WinUAE Amiga Emulation


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WinUAE Amiga



WinUAE Warp Mode


WinUAE Warp Mode is used to speed up OS, application and game operations. To toggle WinUAE Warp Mode, hit End + Pause keys.

WinUAE Save States


WinUAE save states allow you to save and load game states instantly and at any time. In addition, save states allow you to bypass save register restrictions and slow saving routines. To save and load game states, go to Misc. Load/Save Game State.

WinUAE Recording


To record in WinUAE, go to Output under Host, click Video and choose Xvid MPEG 4 codec, click Audio and choose PCM 48 khz sound. Then click AVI output enabled to start recording.

Naturally, you will need to have the Xvid video codec installed for it to be selectable in WinUAE.

Amiga Emulation


The purpose of this post is to help people set up their very own virtual Amiga 1200 in order to gain access to the best Amiga games and applications. The info here can be considered a launch-pad; it only points the way.

WinUAE Installation



In setting things up there are two main barriers to entry.

The first barrier is that, for the uninitiated, this is a rather involved process. I found it to be enjoyable and nostalgic, but you are talking here about setting up an emulator, not a simple emulator for a console like the Genesis or SNES, but an emulator for a line of complex computers that sport custom chipsets that were so advanced for their time, people joked that the Amiga was designed by aliens (blitter, copper, extended palette, hardware scrolling, sampled sound etc.).

That means it's pretty esoteric and there are lots of configurations and settings to deal with. You are going to be setting up a virtual hard disk drive, installing an elegant operating system onto it that is foreign to Windows users, and then installing a few applications that are needed to run the games. Also, you will be typing into a command line interface at certain points, known as Shell. So yeah, this is going to be daunting for some people but believe me when I say: you can do it!

A1200 Kickstart ROM & Workbench 3.1 ADFs


Ok, the second barrier. Well, this one's a little more serious because even if you're willing and able to put in the time and effort, you may still hit a road block, which is that in order to emulate an Amiga 1200 you first require the A1200 Kickstart rom (to boot the Amiga) and Workbench 3.1 ADFs (to install the OS).

Amigakit


The ROM adnd ADFs are not freely available to people who do not already own the original A1200 hardware (and can image their ADFs and dump their rom with GrabKick); so, if you don't have an A1200 enshrined in your living room then you will have to purchase them both from Cloanto or Amigakit (rom and ADFs) [1].

[1] Special thanks to Daedalus of EAB for promptly giving me those links.

Amiga Forever: Cloanto


You could also simply purchase Amiga Forever from Cloanto and just be done with it, since it's the complete emulator already set up with the necessary files.


Ok, so assuming you've got the rom and ADFs, how do you go about setting things up?

First of all, you will need the WinUAE Amiga emulator developed by Toni Wilen (UAE itself was originally coded by Bernd Schmidt). This is the most amazing emulator I've used, and I've played around with a lot of emus over the years. Anyway, download WinUAE and install it to a non-Program Files folder.

You can now download games and play them, though at this point you can only do so from diskette images, which are called ADFs. This means they load slowly even when using WinUAE's built-in 800% floppy disk speed increase. Plus, you will have to swap disks during gameplay in some cases, just like the old days. Moreover, many of the ADF download sites have lots of ads and the files may be glitched and contain cracktros and the like, when what we want is instant loading from the hard disk, no disk-swapping, no glitches, and extra features such as guides, trainers and convenience tweaks, right? This is the magic of WHDLoad.

To achieve this, follow the instructions in this excellent guide to get a spartan Amiga setup going. This guide, written by The Green Amiga Alien (R.I.P.), will show you how to install and configure WinUAE in such clear and concise terms that even a monkey could do it. This is the only guide you will need. It was written for an older version of WinUAE but it's still 100% relevant. How do I know? Because I referenced it when installing the latest version of WinUAE (3.4 x64) for the purposes of this post. Best of all, you will come to appreciate the elegance and power of the Amiga by following the TGAA guide to the letter.

For a fancier, more feature-packed setup you could download and install ClassicWB by Bloodwych, who has also written instructions for it; however, it might be better to go with TGAA guide if you are new because I managed to glitch mine out a bit, and I'm not new to the Amiga. No doubt it was user error on my part but nevertheless the sheer number of options may overwhelm newbies. Note that Classic WB may slow down your boot-time, too. Personally, I just stick with vanilla (below-left pic).

Here are pics showing a few of my setups: spartan original interface, Classic WB interface with most of the bells and whistles installed, and the spartan interface again but this time showing the WHDLoad game-launch icons. 


WHDLoad


As it pertains to Amiga games, normally you would have to download WHDLoad installers from WHDLoad.de, source the ADFs, and then install them one-by-one, but killergorilla and Retroplay have done the work for you already:

Download WHDLoad pre-installed Amiga games from the Retroplay archive at ftp2.grandis.nu Turran FTP in the Retroplay WHDLoad Packs folder.

To get the games going in WinUAE, all you need to do is download the archives (3-4 gigs in total), extract their contents using something like 7z, and then simply place the folders for the games you want to play inside your /WinUAE/Programs folder (with their *.info file). Then, in Workbench, you simply double-click on the game icon to play. WHDLoad used to require registration but now it's totally free, and that is just awesome.

What's the support like for WHDLoad - like, if I find bugs, glitches and performance issues? Well, I reported an issue I had with Pool of Radiance and it was promptly addressed by Psygore.


DOS-Error #205: Object Not Found


Note that with some games you might get the message:


To fix this, get the skick346.lha archive from aminet and extract it with lha in Workbench (if you extract it with 7z in Windows then WHDLoad will not recognize the files as the correct ones - even if Workbench displays them). Once that's done navigate to /System/System, open Shell, type lha x programs:skick346.lha programs:, and hit enter. The archive extracts...

Now, create a "Kickstarts" folder in /System/Devs and place the now-extracted Kick34005.A500.RTB into it. In addition, you will need to copy your rom file in there and rename it to Kick34005.A500. That should fix the error for those games but for Ishar AGA you will need to repeat the process for Kick40068.A1200.

If all went well you now have a setup that will bring you great joy. And the best part is? You did it yourself, step by step, so you at least have an inkling as to what's going on.

"I'm sorry, but all this WHDLoad stuff is just too much. I just want to play around with ADFs/imaged diskettes." There are many sites hosting thousands of ADFs ("roms"), but you can find a large collection here.

Amiga cRPGs




The Amiga hosted its fair share of great cRPGs that a lot of people haven't played or even heard of. Some of these were exclusive to it, whereas others offered an extended color palette and superior sound and music over their PC counterparts.

List of Amiga cRPGs


Here is a list of cRPGs for the Amiga that you might like to check out:

  • Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Ambermoon [1] (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Amberstar (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Black Crypt (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Bloodnet AGA (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Bloodwych (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Captive (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Chaos Strikes Back (HoL) (AMR)
  • Drakkhen (HoL) (AMR)
  • Dungeon Master (HoL) (AMR)
  • Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Elvira 2: The Jaws of Cerberus (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Evil's Doom (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Eye of the Beholder (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Champions of Krynn (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Death Knights of Krynn (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Dark Queen of Krynn (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Hired Guns (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Ishar: Legend of the Fortress AGA (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Legend of Faerghail (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Liberation: Captive II CD32 (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Perihelion (HoL) (AMR
  • Pool of Radiance (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Ultima III: Exodus (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Fate: Gates of Dawn (HoL) (AMR
  • Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Ultima VI: The False Prophet (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Ultima VII: Part I - The Black Gate and Forge of Virtue (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Ultima VII: Part 2 - Serpent Isle & The Silver Seed (HoL) (AMR) 
  • Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (HoL) (AMR)

[1] Ambermoon already installs to the hard disk (get it here), but there is a WHDLoad patch available too (get it here). See also: Thalion Webshrine.





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2 comments:

  1. Interesting guide! I own an old Amiga and ages ago I was able to convert them from floppy disk to rom to be played on my pc with the emulator. A lenghty process but it worked.

    Anyway I see that now Perihelion can be downloaded for free and Ishar trilogy is on Gog...that's great but I still miss Moonstone and B.A.T. ^^'

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    Replies
    1. Amiga version of Moonstone is free at KGWHD (link in post). B.A.T should be in the archive, too! Perihelion definitely is.

      The free Ishar AGA versions should be comparable to 256 color PC versions on GoG.

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