Since its 1993 release, DOOM has been ported to countless devices that were never intended to be game consoles, including digital cameras, printers and pregnancy-test hardware. The 1997 release of the game's source code, together with an architecture that made platform-specific parts relatively replaceable, helped turn porting DOOM into a widespread hacking tradition.

As unusual ports spread through YouTube and social media, getting DOOM to run became less a practical benchmark and more a trophy for technical ingenuity. Recent projects have connected the game to hardware as unlikely as satellites and models of a fly's nervous system, stretching even the question of what it means for a device to 'run DOOM.'

Robot falls and crashes are now being treated as a subject worthy of asking why humans enjoy robot fails so much. The Wall Street Journal used clips from events such as the World Humanoid Robot Games as the basis for a broader analysis.

Rather than simply collecting funny accidents, the piece discusses slapstick, reassurance and anxiety about technology. Robot fails are shifting from isolated viral clips into something closer to a recognizable cultural genre.