amiberry/docs

Optimized Amiga emulator for multiple platforms

Follow me Mastodon!

Amiberry is an optimized Amiga emulator for ARM32, ARM64, x86_64 and RISC-V platforms. It runs on both macOS and Linux. Windows users can always use WinUAE.

The core emulation comes from WinUAE, and even the main GUI is designed to look similar to that.

It includes JIT support, to get high-performance results on CPU-intensive emulated environments, like desktop applications. On top of that, there are some unique features developed specifically for Amiberry, such as the WHDLoad booter, support for RetroArch controller mapping, and several more.

There are currently two Amiberry versions available: Amiberry and Amiberry-Lite - see here to see which is the best pick for your needs.

Requirements

Linux

Amiberry has been tested on the following Linux distros:

• Debian/RPI-OS Bullseye, Bookworm ARM32, ARM64 and x86_64
• Ubuntu ARM64 and x86_64
• Manjaro ARM64 and x86_64
• DietPi
• RetroPie
• Batocera
• Knulli
• MuOS
• TheRA it should also work on several others, as long as the requirements are met.

Some distros include it in their app ecosystem (e.g. DietPi, RetroPie and others), so you can install and upgrade it directly from their menu system.

macOS

Amiberry also runs on macOS, and has been tested on:

• Catalina (x86_64)
• Monterey (x86_64 and Apple Silicon)
• Sonoma (x86_64)
• Newer macOS versions should work as well

Under macOS, you will need to install the required libraries using Homebrew. For more details on how to do that or if you want to compile it from source, please refer to the relevant wiki page.

Also, please keep in mind that Amiberry on macOS is self-signed, so you will need to allow it to run through Apple's security dialogs that will block it by default (since it's coming from a non-recognized Developer account).

Dependencies

Amiberry requires the SDL2 framework for graphics display, input handling and audio output. Additionally, a few extra libraries are used for CD32 MPEG and mp3 decoding.

If you just want to just run the Amiberry binary, you can install the required libraries on Debian/Raspbian/Ubuntu derived distros like this:

  sudo apt install cmake libsdl2-2.0-0 libsdl2-ttf-2.0-0 libsdl2-image-2.0-0 flac mpg123 libmpeg2-4 libserialport0 libportmidi0

If you want to compile Amiberry from source, you'll need the -dev version of the same packages instead. For example, on Debian-based distros:

  sudo apt install cmake libsdl2-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-image-dev libflac-dev libmpg123-dev libpng-dev libmpeg2-4-dev libserialport-dev libportmidi-dev

Or if you're using an Arch-based distro (e.g. Manjaro), the relevant package names are these (these include the dev versions by default):

  sudo pacman -S base-devel cmake sdl2 sdl2_ttf sdl2_image flac mpg123 libmpeg2 libserialport portmidi

if you have an AUR helper like yay, you can build and run Amiberry through:

  yay -S amiberry

Additionally, please note that you will probably also need some Kickstart ROMs. Amiberry includes the free AROS ROM, so you can start it up and use AROS with it directly, but most games will require a Kickstart 1.3 (for A500 emulation) or Kickstart 3.x (for A1200 emulation). Amiga Forever is a good source for those.

Getting Amiberry

Distro package management

Several popular distros (like RetroPie, DietPi, Pimiga and others) already include Amiberry either pre-installed, or through their package management systems. Please follow the methods provided in those distros for a smoother experience, and refer to their owners for support during this process.

Flatpak

A flatpak version is available on Flathub

Standalone binaries

The latest stable releases come with binaries for several different platforms, that you can download from the Releases area. If your platform is not included, or if you want to test a newer version than the stable release, then you will have to compile it yourself. Read on to see how to do that.

Compile from source

Alternatively, you can of course compile the latest version of Amiberry from source yourself. To do that, follow these steps:

First, clone this repository locally

  git clone https://github.com/BlitterStudio/amiberry
  cd amiberry

Build using CMake (recommended)

Amiberry can be built using CMake or the old Makefile approach. The recommended and simpler way, is using CMake:

  cmake -B build && cmake --build build -j4

Build using the Makefile (old approach)

If you want to use the Makefile instead, please consult the relevant Wiki page for the full list of available platforms, as there are many (and separate for 32-bit and 64-bit ones). Alternatively, you can also check the Makefile itself for a full list of supported platforms.

For more documentation subjects, please check the Wiki page