Amiga Emulation Guide

Manufacturer: Commodore  / Release Date: 1985-1996


Commodore's big jump forward into the 16-bit computing era was initially the superior and premium hardware choice in the personal computer market, but never had the same range of software development or peripheral support of its major competitors and eventually was caught on the hardware and graphics front by IBM PCs and their derivatives. 


Amiga Emulation Guide For PC


Recommended Emulators: Fellow/WinFellow, FS-UAE


Minimum System Requirements: Basic Emulation  



WinFellow


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If you poke around you'll see that FS-UAE is probably the most commonly recommended Amiga emulator for those primarily looking to play games. I'm gonna go ahead and stop them right there. I tried it out and it's very resource-heavy (you probably need to step up to at least Low-End Emulation specs for it to work at a reasonable speed if not Mid-Range) and just kind of weird to interact with in general. I'm sure it has great compatability and accurate emulation and all that, but I really don't feel like it's the best choice for people who just want to fire up games with minimal hassle and not get into the guts of the Amiga technical experience or whatever. 


For a lighter, simpler and more straightforward experience I recommend WinFellow, a modernization of a well-regarded old DOS-based emulator called Fellow from way back in the day. WinFellow seems to be abandoned at this point, but was last updated in 2019 and had a good 15 years of development. It's extremely solid, runs on any potato and has an easier interface to deal with. 


It's not without its little hinks to get going, though. You'll need to download an Amiga BIOS, of which there are tons to choose from. In general, if you're playing older disk-based games I find Kickstart 1.2 or 1.3 is the choice to start with, they work the most often. For CD games or stuff from the mid-90s you might need a later BIOS. The emulator also has the little quirk of not having an omnipresent menu; it takes control of your mouse and keyboard once a game starts and you'll need to press F11 to break back out to the menu and Windows. And PrtScr does save screenshots, but to your Pictures directory. 


WinFellow also comes packed with two versions, an x64 for modern 64-bit systems, and x86 if you have an older 32-bit system. When you start it up, the first thing to do is set a BIOS under "memory" in the "image" slot, you can save your configuration so it defaults to this one. Then insert as many game disk images as you need to simultaneously before starting emulation. Instead of starting straight up, some games will dump you to the Workbench operating system first for some reason. Double-click on the first disk and then the game's icon to start it up, it may sit for a full minute or so and appear to be doing nothing, but give it time and it'll eventually launch in. 



Other Options


You might try the multipurpose emulator Retroarch, which has a "p-uae" core that can be installed. I've never used it, it might have a better interface, but probably still has the same relatively high system requirements. 


A Polish group called "TheCompany" has also been creating easy-to-run standalone .exe files for individual games that automatically incorporate an emulator for a few years now. As of this writing they have 76 games available for free download. 




Peripherals:


The A500 Mini  -   Emulation-based Amiga clone that you can load games and software onto


Modernized Amiga / C64-style joystick