Amiga emulators

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Amiga

Manufacturer	Commodore International (until 1994) Escom AG (1995–1996) QuikPak (–c. 1998)
Type	Personal computer Home video game console (CD32)
Release date	July 23, 1985
Discontinued	1996
Predecessor	Commodore 128, Commodore 64
Emulated	✓

For other emulators that run on Amiga, see Emulators on Amiga.

The Amiga is a series of computers released by Commodore starting in 1985. It was a very powerful and capable machine for its time, featuring a Motorola 68000 and custom chips dedicated to IO, sound, graphics and more. This family of computers became quite popular, especially in Europe, spawning a huge library of games over time. Due to its superior graphics capabilities compared to its contemporaries, it was widely used in the desktop video, video production, and show control business, leading to video editing systems such as the Video Toaster. It was even used by skate companies to edit their videos. The later Amigas failed to advance vastly on the old models, and the family lost its gain to newer video game consoles and other PC architectures. Eventually, Commodore went bankrupt, and production of Amiga hardware and games has been on the decline since. Despite this, there are still a handful of loyal Amiga users today. Software continues to be developed for the classic machines, as well as a newer line of PowerPC-based Amigas released in the 2000s and beyond.

The Amiga was a tremendously complex machine, with multiple revisions to its hardware and system software. This can make emulation quite tricky, as figuring out the requirements for any specific game can be fairly difficult.

A commercial package exists, "Amiga Forever", from Cloanto, which elides past many of the complexities of Amiga emulation. It includes fully licensed ROMs, system disks, and (for applicable machines) hard drive OS images for every model that Commodore shipped. The package itself is effectively a very sophisticated frontend for WinUAE and WinFellow but comes with pre-configured setups for many games. If you have sufficient expertise, you can manually do everything it's doing, but it's pretty convenient even for experts. It's also the easiest way to get legal copies of the original system ROMs.

Comparison

Before editing, review the getting involved and recommended pages. See system requirements page for performance demand of the emulators.
See tables for enhancements and hardware features & peripherals.
For more details such as licensing, programming language, emulation method, visit each emulator’s dedicated page.

Standalone emulators

Name	Active?	Latest version	License	Recommended? (overall)
PC
Amiberry	✓	8.3.0	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	✓
FS-UAE	✓	3.2.35	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓
vAmiga	✓	4.4	GPLv3 MPL 2.0 MIT	✓
WinUAE	✓	6.1.0 beta 6	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓
BlackBox	✗	?^[1]	✗	~
Janus-UAE	✗	1.4	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	~
Petunia	✗	v52.2^[1]	✗	~
UAE4ALL	✗	2.5.3.4	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	~
WinFellow	✓	0.5.11	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	~
MAME	✓	0.289	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause	✗
Amithlon	✗	V1.29	Proprietary	~
Mobile
Uae4all2	✗	2.3.7.5	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓
Uae4arm	✗	1.0.3.2 git	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	~
Omega 500	✗	0.2.3	?	✗
UAE4Droid	✗	1.13	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✗

Multi-system emulators

Name	Active?	Latest version	License	Recommended? (overall)
PC
BizHawk (PUAE_libretro)	✓	2.11.1	MIT GPL	✗
CLK	✓	2026-07-23	MIT (Permissive)	✗
Denise	✓	2.8	?	~
Mobile
Manic EMU	✓	2.0.0 git	AGPLv3 (Copyleft)	TBD

Frontend cores

Core(s)	Active?	License	Recommended? (overall)
PUAE_libretro	✓	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓
Uae4arm	✗	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓
MAME	✓	GPLv2 BSD-3-Clause	✗
Amiberry	✓	GPLv3 (Copyleft)	?

Emulators on other hardware

Name	Active?	Latest version	License	Recommended? (overall)
Amiga360 (based on P-UAE 2.3.3)	✗	1.0	?	✓
Uae4all2	✗	2.3.7.5	GPLv2 (Copyleft)	✓
WinUAEX	✗	v19b2	?	✓

Descriptions

WinUAE: The most accurate and fully-featured Amiga emulator, but it is Windows-only and complicated to set up. Able to be configured into almost any Amiga configuration imaginable, including the PowerPC acceleration boards via QEMU and the PC Sidecar via PCem.

FS-UAE: Incorporates the latest and most accurate emulation code from WinUAE and supports most of its features, but is cross-platform and with a much simpler user interface oriented towards common gaming configurations. It has built-in support for direct loading of the WHDLoad format, which greatly simplifies playing games.

PUAE: A continuation of E-UAE that is the port of UAE to Unix-like operating systems. It was made into a libretro core and is the primary version of UAE for this purpose.

WinFellow: Another emulator with a long history, being initiated shortly after the original UAE. It is Windows-only, as the Linux version XFellow has not been updated since 2003. It primarily focuses on the earliest Amiga models, specifically aiming to run most demoscene from these machines on the modest computers of the time. While it is still usable for this purpose, it is less accurate than UAE and is only recommended if you need the performance boost.

Denise: Primarily a C64 emulator, but later versions added support for early Amiga models. It only supports the Amiga 500/1000 but does claim cycle accuracy and has a simple user interface that "just works" for playing games.

Enhancements

Name		Amiberry	FS-UAE	vAmiga	WinUAE	PUAE_libretro
Misc.	Ambient sounds simulation	✓	✓	?	?	?
Misc.	RetroAchievements	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗

Hardware and peripherals

Models

Name	Amiberry	FS-UAE	vAmiga	WinUAE	PUAE_libretro
Amiga 1000	✓	✓	?	?	?
Amiga 500	✓	✓	?	?	?
Amiga 500+	✓	✓	?	?	?
Amiga 600	✓	✓	?	?	?
Amiga 1200	✓	✓	?	?	?
Amiga 3000	✓	✓	?	?	?
Amiga 4000	✓	✓	?	?	?
Amiga 4000T	✓	✗	?	?	?
MacroSystem	✓	✗	?	?	?

Hardware and peripherals

Name				Amiberry	FS-UAE	vAmiga	WinUAE	PUAE_libretro
Custom joystick port
CPU	68000			✓	✓	?	?	?
	68010			✓	✓	?	?	?
	68EC020			✗	✓	?	?	?
	68020			✓	✓	?	?	?
	68EC030			✗	✓	?	?	?
	68030			✓	✓	?	?	?
	68EC040			✗	✓	?	?	?
	68LC020			✗	✓	?	?	?
	68040-NOMMU			✗	✓	?	?	?
	68040			✓	✓	?	?	?
	68EC060			✗	✓	?	?	?
	68LC060			✗	✓	?	?	?
	68060-NOMMU			✗	✓	?	?	?
	68060			✓	✓	?	?	?
Expansions	Accelerator boards	Phase 5 - Blizzard	Blizzard 1230 IV	✓	✓	?	?	?
			Blizzard 1240	✗	✓	?	?	?
			Blizzard 1260	✓	✓	?	?	?
			Blizzard PPC	✓	✓	?	?	?
		Phase 5 - CyberStorm	CyberStorm PPC	✓	✓	?	?	?
	Blizzard SCSI kit			✓	✓	?	?	?
	Freezer cartridges	Action Cartridge Super IV Professional		✓	✗	?	?	?
		Action Replay Mk II v2.14		✗	✓	?	?	?
		Action Replay Mk III v3.17		✗	✓	?	?	?
		HRTMon v2.36 (built-in)		✗	✓	?	?	?
		HRTMon v2.37 (built-in)		✓	✗	?	?	?
	Graphics cards	UAEGFX		✗	✓	?	?	?
		UAEGFX Zorro II		✓	✓	?	?	?
		UAEGFX Zorro III		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Picasso II Zorro II		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Picasso II+ Zorro II		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Picasso IV		✗	✓	?	?	?
		Picasso IV Zorro II		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Picasso IV Zorro III		✓	✓	?	?	?
	Hardware dongles	RoboCop 3		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Leader Board		✓	✓	?	?	?
		B.A.T. II		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Italy Soccer '90		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Dames Grand-Maitre		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Rugby Coach		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Cricket Captain		✓	✓	?	?	?
		Leviathan		✓	✓	?	?	?
	Network cards	A2065		✓	✓	?	?	?
	Sound cards	Toccata		✓	✓	?	?	?
	MIDI				✓	✗	?	?	?
Mouse and joystick port	CD32 Pad			✓	✓	?	?	?
	Joystick			✓	✓	?	?	?
	Mouse			✓	✓	?	?	?
Parallel port				✓	✓	?	?	?
Serial port				✓	✗	?	?	?
Storage	CD-ROM drive			✓	✓	?	?	?
	Floppy disk drive			✓	✓	?	?	?
	Hard disk drive			✓	✓	?	?	?
Upgradeable components e.g., CD32 FMV Module				✓	✓	?	?	✓
Virtual i-glasses Gloom Deluxe and Nemac IV support head tracking with these glasses.				?	?	?	?	?
4-player adapter Colloquially incorrectly called "Multitap".				?	?	?	?	?

Hardware variants

Console-focused

Commodore CDTV

The Commodore CDTV was an Amiga 500 but for the console market. It was released in March of 1991 and retailed for $999 ($2363 in 2026).

Amiga CD32

The Amiga CD32 is an Amiga 1200-based console that came with a CD-ROM drive and was first released in September 1993. It could also be upgraded to mimic an Amiga 1200 PC by equipping it with third-party add-ons like a keyboard, floppy drive, hard drive, RAM and a mouse. A hardware MPEG decompression module for playing Video CDs was also released.

CD32 emulation

Worthwhile emulators to try for emulating Amiga CD32:

WinUAE
FS-UAE
Akiko
Amiga Forever (CD collection)

See more information about emulation of the Amiga CD32 below:

Amiga CD32 emulation guide (thecakeisaliegaming.wordpress.com. steviegill (cakeisaliegaming) / January 29, 2016.)
Akiko emulator (Emutopia. CD32/CDTV adapted version of the WinUAE emulator for Windows.)
Is there a usable Amiga CD32 Emulator? (superuser.com's Q&A thread. Jul 27, 2009.)

Support

Name	Amiberry	FS-UAE	vAmiga	WinUAE	PUAE_libretro
Amiga CD32	✓	✓	?	?	?
Commodore CDTV	✓	✓	?	?	?

Arcade variants

(WIP)

American Laser Games Amiga-based
Arcadia Systems Amiga-based
Cubo CD32

Support

Name	MAME	Amiberry	FS-UAE	vAmiga	WinUAE	PUAE_libretro
American Laser Games / Picmatic	?	✓	✗	?	?	?
Arcadia Multi Select system	?	✓	✗	?	?	?
Cubo CD32	?	✓	✗	?	?	?

Emulation of PowerPC Amiga and AmigaOS 4

PowerPC-based Amiga computers were made by a few different enterprises under the license of Commodore International after its demise. They come with a new version of AmigaOS, AmigaOS 4.x, which only runs on PowerPC-based Amiga hardware or Motorola 68K-based Amiga computers with extra PowerPC acceleration boards.

QEMU supports emulation of Sam460ex motherboard manufactured by ACube Systems, which is officially supported by AmigaOS 4.1, but usability is yet to be determined.

FS-UAE and WinUAE can emulate the PowerPC acceleration board, so it could also run AmigaOS 4.x if a compatible PowerPC acceleration board such as Blizzard PPC has been properly configured. Extra ROM files are required to emulate these acceleration boards.

68K Amiga emulation on PowerPC Amiga and AmigaOS 4

AmigaOS 4.x comes with 2 68K Amiga emulators: BlackBox and Petunia, and they will automatically start when trying to run old 68K-based Amiga programs.

BlackBox is an interpretive emulator. Thus the emulation speed is mediocre but provides lower input latency and better compatibility; Petunia uses dynamic recompilation to speed up emulation but consumes more memory and with less compatibility.

Petunia could be disabled entirely on boot to save memory or only for certain programs that are not compatible with it. Check AmigaOS 4 Documentation for more information.

AmigaOS 4.x never make use of real 68K hardware, even when running on an actual 68K-based Commodore Amiga with the PowerPC acceleration board.

On emulated PowerPC-based Amiga, both emulators run quite slow as it's running an emulator inside an emulator, causing great performance loss.

Notes

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 No independent releases. Only released as an integrated part of AmigaOS 4.x .

External links

Amiga CD32:

http://www.generationamiga.com/2017/05/01/all-commodore-amiga-cd32-games-in-one-video/ ( Video of (almost?) all CD32 games.)

[amigaonly-1] 1.0 ^1.1 No independent releases. Only released as an integrated part of AmigaOS 4.x .

[1]