Customized retro PC challenge makes use of a compact x86 SoC to run DOS video games with native {hardware}

In context: For these seeking to construct a retro gaming PC in a tiny kind issue, Eivind Bohler’s ITX-Llama could possibly be an ideal DIY challenge for you. He lately dropped an introductory video on YouTube and a person/construct information on GitHub. And sure, it runs the unique Doom with out the necessity for emulation.

First proposed by retro fanatic Eivind Bohler on the VOGONS boards a yr in the past, the ITX-Llama challenge can run DOS, and even early Home windows video games, on an x86-compatible system-on-chip design. The Vortex86EX module, manufactured by Taiwanese firm DM&P Electronics, features a “true” x86 ISA {hardware} implementation with a clock fee between 100 and 500MHz.

Bohler says the SoC’s CPU velocity is roughly akin to a Pentium 233 traditional CPU, which needs to be greater than sufficient to run each DOS sport ever created. The ITX-Llama motherboard was designed to intently mimic Bohler’s “dream PC” throughout the late DOS period, and it ought to work fairly properly with PS/2 mice and keyboards, previous joysticks, and different peripherals bought throughout the Nineties.

The motherboard additionally features a customized BIOS based mostly on the Coreboot/SeaBIOS challenge, providing management over CPU velocity, disk configuration, audio, followers, and extra. Hilariously, there’s an “HDD clicker” function to emulate the everyday noise of previous laborious disk drives whereas utilizing a way more trendy SD card for storage.

Bohler familiarized himself with the Vortex86EX SoC “fairly properly” whereas creating its earlier retro-PC challenge, TinyLlama. Nonetheless, the ITX-Llama is a way more succesful system in a tiny, standardized case with full ATX energy help, USB 2.0, and Ethernet connectivity. Bohler finalized the pc a number of months in the past.

He does not plan to prepare one other “group-buy” initiative however has now supplied all of the related details about the {hardware} by means of an open-source license. The official GitHub ITX-Llama web page consists of the documentation wanted to construct a customized Vortex86EX-based system, though purchasing the required {hardware} parts might show troublesome.

Because of emulation, virtualization, and customized {hardware} tasks like ITX-Llama, operating previous PC video games or building a retro system with trendy(ish) parts is comparatively trivial. Should you do not wish to mess with wacky {hardware} or trendy DOS copycats like FreeDOS, DOSBox nonetheless supplies a extremely suitable MS-DOS atmosphere with every thing a DOS sport would want to really feel at house.