Old School Game Blog

Exploring the rich past of gaming

Tag Archives: emulation

Emulation on an Amiga 1200

20 Comments Posted by on April 27, 2012
Mario Bros (NES) running in A/NES on my Amiga 1200 (photo by Old School Game Blog)

Mario Bros (NES) running in A/NES on my Amiga 1200 (photo by Old School Game Blog)

Hey guys,

Recently I’ve installed quite a few emulators on my Amiga 1200. It’s nice to have the option of running software made for other platforms once in a while. Even though I’ve mostly used the PC to emulate various consoles and computers in the past, I’m happy to have the opportunity to use the Amiga for this as well. It’s quite the versatile machine!

At the present moment, I’ve installed emulators for the MSX/MSX 2, NES, IBM PC and Game Boy. On my to do-list are emulators for Sega Master System, Game Gear, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. I’ve considered installing Shapeshifter, a 68K MAC emulator, but I don’t think I will this time around. Have used it before, but there isn’t much on the MAC that I’d like to play these days. Perhaps I’ll change my mind some time in the future.

MSX/MSX 2 emulation works like a charm. I use a program called AmiMSX, which is freeware. I’ve tried running Salamander on it to give it a test-drive and needless to say, it was a lot of fun. ;) The game was fully playable and ran as it should. The sound was also like I remembered. Did also try a few other classics and these worked out of the box. Now I’m looking forward to install the legendary Blow-Up! and Oh Shit!. I’m also going to give some scene demos a try.. I’m curious about how these will perform.

AmiMSX is available on Aminet.net: http://aminet.net/search?query=amimsx

A/NES running on my Amiga 1200 (photo by Old School Game Blog)

A/NES running on my Amiga 1200 (photo by Old School Game Blog)

A/NES is the Nintendo emulator I’ve installed. Tried a few games with it and it worked. It will be interesting to explore it more.

A/NES is available here: http://www.anes.se/

Have not gotten around to testing the PC and Game Boy emulator yet, but I remember the first one as quite slow on a 68030 system and the latter as pretty good. Will be fun to re-visit these emulators again.

I’ve made a small video of my Amiga 1200 emulating the MSX. This is the first video I’ve ever created. Hope you like it! I’m definitely going to make more of these in the future, but I’m going to need some practice to say the least. ;)

About these ads
Amiga, Emulation , , , , , , , , ,

Cloanto Releases Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 2012

Leave a Comment Posted by on August 28, 2011
The Amiga Forever 2012 Box

The Amiga Forever 2012 Box (taken from http://www.amigaforever.com/screenshots/box-premium/)

For those of you that are interested in emulating the Amiga or the C64 in the easiest way possible, you’ll be happy to hear that Cloanto have released a new version of Amiga Forever and C64 Forever. These packages will get you up and running with emulation in no time, as it’s purely plug and play.

Here’s the full press release:

Cloanto Releases Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 2012

August 26, 2011 – Cloanto released today Amiga Forever 2012 and C64 Forever 2012, the latest versions of the award-winning Commodore-Amiga preservation, emulation and support suites for Windows.

By adding powerful content authoring and integration functionality, Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 2012 close the circle between gaming, productivity and preservation of digital culture while adding new features and providing easier access to a universe of free and legal downloads.

The new versions build on a powerful synergy of original components:

  • RP9 file format, which is a compressed cross-platform archive containing media images, configuration, description and ancillary data, developed by Cloanto
  • RetroPlatform Player and API to interface with different emulation plugins
  • Cloanto’s unique portfolio of ROM and OS licenses

The new packages can emulate the full range of 8-bit (C64, VIC 20, PET/CBM, etc.) and 16/32-bit systems (Amiga, CDTV, etc.) using an intuitive media player-like interface. The advanced RP9 authoring functionality sets new references in preserving and making accessible digital culture from the 1980s and 1990s. Content created or edited with the Windows software can be played back on other systems, including mobile devices (in part under development).

The 2012 versions not only include hundreds of software enhancements, but also add content of historical interest, like new interviews with Amiga legends RJ Mical and Dave Haynie, also with HD-quality video footage.

 Amiga Forever 2012 is available now in three editions:

  • Value Edition (downloadable installer for Windows systems)
  • Plus Edition (downloadable ISO image with additional Windows and platform-neutral content)
  • Premium Edition (physical Plus Edition content plus additional videos on 3 DVDs)

C64 Forever 2012 is available now in three editions:

Amiga Forever and C64 Forever passed official Windows 7 logo tests on both x86 and x64 systems. Prices for both Amiga Forever and C64 Forever start from $9.95 (special upgrade offers).

Amiga, Emulation, PC , , , , , , , , ,

ScummVM: Available for Classic Amiga’s

10 Comments Posted by on August 24, 2011
ScummVM Logo (snapshot by Old School Game Blog)

ScummVM Logo (snapshot by Old School Game Blog)

ScummVM

If you are interested in running old school point-and-click adventure games, look no further than ScummVM. This amazing program replaces the .EXE files of the old classics, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never intended!

According to the official homepage of ScummVM, you can play legendary titles from LucasArts, Sierra and others. Remember Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Monkey Island 3 or King’s Quest? They are all available for playing under ScummVM as long as you’ve got the data files.

For a complete list of compatible games, please head over to the official compatibility page. You can find it here.

What amazes me is the variety of systems you can run ScummVM on. Windows and Linux are of course supported, but how about BeOS, OS/2, PalmOS and AmigaOS 4? It’s great that this program is available for so many different platforms.

Ported to Classic Amiga’s

Next-gen Amiga users running AmigaOS 4, MorphOS and AROS have been enjoying ScummVM for a long time. Thanks to a guy that goes by the handle NovaCoder, ScummVM is now available for classic Amiga computers as well. The following setups are available as of today:

- AGA, 68030 CPU optimized version, fast-RAM (download)

- AGA, 68040 CPU optimized version, fast-RAM (download)

- AGA, 68060 CPU optimized version, fast-RAM (download)

- ECS, 68030 CPU optimized version, fast-RAM (download)

- RTG (P96), 68060 CPU optimized version, fast-RAM (download)

ScummVM for RTG Amiga's (Picture from Amiga.org)

ScummVM for RTG Amiga's (Picture from Amiga.org)

It’s good to see that ScummVM can be used with so many different Amiga setups. Sadly I haven’t been able to test it myself yet, but I will do that in the near future. My Amiga 1200 has 32MB of fast-RAM and a 68030 CPU, so I shouldn’t have any problems getting it up and running. NovaCoder has done an amazing job bringing us old school Amiga users the possibility of running games like Full Throttle, Sam & Max and Day of the Tentacle on our machines. A big thank you must fly out to him.

Have any of you tried out ScummVM on a classic Amiga (or perhaps another exotic platform) by the way? If yes, how was the performance? Did it work great? Hope to hear from you. :)

Amiga, Emulation , , , , , , , , , , ,

Emulation: Macintosh on the Amiga

3 Comments Posted by on August 17, 2011

Recently I’ve been reading up on Macintosh emulation on the Amiga. Since the old Mac’s used the same processor as the Amiga (68K series from Motorola), it’s possible to achieve smooth emulation of older games and applications. This means that it is actually possible to run Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, Prince of Persia 2 and other classics on an Amiga 1200 with a 68030 turbo-card! Isn’t that something? It will be interesting to try it out.

I’ve now installed an emulator called Shapeshifter 3.11 with some extra add-ons on my Amiga 1200, along with a hard file of Mac OS 7.6.1. Thanks to a user on Amiga.org that have posted an excellent guide to Macintosh emulation on the Amiga, it was not very hard to get hold of the necessary files. If you’re interested in emulating Mac on the Amiga, have a look at this thread at Amiga.org, it’s very helpful.

Since I’m very interested in old games, I decided to go hunting for some Macintosh abandonware. I visited a site called The Macintosh Garden. This is an abandonware games archive that is dedicated to supporting the Macintosh computer platform. All the games have been discontinued and are no longer available for purchase. This means that it is legal to download, so no worries there. The Macintosh Garden was founded in 2001 and in 2007 the archive contained over 900 (!) games and almost 7000 comments from users. Pretty good if you ask me!

A picture of The Macintosh Garden website (snapshot by Old School Game Blog)

A picture of The Macintosh Garden website (snapshot by Old School Game Blog)

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on my progress. I’m planning to do an article on how the emulation of the Macintosh went on my Amiga 1200. Stay tuned! :)

Amiga, Emulation, Macintosh , , , , , , , , , , ,

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 458 other followers

%d bloggers like this: