Amiga Emulation

[Graham Mitchell]

It's me again.

I tried using winUAE awhile back because I've never seen an Amiga running, and I'm horrendously curious, considering all the Genesis ports of Amiga games have no doubt been totally stripped of whatever it was people were raving about in the '80s.

However, having never used an Amiga, trying to figure out how to use this emulator is like taking an anatomy final I haven't studied for, so...

I'm not asking for a walkthrough tutorial or anything rediculous like that...I'd just like to know:

1) What a good emulator is that is (preferably, but not necessarily) easy to use and compatible with most games

2) What kind of kickstart software I need and (if it can be explained) what to do with it

3) anything else of importance that I should know when trying to do this.


Thanks so much for any help anyone can throw my way!

[VACRMH]

Ugh, i'm not sure if it was just my luck but I had a ton of pain with amiga emulation... i'll see what I can help you with here....

I used winuae myself, that worked the best IMO

Also, I had a ton of kickroms. I'd just keep trying others if they didn't work... I may still have them so PM me your email if you'd like.

I'd give you some hints on what settings I messed with... but I can't remember any

Good luck.

[robotriot]

It's me again. :D

1) What a good emulator is that is (preferably, but not necessarily) easy to use and compatible with most games

2) What kind of kickstart software I need and (if it can be explained) what to do with it

3) anything else of importance that I should know when trying to do this.


Thanks so much for any help anyone can throw my way!

1) Yea, WinUAE is best for Windows.

2) You basically only need Kickstart 1.3 and Kickstart 3.0 or 3.1

1.3 was used in the early Amigas in the 80ies, and thus it's required for older games. 3.x was used starting in 1992, but that doesn't necessarily mean all games from 1992 and later require it, because most people still had old A500s, which used the older Kickstart version.

3) There's basically two machines you'd have to emulate for the majority of games: the A500 and the A1200. The A500 uses the following UAE settings: CPU 68000, match A500 speed, Chipset: Full ECS, collision level full, ROM 1.3, RAM 512kb Chip, 512kb Slow. The A1200 has these settings: CPU 68EC020, Fastest possible, Chipset: AGA, collision level full, ROM 3.x, RAM 2MB Chip.

These two configurations should get you most games running. The major way in which games are divided are always ECS and AGA games, ECS being the A500-class and AGA the 1200 (the difference being the graphics chipset, AGA could do 256 colours in realtime, ECS only 32-64), so that's how you can determine what config is needed. Check Hall of Light for a rather complete list of games which you can browse by title or your favorite genre, conversion etc :)

[Graham Mitchell]

Thanks so much for all your help!!

[GodMedia]

If you look in the archives of www.RetroGamingRadio.com, Shawn did a great four-part series on the history of the Amiga computer. In the fourth installment, he did a thorough, step-by-step guide to emulating the Amiga using WinUAE. It really helped me figure the whole thing out after many months of just kind of poking around in the dark.

Here is the link, I think:

RetroGamingRadio (episode from 02-13-2003)

Be sure to look up the other three installments, too. Shawn does a great job of explaining the development, technical, and marketing aspects of the Amiga. I, too, had never worked with an Amiga and Shawn filled in all the gaps, I feel like I'm an old hand at it.

[musical]

www.lemonamiga.com has a whole section on emulation staffed by Amiga-lovers. Check there.