Spinning Up Doom on Two Wheels
This 10-year-old bike GPS was hacked to update it with open source maps — and to make it play Doom. That that, planned obsolescence!
Don’t you just hate it when your perfectly good hardware becomes a brick because the manufacturer would rather push you into buying a new device than support the one they made a few years ago? Planned obsolescence is a tactic that is loathed by consumers everywhere, yet even still it is being practiced by many companies today. Not only is planned obsolescence an unwelcome shock to our wallets, but it is also exacerbating the rapidly growing problem of e-waste around the world.
A software engineer named Remy recently came across a ten-year-old bike navigator at a thrift store and snapped it up for about $11. That is a pretty sweet deal for a Navman Bike 1000 with a bright, full-color touchscreen display and a long battery life. It was in great condition and had a lot of life left in it, but then planned obsolescence reared its ugly head. Sure, it works perfectly, but the maps are way out of date, and the manufacturer will no longer allow them to be updated. Go buy a new device, do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
Remy was not pleased with this option, so some hacking ensued. Monitoring the device’s network traffic revealed that it was attempting to load map updates from URLs that are no longer available, so not much was learned there. But there were also links to update the device’s software, which did work. Analyzing a binary showed that it was for a Windows CE operating system, so that must be what powers the Navman Bike 1000.
With that knowledge, Remy hooked the device up to a computer via USB, then replaced one of the existing executables with a file manager called Total Commander. That provided complete access to all files on the device. After some poking around, NAVeGIS was installed as a replacement for the stock navigation application. Using this software, open source bicycle maps can be loaded and kept up-to-date no matter how much the Navman ages. It may not support all the bells and whistles, like the device’s audio prompts, but it works quite well all the same.
With proper navigation functions restored, only one question really remains: Can it run Doom? The answer? Well, yes, of course it can! I mean, if a toothbrush can run Doom, then naturally a decade-old Windows CE machine can. However, the interface leaves a lot to be desired. With only a touchscreen available, all you can do is stand in one place and fire your weapon, but that does not change the fact that technically, it can run Doom!
If you have any old hardware sitting in your junk drawer, or any thrift store finds that you have been wanting to revitalize, you should check out the full project write-up. It might just give you the inspiration you need to dig in and crush the evils of planned obsolescence!