Retro games remain surprisingly popular, with websites and even magazines dedicated to their continued appreciation. One perennially popular system is the Commodore Amiga, a desktop computer with surprising graphics ability and a desktop environment.

However, unless you own an Amiga, you'll need an Amiga emulator to play games on PC or Mac. Fortunately, various emulator solutions are readily available.

Emulating the Amiga on Windows, Linux, and Mac

Emulators suitable for playing Amiga game and app ROMs are available on almost all current platforms. On desktop, you can use a selection of emulators that have been under development for years.

Commodore Amiga 1200

Once you're running an emulator, you'll need some games to play. As with any copyrighted material, you must own a copy of a game to be able to legally play it. Classic Amiga games can be bought individually and in bundles on eBay. If you need some ideas, our list of the top Amiga games should help.

Choose an Amiga Emulator

Several Amiga emulators for PCs are available.

Due to its cross-platform support, this guide looks at emulating Amiga games with FS-UAE Amiga Emulator. Furthermore, it offers emulation of all key Amiga models:

  • A500
  • A500+
  • A600
  • A1200
  • A1000
  • A3000
  • A4000

Amiga CD32 games should run under A1200 in most cases, but settings can be used to create "custom" Amigas.

Emulate Amiga Games on Windows, Mac, Linux, and More

Arguably the best choice, FS-UAE Amiga is available for almost any desktop operating system you can think of. However, the steps below assume you're using Windows (differences between platforms are minimal).

After downloading and installing the emulator, run FS-UAE Launcher. The launcher is arranged into eight tabs:

  • Main Configuration Options
  • Floppy Drives
  • CD-ROM Drives
  • Hard Drives
  • ROM and RAM
  • Input Options
  • Expansions
  • Additional Configurations

These tabs are used to configure all aspects of Amiga emulation on your computer.

On the first tab, select the appropriate Amiga model for the game you wish to play. You can choose from the original Amiga 1000 all the way through to the CD32 and CDTV. Note that you can also quickly load up a game ROM here, as well as configure a controller.

Next, choose a Kickstart ROM. You can do this by clicking the status bar, or the ROM and RAM tab.

Kickstart ROM for Amiga emulator

Kickstart was the bootstrapping firmware that prepared the Amiga for running software from an inserted diskette. Various versions of Kickstart were issued.

With FS-UAE, you can use the default replacement Kickstart ROM. But if you have Kickstart ROMs on disk, Import these instead.

Import Kickstart ROM to run games on an Amiga emulator

Learn more about Kickstart ROMs at www.amigaforever.com where you can purchase official Amiga ROM bundles and games.

Loading an Amiga Game ROM in FS-UAE

Loading up a game (or app) can be done from the Main screen, where there are slots for two floppy disk game or app ROMs.

Meanwhile, if you have a CD-ROM based ROM, you'll be able to load this up from the CD-ROM Drives tab. Similarly, there is also a Hard Drives tab, which you can use to configure a directory on your PC to be used as a HDD. Finally, if the title is across several disk images, you can use the Floppy Drives tab to load up the disks.

Import game ROMs in the FS-UAE Amiga emulator

With your ROM in place, click Start. The FS-UAE emulator will play rattling disk-reading sound FX, presumably recorded from a genuine Amiga, and the game will launch.

Problems Emulating Amiga Games? Try This

Load issues can be resolved by tweaking the configuration; perhaps adding memory, or using a genuine Kickstart ROM. The Additional configuration screen (the right-most tab) should help you out here.

As an example, to run the classic LucasFilm Games title The Secret of Monkey Island with FS-UAE, I had to:

  1. Increase the available RAM to the emulated Amiga from the default 512KB to 1.5MB.
  2. Use the Kickstart 1.3 ROM.

If you're having problems, find the original box (or an image of it) to check the system requirements. While most games will run on Kickstart 1.3 with 1MB of RAM, this isn't always the case.

Use the hamburger button in the upper right of the FS-UAE window to toggle the main Settings. Here you can adjust scaling, aspect, and set the display resolution. There's also a windowed and full-screen toggle button next to the Start button.

Amiga Controller Options on Your PC

Configuring a controller should be straightforward. By default, FS-UAE will rely on your mouse and keyboard, but in the Input Options view you can select which connected devices represent the Amiga Joystick and Amiga Mouse ports.

Play classic Amiga games in an emulator

Some controllers will be ideal for this, others, less so. For example, there is little point in connecting an Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller to your PC. With so many buttons and joysticks, it can be confusing and that's if the game will even be playable.

Instead, aim for gamepads with just a few buttons, or, better still, traditional two-button joysticks. Several models have been revived in the past few years, particularly suited to 16-bit emulation. To all intents and purposes, they're the same as the joysticks available 30 years ago. The only difference is a USB connector.

If your intended Amiga gaming is mouse and keyboard only, however, there is no need for a joystick.

Advanced Amiga Emulation Options in FS-UAE

As well as supporting basic Amiga emulation, FS-UAE also lets you create customized emulated systems. Over the years, Amiga systems have been graced with memory expansions, accelerator boards, graphics cards, network cards, and more. These can be toggled and selected in the Expansions screen.

For Additional Configuration options, floppy drive speed, CPU model, and even freezer cartridge models can be selected.

Find Amiga Games From Official Sources

Over the past few years, retro gaming has seen a noted revival, one that increased throughout 2020. As a result, the Amiga gaming scene is bigger than it has been since the 1990s.

Recognizing this, several publishers have made their games available to buy online, or download for free from their websites. These are official releases, hosted by the original publishers or current license holders.

One such example is Factor5, which has made three games available: R-Type, Katakis, and BC Kid. While the perennial favorite Turrican is not in this list, Factor5 does make a available a free version of the original Manfred Trenz soundtrack.

Yes: You Can Run Amiga 500 Games on Windows 10

All Amiga models can recreated in an emulator on Windows 10, on macOS, and on the latest Linux and BSD distros.

With an emulated Commodore Amiga running on your PC or mobile device, you immediately have access to a library of over 5000 titles, many of which set the groundwork for the way games are played 30 years later.

Furthermore, with the explosion of retro gaming, you'll find there is a resurgent Amiga games market. New games and even magazines are available, while Amiga hardware is being licensed.

Looking for some more retro gaming fun on PC? Almost any classic system can be emulated.