Adding the Amiga Core

RetroArch General
#1

Hi guys,

I’ve been using RetroArch successfully on both iOS and PS3 for some time and I have to say, it’s a great way of playing all of your favourite games in one place.

One thing that I think would be great though, would be to add the Amiga to the list of available cores.

Particularly in the case of the iOS app, this would be absolutely fantastic. There are no fully-featured Amiga emulators available for iOS at the moment, so I think you’d hit a real niche if you were to release the core for RetroArch.

AmigaPad was released for iOS, but it lacks a Save State - I do have the source files for this, so I can supply these if it would be helpful. The developer of AmigaPad appears to have ceased development for the emulator long ago and in it’s current state it really isn’t good enough - games play great on it, but you can’t save your progress!

Outside of iOS, there’s WINUAE for the PC and PSP UAE for the PSP. I think there’s also a version of UAE for the PS3 too, but nothing for iOS devices. This is, in my opinion, a total travesty!

Games like Lemmings, Sensible World of Soccer, The Chaos Engine, Speedball, Cannon Fodder, Worms, SuperFrog, Theme Park, The Settlers, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Flashback, and Syndicate all originated on the Amiga and deserve a place on our iOS devices.

Let me know what your thoughts are - I honestly think that adding the Amiga to RetroArch would be a great move :slight_smile:

#2

Hm, is there anyone out there able to reply to this? Or am I being really shortsighted in requesting the Amiga core? Is there an obvious reason why it can’t be added?

#3

I think there was some initial work done on porting UAE to Libretro by 7rtype:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=396

#4

Is RetroArch not being actively developed then? Can they not just add the Amiga core or a version of WinUAE?

#5

It’s very actively developed, but adding cores is a lot of work. UME is indeed on the way but hasn’t been tested on iOS yet, AFAIK.

#6

Hi hunterk - thanks for the reply. I’d love to be involved if the Amiga core is being added, can I help with testing?

#7

+1 for an amiga core. If I was a dev I’d surely work on it. In the meantime iwork on custom amiga game bootable packages for ps3 instead

#8

The MESS/UME core does bring Amiga emulation but it’s still got work that needs to be done so it’s not worth using right now. MESS/UME does have decent Atari ST emulation (one of those rare pluses for Atari using off the shelf parts for once) and the C64 has some minor graphical & sound glitches but is still playable if you don’t have better C64 emus to use.

I’d love for RA to have better Amiga emulation too, but I will see some work on my end on the end user side of it due to the nature of emulating the Amiga. Right now I use fs-uae on my home theatre pc to play my Amiga games, and because I use XMBC + the RomCollectionBrowser plugin as my frontend, I have config files for each game to have RCB launch the games and tell fs-uae which Amiga (500/600/1200), how much memory to use and either which disc in which drive or a floppy disc list to load. Depending on how RA implements Amiga emulatio it would probably be just a matter of converting those config files into extra commandline paramentors for RCB, possibly a half and hours worth of work so no biggie.

#9

Sounds like a nice setup the for your amiga games. I either play my custom whdload amiga pkg games or use amiga emulation on xbox1 . Theguys over at emuextras have done a marvelous job with their front end. Covers. Screens. And vid preview :slight_smile: I’m sure RA can create something magical for all amiga fans

#10

Hatari is the best emulator for Atari St , the mess one is not very good for now , BTW the hatari libretro core (based on 1.7) works like a charm , maybe one time you could provide it in your test build…

For Amiga core ,long time i did not touch puae26 libretro , was working on 2.7 back in december but due to lack of freetime stop working on it , but i found this on my computer maybe you can test it , you have to put .uaerc where you launch the emulator (and define in a valid kickstart rom ). http://dl.free.fr/v9kDd4k31

#11

Does this mean atari st core looks set to be added as another core soon? Regarding amiga it confuses me what your saying needs to be done for testing purposes

#12

for hatari , don’t expect a release , you have to compile it for yourself to get it . far as i remember, it works great . i’ve tested it long time ago.

for puae , it works , the basis but not free of bug , gui is unfinished should work for basis like set fd or hd but accurate conf must be done in uae cfg .but i havent tested well this win64 version . i have no time to work on it , but i will focus to the puae2.7 when i will have time.

#13

Unfortunately I have no skill in compiling. :frowning: So I’m hoping some other clever member can help you complete either atari st or amiga cores. By the way does your username resemble the game Rtype?

#14

Hatari is the best emulator for Atari St , the mess one is not very good for now , BTW the hatari libretro core (based on 1.7) works like a charm , maybe one time you could provide it in your test build…[/quote]

The reason I said that was from what I’ve played around with MESS (UME) lately, the Atari ST emulation has been pretty good, and a lot better than any of the Commodore machines sadly.

@All, I’ve compiled and released the Hatari core in my builds, check the Development thread, Windows 64bit only.

#15

@lordashram , Nice to see it’s now in your test build .

BTW, if there are questions /reports/ feedback about this core (HATARI) , you could post it in is own old thread : viewtopic.php?f=5&t=300 , i ll try to answer if i can.

@ransom , yes , I wanted to take wonderboy :slight_smile: , but registering failed ! then i try rtype (the game that i was playing when registering ) but also failed.

#16

Nice one. Your should of chosen Rtype3 anyway going off topic now. Looks like you are really the only guy in the scene that could make atari st or amiga core possible. So may the force be with you. I gotta go I just saw a three headed monkey walk by :slight_smile:

#17

Yes but i prefer seven :slight_smile: , anyways to stay off topic , “three headed monkey” , it reminds me of one of the best games in which I played ! look behind you !