Rusted Doom Launcher

A modern open-source launcher for classic Doom WADs and mods. Browse community-made maps and episodes, then install and launch them with a single click - essentially bringing the Steam experience to Doom.

Features

• Browse the catalog: Search by mood, type, and difficulty
• Cacowards included: Yearly awards for the best Doom maps, megawads, and mods
• One-click play: Download and launch with a modern source port (GZDoom or UZDoom)
• Stack gameplay mods: Run mods on top of any base game or WAD
• Bring your own: Drop in a WAD you already have
• Track your runs: Per-level stats and session history
• Plays the classics: Doom, Doom II, Final Doom, Heretic, Hexen, Freedoom
• Auto-extracts game files: Pulls IWADs directly from GOG installers
• Cross-system: macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows, Linux (dev)

If you want or need other features, open a feature request describing what you would like to see, or even better - open a pull request.

I am also open to expanding the maps, megawads and mod library - if you want to add your favorite WAD (or your WAD!), feel free to open a PR.

Motivation

The scene is alive and well - see newest releases at Doomworld. I got inspired by gameplays shared at Doom & Retro FPS Mods Facebook group.

I built it for myself, so I can run it on my Apple Silicon Macbook - but sharing it so others may enjoy it as well. While there are similar apps, notably Doom Launcher, they are either Windows-only or lack features I wanted.

Requirements

• GZDoom - Doom source port
  • works also with the newer UZDoom
• doom.wad and doom2.wad - Doom game data from GOG.com or Steam
  • The app can extract IWADs directly from GOG installers using innoextract (brew install innoextract)

Install

macOS

The easiest way is to use Homebrew via my tap stared/doom.

brew install --cask stared/doom/rusted-doom-launcher

Alternatively, download a binary from releases. Since it is unsigned open-source software, you must remove the quarantine attribute before running (otherwise macOS will report it as damaged):

xattr -cr /Applications/Rusted\ Doom\ Launcher.app

You also need a Doom engine. Install it manually or via Homebrew:

brew install --cask gzdoom
# or newer:
brew install --cask stared/doom/uzdoom

Windows

See Windows binary in releases.

Linux

No pre-built binary yet. You can run it from source — see Building from source below.

First run

When you open the app for the first time, it will prompt you to locate your Doom engine (GZDoom/UZDoom) and your base game WADs (doom.wad / doom2.wad). If you have GOG offline installers, the app can extract the game files for you automatically (requires innoextract).

Building from source

To build from source, you need pnpm and Rust.

Install dependencies and run:

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev

Build for production:

pnpm tauri build

AI-Assisted Debugging (MCP)

The app includes tauri-plugin-mcp-bridge for AI debugging via Claude Code.

# Install MCP server for Claude Code
npx -y install-mcp @hypothesi/tauri-mcp-server --client claude-code

With the app running (pnpm tauri dev), Claude Code can take screenshots, click elements, execute JS, and inspect the DOM.

Tech

• Tauri 2 (it's in Rust, hence the project name)
• Vue 3 in TypeScript
• Python scripts for some processing
• Claude Code and Gemini for vibe coding

Author

Piotr Migdał and contributors

License

MIT