Best ways to emulate the Amiga in 2024? 

Thanks for the video. I disagree that TheA500 mini works extremely well for games emulation. I bought one late last year only because it was on sale and I got it really cheap. It turns out it has hardware just a little bit faster than Rasperry Pi3. Which means it cannot do proper copper emaulation. So games like fire and ice, lionheart, Jim power and the flying level in Turrican and probably more games, stutters. Now, these are some real classic games. And for a product released in 2022, which is called TheA500, one should expect the emulation to be close to/or perfect. Also, I find it clunky to use compared to my real whdload Amigas. Also, the choice to bundle it with a controller instead of a Joystick was a bad decision. Everyone used Joysticks with their Amigas. Except the CD32 of course. Which was released at the end of Commodore. I tried to use joysticks with DB9 to USB and it works, but you still need the controller to get all the functions. Really clunky. I have packed my TheA500 mini away. I had hoped for a full size version of TheA500, which I had planned to buy, but now after trying the mini I'm not interested. If TheA500 Maxi is based on the same weak hardware it's not interesting for me. I was much more happy with TheC64/TheVic20.

It's isn't a rumor about the A500 Maxi, it's already mentioned on the manufacturer website that it is coming in late 2024.

I really love your intense approach to topics!

Great video, Proteque! I agree that the MiSTer is the most accurate and complete setup, but also requires the most setup. My favorite for a mix of power, price, accuracy, and simplicity is the Pi400. It's just a pleasure to use.

Actually a very big part of retro feeling is the look and feel of the periphicals - mouse, keyboard, monitor, diskdrive, joystick. As I had A2000 and A4000 back in the days, the main unit was on the side or even under the table often. Of course with fading memory about the not so nice things, I do not want the ballmouse or a smal crt anymore. But my A2000 keyboard was the cherry type (A2000 Braunschweig edition), so working quite well. You can even change the stems of the switches to cherry brown or blue (reversible modification) if you like the more clicky feeling. I prefer Cherry keyboards since back in the days. Also the new tank mouse is a great input device. Alternativly I have an original Amiga mouse converted to optical. For monitor I use an 5:4 older LCD. For nearly all periperie you can get adapters, ready2use or diy. Nowerdays you can find a lot of stl for Amiga cases online, so you might print your own case. One interesting hardware for emulation might be the Framework Laptop core unit. They come between 330 up to >1000€ (plus RAM and storage). If you are not a windows gamer, the most cheap core unit should be more than fine. Also if you have a Framework laptop and upgrade the core after a few years, you might reuse the old core for an emulator. However, being a laptop component, it is quite smal. So you could place it in any Amiga case - even the A600. Creating a quite powerful all in one maschine with quite nice Amiga feeling. Powerfull enough to use as a normal PC (as this is the intended use for the core anyways) but also as an emulator. The reason I prefer modern PC as a basis for emulation is quite simple: Any seperate Amiga / Amiga emulation mostly collects dust. Using the Amiga keyboard / Mouse on a dayly basis, even when using windows, is more fun...

Very helpful to keep up with the current options and exciting advances. Wonderful that the amiga scene is so alive and busy.

You did inspire me: it was your Greaseweazle video that got me started. Btw MagPi magazine did an article on my Amiga in the January 2024 issue and you get a mention :) Edit: I have a Mister but I couldn't get tye Amiga emulator to work with my RiscPC CRT display. Amiga games on a CRT would be good, I think. My other idea is, when I upgrade my laptop, to put my old Framework mainboard inside an Amiga case.

I am really surprised that you failed to mention AmiKit. This system knocks spots off many other emulated platforms. It is refined for Linux (POL/WinUAE), Windows(WinUAE), RPi(Amiberry), MacOS, PiStorm and Vampire, and works great to emulate the Amiga Workbench whilst including gaming through iGame/WHDLoad. The Amiga workbench in AmiKit is a great optimisation of what the Amiga should look like today. It is not bloated like caffeine/coffee/PiMiga but rather it adheres to the origins of the true Amiga OS. It even has a group producing a version for true Amiga hardware (AKreal). The creator encourages the support of Amiga products and also financially supports them, unlike others. Apart from that, this was a good review of Amiga emulation in 2024. Thanks for the video.

I do have 2 full working A500 and one of them looks like as just left the factory. Both older than 20 years.

Great stuff dude, I downloaded Amigalive on PC, its great and easy to use as well mate. But I just got my Amiga 500 fixed after 20 yrs in the loft, and I'm loving it all over again😍 😊 Liked and subbed👍

Great video, appreciate the work put into it!

Another fantastic video Proteque. I Thoroughly enjoyed it. It provided a good range of options, showing most all of the main ways that you can use an Amiga in 2024. It might be useful to summarise your conclusions in a grid or table graphic too, Towards the end of your video. Just a thought though. Keep up the cracking work mate.

Thank you I really enjoyed your video 😊 very informative. I have original A1200 and A600 but they’re not setup. Recently bought a mister FPGA.

Yeah, A500Mini is great when covering analog capture device malfunction on scheduled real hardware live stream. Been there done that ;) Raspberry Pi solution works in that kind of situation also, if that SD card you just made last week is where you left it :D

I definitely find The A500 Mini as the easiest way to play Amiga games (both ADFs and LHAs). I'm thinking of installing it inside a real Amiga case.

Raspberry Pi 400 is more than powerful enough for most, if not all, games/demos up to AGA. Some 060 demos might struggle a bit, but for most users it will be the ultimate Amiga. For gaming I use a Raspi 400 + RGB-Pi connected via RGB-SCART to a Sony Trinitron CRT. After I got the RGB-Pi I stopped using my MiSTer. Also, the guys behind RGB-Pi OS are gods. ;)

if you want FPGA and dont want to spend a lot.. SIDI or MIST are your friends

For me, I have an Amiga 1200 but for developing AmigaGPT I used MiSTer and also a local install of AmiKit on my MacBook Pro (and FlowerPot for testing PPC OS 4)

Amiga never dies. I own A 500 Mini, Real A500, A500+ with heavy upgrades, A1200 / 68030, A1200 Tower with 68030, CD32, and another CD32 with Promodule/850.MB HDD, Amiga 4000 Keyboard etc. BTW: I also own the real Zip Stick as in this video with a Retronic DB-9 USB Adapter.

@Proteque-CBN - Thanks for sharing your thoughts and views on this subject, Having played with PiMiga 4 on the CM4 (2GB@1.5Ghz), the RPI 400 ( 4GB@1.8Ghz) and the RPi5( 8GB@2.4Ghz) there are very notable differences between the models. Firstly as you predicted the RPi5 is pretty much flawless, the RPi400 is quite impressive, as you mentioned there are sometimes little glitches ( not a deal breaker I may add ) - the CM4 however does have more pronounced issues and crashes. I will say, that prior to the RPi5 the Pi400 really impressed me and certainly gives you those **feels** and up to that point was the best ARM based EMU experience. However, all really benefit from booting from USB 3.0 - the uSD card really causes some noticeable stuttering at times during the emulation. the RPi 5 doesn't seem hindered by this, however that has an offloading IO chip ( acting as an old school PC south bridge ) There is this thin line between Emulation and Synthesis - the latter being FPGA based approach, however there is an enigma that I am sure you have heard of and that is the PiStorm. With a modest investment of OCS/ECS hardware and a PiStorm + RPI Z2W or RPI 3A+ ( or higher ) you can get quite the experience - ranging from just a VERY FAST CPU and Memory Emulation - to RTG emulation on the host system. I have this setup on a rescued / repaired A600 and its spanks even my fastest 060@100Mhz + 128MB RAM A4000 with CybergraphX Admittedly the A4k could AGA its way where the A600 in its configuration cannot. And while there exists a PiStorm adaptor board for the Amiga A1200 (PiStorm 32) there is still the slow-chip-memory transfers that hamper some AGA games / productivity, causing artefacts and corrupted screen graphics. Should you get to revisit this subject, an interesting line of thought would be to see what a low-cost PiStorm for an OCS / ECS based machine offers for the prices point versus a cheap x86 pc implementation. both in terms of setting up / working with and finally playing / using. Really enjoyed your video, i look forward to more. Z.

The current AGS setup for UAE and Pi are very good. Use as a games or demo launcher or escape to full high end workbench from launcher.

Thanks for this video. Was thinking of going the Mister route but glad I watched this first. Going the pc route but now wondering how or if I can get a pc into a Amiga 500 case if possible. Already have the 500 keyboard interfaced to an Adreno to a Raspberry PI. After reading the comments maybe will try the pi 400 first.

I'd like to hear more about when using a MiSTer would be better than using a decent PC with WinUAE? I bought an Amiga 1000 when they came out and became President of an Amiga user's group in 1986. Over time I also owned an Amiga 2000HD with 68030, 11 megs of ram, duel SCSI and Video Toaster, an Amiga 1200, and a spare Amiga 1000. Everything I've thrown at WinUAE has been spot on. I also use an RGB CRT for authentic display in a MAME arcade cabinet and use classic Wico leaf-switch joysticks & buttons from the early 80s. WinUAE emulates pretty much every Amiga that has ever existed and other variations like the CD game console, 68060 and various expansion peripherals too. Exactly when is MiSTer better than WinUAE? Also, WinUAE is donationware. You don't have to spend a lot of money on it, or take up additional space for my devices in your home. It will work fine on even very old PC's that you already have laying around, laptops, etc. And you can use your PC for a whole bunch of other kinds of emulators too and other tasks. I haven't found the emulation off in anything I've done with it so far.

Great video, i was looking at getting an A1200 to run Octamed 4 for music production but thinking that emulation maybe better, which route do you think would be best to achieve the most authentic experience?

thanks for sharing, what keyboard is that you are using at 2mins? Very nice!

Great video. Your PC has me intrigued, what spec PC are you using?

I’ve been using Aminimiga with the 500 Mini for a while and it works much faster in Workbench than my original 1200 with 50MHz 030. It will also handle RTG desktop and other RTG software at 1280x720 with no real problem at all.

Hey, is that a mod by Duz I hear at around the 4 min mark?

Great video, you mentioned the Mist, but there is also Minimig, what is better?

I use Amikit in PC for my Amiga experience, what do you think of this?

You said something interesting to me, you said it in the context of games but does that mean if I get a pistorm it would be best to get a Pi4 board and not Pi3?

I think you focused on classic Amiga emulation, but there is still AROS for Amiga workbench desktop and using Apple Mac Mini G4 to run MorphOS.

I’d love to see a video on the newly released PiMiga 4. Let us know what you think of it 😊

would you have a video on puting your computer booting straight to amiga?

Thank's for the rundown of different solutions. My recomendation would be the Apollo V4 Stand Alone. It feels like a real amiga since it's fpga-based but Apollo also have developed new functionality such as the hyperthreaded 68080, SuperAGA, 16 channels Stereo sound, 3d Accelerations and much much more. I have real Amigas but actually prefer this "New" hardware. Performance is better than RasberryPI and PowerPC.

To be honest I find using the Raspberry Pi 400 fine. Running Pimiga 3 on a Raspberry Pi 400 and SSD. Runing AmiKit XE on Windows 11, AMD 5800X, AMD RX 6700XT and NVMe. Also use Amiga Forever on the PC. Even with a Raspberry Pi 5 coming in a few days, I am planning to keep using Pimiga on the Raspberry Pi 400.

Also there is Vampire stand alone. They are just too expensive for casual users. Amiga Forever is great because it comes with all the legal roms.

minimig -- cheaper than a mister, can use accelerators with it, including 060 and the pi based acceleraotr

Let’s have them all. 😂

What about Minimig? Not good?

Hello. How to buy a misterfpga/amigavision hardware like yours ? Thanx.

"La moutarde.... c'est fort.... et c'est pour ca..... que c'est bon !"

amiga 500 are impossible to break... why emulate something impossle to brake ;)

"conclusion"

The "users" in this community are shameful! 99.9% of the downloaders of this software have not even had the decency to leave a single dollar tip, disgusting!

Chris Edwards posted on the Discord that he'll postpone PiMIga 4 because some a-holes started SELLING fake "PiMiga 4" on the Internet. Some people...