (#39506578)
I will say that they noted this came out of DreamHack which is a fairly massive conference that happens one town over from Huskvarna in Jönköping. I do think it’s cool that they get involved in the DreamHack festivities. I haven’t been to any DreamHacks but from talking to my Swedish friends who have been to the Jönköping one and my brothers who help run the American ones every year it seems like the festivities at the Jönköping one have decidedly more hackery stuff like this vs the American ones which seem to focus more on the gaming aspect. Maybe someone who has been to the events can confirm though.
Re:DOOM on Husqvarna Automower by diggan on Monday February 26, 2024 @05:49AM (#39509761)
I actually were there for the last summer edition (DreamHack Summer 2023) as I just happened to be visiting Sweden at that time, so we went there with my younger niece who enjoyed it a lot. Although he mostly played games he already had at home, he just wanted to show how good he was at those games, but for him and his generation DreamHack is 100% about the gaming.

Compared to how I remember it was when I was younger (first DreamHack must have been 2006 I think), I felt like it was very commercialized already with almost zero non-gaming booths or companies there, besides some state organizations like the police and military. DreamHack always had a huge focus on gaming, it is mostly a gaming event after all, but I seem to recall more hackery and nerdery outside of gaming back then compared to now.

Not sure how the situation is now at DreamHack, but when we were there as teenagers the best part was the huge DC++ hubs with unheard amount of bandwidth as it's all local. It was at DreamHack I first got exposed to the world of 3D animation and graphics, as I came across a cracked version of 3DS Max 9 from some user. Rest of my time at the party was spent trying to figure out how it worked.

Buying and selling hardware was also a common theme for some of my friends, starting with something like a mousepad and competing who can have the coolest thing at the end of the event, after trading up from the mousepad.

But then I don't know how the US edition is, so hard to compare really.

(By the way, I think "fairly massive" is an understatement, as far as I know, it's still the world's largest bring-your-own-computer LAN party)

Re:DOOM on Husqvarna Automower by kotaKat on Sunday February 25, 2024 @08:01PM (#39506600)
The hot dog vending machine is my favorite!
Re:DOOM on Husqvarna Automower by M95D on Monday February 26, 2024 @04:02AM (#39509061)
I was expecting to see a water pistol installed on the mower and humans around identified as monsters. This is the censored version - I really imagined another weapon from the first Doom level, also made by Husqvarna. :)