ExcelCPU: Running Doom in Excel Cells Without VBA Scripting

While some madmen can create photorealistic drawings in good old Paint, others have turned Excel cells into a display in which Doom is running.

But why project Doom into the cells, when they could just work as a whole (simple) processor, automated by samples. Youtuber Inkbox tried exactly that, he named it excelCPU and made a quarter-hour video for it.

But in order not to remain only with the theory, every experienced user of the Microsoft spreadsheet can try it on their own computer. All processor source codes (i.e. XLSX files) are available on GitHub.

Simple 16-bit processor has its own available instruction set, 128 kB RAM and matrix 128×128 cells, which serves as a display for programs. They are written in the language of symbolic addresses (assembler), as well you will find on GitHub and into the machine code of the processor in Excel will be translated by the attached script in Python.

So if you have a few free evenings, you are interested in how processors work inside and Excel is your second home, go for it.

2024-01-30 11:45:23
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