Playing DOS games on a DIY mini-ITX motherboard, lackng emulation - ITX Llama sports a Vortex86EX CPU, running at 500 MHz.
The ITX Llama, a custom mini-ITX motherboard designed for DOS gaming, has recently made headlines in the gaming community. The board, which was first discussed on the Vogons Forum in October 2023, has since undergone an open-sourcing of its source code and a group-buy phase.
The ITX Llama is powered by the Vortex86EX CPU, a 300-500 MHz single-core CPU. While this CPU is well-suited for modern gaming, its performance in DOS gaming is a different story. DOS gaming relies on very old hardware compatibility, requiring legacy support for ISA or PCI slots, ISA DMA, IRQ handling, and generally works best with 16-bit or early 32-bit processors. The ITX Llama, being a modern motherboard, typically lacks built-in support for DOS-era hardware interfaces, potentially requiring workarounds or emulation for stable DOS gaming.
James Mackenzie, a YouTuber, has recently received the ITX Llama board and showcased its features and performance in DOS games like DOOM (achieving 43 FPS) and Quake (30 FPS). However, to run games like Wing Commander correctly, the Vortex86EX CPU must be manually downclocked to 100 MHz, approximating an Intel 386 processor.
The ITX Llama supports classic sound cards with a custom BIOS, but its modern components like PCIe 5.0 slots and the potential for high-end GPUs such as RTX 5070 or 5090 (based on the context of recent GPUs) make it an excellent choice for contemporary games.
For those interested in building their own ITX Llama board, instructions are available on the project's GitHub page. The shipping timeline indicates that all boards were shipped by January 4, 2024. Many commenters on James Mackenzie's YouTube overview suggest that obtaining the ITX Llama board without making it oneself is a significant aspect of the project.
Eivind Bohler is the original creator of the ITX Llama project. The board's design is compact and modern, implying it was built for contemporary operating systems and applications. While it performs well for modern gaming, its DOS gaming capabilities require software emulation or virtualization rather than direct hardware compatibility.
The ITX Llama's appealing features extend beyond DOS gaming, as its modern components like PCIe 5.0 slots and potential for high-end GPUs make it an outstanding choice for contemporary games in the realm of data-and-cloud-computing and technology. Moreover, the board's compact design, initially conceived for contemporary operating systems and applications, can be built following instructions available on the project's GitHub page, showcasing the integration of gadgets with modern digital tools.
