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Amiga emulators for Raspberry Pi

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Henrik Nørfjand Stengaard edited this page Jan 15, 2022 · 8 revisions

This page describes Amiga emulators for Raspberry Pi, what have been verified and tested, how to install the emulators and how they perform on different Raspberry Pi models and configurations.

Amiberry

Amiberry is an optimized Amiga emulator, for ARM-based boards (like the Raspberry Pi, ASUS Tinkerboard, Odroid XU4, etc). The core emulation comes from WinUAE, but stripped down somewhat in order to achieve good performance in underpowered boards. It includes JIT CPU and FPU support, to get high-performance results on CPU-intensive emulated environments. On top of that, we have some unique features developed specifically for Amiberry, such as the WHDLoad booter and support for RetroArch controller mapping.

Amiberry requires the SDL2 framework for graphics display, input handling and audio output. On the RPI platform specifically, we offer a special alternative version which uses Dispmanx directly for the emulation screen, for maximum performance. This version requires that you use the fkms driver, and runs in full-window mode always, while it also makes some features non-practical (such as launching Linux apps in the background with host-run).

Github: https://github.com/midwan/amiberry

Amiberry and video driver:

  • Amiberry works with both KMS and Fake KMS video driver is enabled.
  • Amiberry must be compiled with SDL2 target and not SDL2 + DispmanX.

Press F12 when Amiberry has started Amiga emulation to enter Amiberry configurstion.

Install Amiberry

Install Amiberry Amiga emulator with HstWB Installer for Raspberry Pi with following steps:

  1. Type hstwb and press enter to start HstWB Installer.

    Run HstWB

  2. Select Setup and press enter.

    HstWB main menu

  3. Select Emulators and press enter.

    HstWB setup menu

  4. Select Amiberry and press enter.

    HstWB setup emulators

  5. Select Install SDL2 and press enter.

    HstWB setup Amiberry

  6. Select Yes to install SDL2 from source code.

    Install SDL2

    1. Select SDL2 configuration matching your Raspberry Pi: Optimized for Raspberry Pi 4 / 400, 3 (B+) or Optimized for Raspberry Pi 2, 1 / Zero.

    SDL2 configuration

    • Wait 10-30 minutes depending on Raspberry Pi model for SDL2 and related libraries to be compiled and installed.

    SDL2 installed

  7. Select Install Amiberry and press enter.

    HstWB setup Amiberry

  8. Select Yes to install Amiberry from source code.

    Install Amiberry

    1. Select Raspberry Pi model matching your Raspberry Pi: Raspberry Pi 4 / 400, Raspberry Pi 3 (B+), Raspberry Pi 2 or Raspberry Pi 1 / Zero.

    Select Raspberry Pi model

    1. Select 32-bit operating system.

    Select operating system

    1. Select SDL2 SDL2 target.

    Select SDL2 target

    • Wait a few seconds for git clone and update of Amiberry source code.
    1. Select Stable (master) Amiberry branch.

    Select Amiberry branch

    1. Select Latest version of Amiberry.

    Select Amiberry version

    • Wait 10-30 minutes depending on Raspberry Pi model for Amiberry to be compiled and installed.

    Amiberry installed

    1. Select Yes to use Amiberry as default Amiga emulator.

    Amiberry as default

Amiberry is now installed and ready to use.

UAE4ARM

UAE4ARM is a port of uae4arm for Raspberry Pi.

Github: https://github.com/Chips-fr/uae4arm-rpi

UAE4ARM and video driver:

  • UAE4ARM requires fake KMS video driver is enabled as it uses DispmanX. Without fake KMS video driver, UAE4ARM will show a black screen.
  • Both Amiberry and UAE4ARM Amiga emulators work with fake KMS video driver enabled.

Press F12 when UAE4ARM has started Amiga emulation to enter UAE4ARM configuration.

Install UAE4ARM

Install UAE4ARM Amiga emulator with HstWB Installer for Raspberry Pi with following steps:

  1. Type hstwb and press enter to start HstWB Installer.

    Run HstWB

  2. Select Setup and press enter.

    HstWB main menu

  3. Select Emulators and press enter.

    HstWB setup menu

  4. Select UAE4ARM and press enter.

    HstWB setup emulators

  5. Select Install UAE4ARM and press enter.

    HstWB setup UAE4ARM

  6. Select Yes to install UAE4ARM from source code.

    Install UAE4ARM

    1. Select Raspberry Pi model matching your Raspberry Pi: Raspberry Pi 4 / 400, Raspberry Pi 3 (B+), Raspberry Pi 2 or Raspberry Pi 1 / Zero.

    Select Raspberry Pi model

    • Wait 10-30 minutes depending on Raspberry Pi model for UAE4ARM to be compiled and installed.

    UAE4ARM installed

    1. Select Yes to use UAE4ARM as default Amiga emulator.

    UAE4ARM as default

  7. Select Exit and press enter.

    HstWB setup UAE4ARM

  8. Select Exit and press enter.

    HstWB setup emulators

  9. Select Raspberry Pi OS and press enter.

    HstWB setup menu

  10. Select Enable Fake KMS video driver and press enter.

    HstWB setup Raspberry Pi OS

  11. Select Yes to enable fake KMS video driver.

Fake KMS video driver

  1. Select Yes to reboot Raspberry Pi.

UAE4ARM is now installed and ready to use.

Verified and tested installation

Following installations have been verified and tested on January 13th 2022 with Raspberry Pi OS Lite 2021-10-30 (32-bit):

  • Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06) from stable master branch:
    • Raspberry Pi 4 / 400:
      • SDL2 v2.0.18 compiled with 'Optimized for Raspberry Pi 4 / 400, 3 (B+)' SDL2 configuration.
      • Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06) compiled with Raspberry Pi model 'Raspberry Pi 4 / 400' and 'SDL2' target.
    • Raspberry Pi 3 (B+):
      • SDL2 v2.0.18 compiled with 'Optimized for Raspberry Pi 4 / 400, 3 (B+)' SDL2 configuration.
      • Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06) compiled with Raspberry Pi model 'Raspberry Pi 3 (B+)' and 'SDL2' target.
  • UAE4ARM v1.0 (96fd90b):
    • Raspberry Pi 4 / 400:
      • UAE4ARM compiled with Raspberry Pi model 'Raspberry Pi 4 / 400'.
    • Raspberry Pi 3 (B+):
      • UAE4ARM compiled with Raspberry Pi model 'Raspberry Pi 3 (B+)'.

Performance

Following table shows different Raspberry Pi models, emulators and video drivers configurations and their performance measured with SysInfo v4.4 and no overclocking of Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Pi OS Lite 2021-10-30 (32-bit) ordered by Raspberry Pi model and Mips descending.

Raspberry Pi model Test date Emulator Video driver Mips MFlops CPU Z3 Fast Ram JIT Notes
Raspberry Pi 400 2022-01-13 UAE4ARM v1.0 (96fd90b) Fake KMS 607.16 225.13 030 32MB Yes
Raspberry Pi 400 2022-01-13 Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06), SDL2 Fake KMS 391.29 145.55 030 32MB Yes
Raspberry Pi 400 2022-01-13 Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06), SDL2 KMS 375.67 138.94 030 32MB Yes
Raspberry Pi 4 2022-01-13 UAE4ARM v1.0 (96fd90b) Fake KMS 488.19 172.44 030 32MB Yes
Raspberry Pi 4 2022-01-13 Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06), SDL2 KMS 287.10 102.62 030 32MB Yes
Raspberry Pi 4 2022-01-13 Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06), SDL2 Fake KMS 284.59 111.43 030 32MB Yes
Raspberry Pi 3 B 2022-01-13 UAE4ARM v1.0 (96fd90b) Fake KMS 242.57 164.41 030 32MB Yes
Raspberry Pi 3 B 2022-01-13 Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06), SDL2 + DispmanX Fake KMS 100.45 56.41 030 32MB Yes Audio stutters, options changed doesn't help
Raspberry Pi 3 B 2022-01-13 Amiberry v4.2.0 (2022-01-06), SDL2 Fake KMS 24.32 19.27 030 32MB Yes

These are only rough numbers and may vary depending on Raspberry Pi model and configurations, but it gives an idea about whats possible and how Raspberry Pi model and configurations compare.

For Raspberry Pi 400 and 4, numbers are almost the same with KMS and Fake KMS video driver, but Fake KMS video driver gives a little extra performance.

Why is performance important

When it comes to HstWB Installer image installation, the speed of how fast the installation is depends heavily on the performance of the Amiga emulator.

UAE4ARM is very fast for building HstWB Installer images as it runs faster than Amiberry.

Amiberry is not as fast as UAE4ARM, but has a lot more features.

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HstWB Installer

HstWB Imager

Quickstarts

Topics

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Usage

Raspberry Pi

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