
AmiKit X – An emulator engine to run Amiga on Windows or Mac - erickhill
https://www.amikit.amiga.sk
======
LeoPanthera
If you don't need the bundled software and already have a legal copy of the
ROM (you can extract it from a physical Amiga, for example), FS-UAE is free
and Free:

[https://fs-uae.net](https://fs-uae.net)

[https://github.com/FrodeSolheim/fs-uae](https://github.com/FrodeSolheim/fs-
uae)

If you don't have a legal copy of the ROM you can buy "Amiga Forever", which
includes the ROM, a license to use it, and a bunch of bundled Amiga stuff.

[https://www.amigaforever.com](https://www.amigaforever.com)

~~~
sedition
If you're super cheap, you can buy just the ROMs on the Google Play store
[https://www.amigaforever.com/android/](https://www.amigaforever.com/android/)

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kyberias
It's really sad that Amiga retro ecosystem always tries to put a price on
everything. For example, MUI is still "shareware" with some silly license
files. Come on, give it away as freeware or open source already!

UPDATE: [http://www.sasg.com/](http://www.sasg.com/)

Keeping this stuff closed source is of course their right as copyright holders
but it cannot be a good business and just pisses people off.

~~~
ZenoArrow
Zune is the open-source reimplementation of MUI:

[http://aros.sourceforge.net/introduction/status/zune.php](http://aros.sourceforge.net/introduction/status/zune.php)

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Daviey
I love the Amiga... but no Linux support? And I probably wouldn't buy it
without a trial first.

~~~
zmix
The last free version supporst also Android and Linux: Here is the Linux
version:
[https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/linux](https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/linux)

------
cwyers
So, you need an Amiga ROM to make this work. To get an Amiga ROM, it
recommends purchasing one of two things, one of which is... Amiga Forever, a
different Amiga emulator. If I have to buy an Amiga emulator anyway, what's
the value prop of AmiKit?

~~~
LeoPanthera
Amiga Forever is a bundle that includes an emulator, as well as ROMs, and a
bunch of software.

Not that that makes it much better. I _think_ the difference is that AmiKit is
designed for running "current" Amiga software, but Amiga Forever is designed
for Commodore-era software.

But I'm not sure. It's not clear.

~~~
zmix
AmiKit is a modern configuration and a curated collection of software for the
Amiga, set up as environment for the UAE emulator. If UAE is the application,
then AmiKit is the document it loads. So to say...

AmiKit was always free. It seems to have gone commercial now.

Some Shareware soft is regsitered here, for example, MUI5, which is _the_
Amiga OOP GUI library. Never has been a UI library that configurable on any
system! It is the current version, in active development.

Another World, the game, is also pre-installed. A HD version sells on Steam
and others.

Several freeware tools have an "Exclusive Update". That is surprising, because
the m68k Amiga (the one which gets emulated here) is, basically, out of
business since 1994-1996. If it would not be for AmiKit, these updates, most
probably, would have never happened. Also "Rabbit Hole" let's you start host
(Win/Mac) applications from within the emulator. This is all pretty cool. For
people like me, who still have their old Amigas (and OS disks) the price is
bearable. Please note, that this is not so much about playing old games and
demos. For that you will be fine with AmigaForever. This is for using AmigaOS
as a modern Workstation, as much as possible.

Here is a quote from their website:

    
    
      It includes more than 380 Amiga programs (and games) 
      enriching the default system with exciting features and 
      add-ons.
    
      We've done all the hard work for you so that your modern 
      retro experience can begin right away.
    

So, it's basically an installation on top of AmigaOS 3.9 (the last legacy
version). If I remember correctly, one needs to own the original AmigaOS 3.9
DVD or an image, the ROM. AmiKit will then install everything into a
consumable system, ready to go, with some modern drivers, that have been
created for AmiKit.

~~~
PrimHelios
Is there any reason to use AmigaOS on a workstation?

~~~
zmix
Well, that depends. I have never used a better OS. Period. I have never used a
better Filemanager (Directory Opus5 Magellan II, now available as Directory
Opus 12 on Windows, which is birlliant, too), Texteditor (GoldED Studio), IRC
client (AmIRC), email and news system (UMS), YAM, NewsRog. Raster-image
painting is, especially if you want to work at the single pixel, unreached.

Now, web-browsing and office is another story... :-(

The OS came with a default scripting language, a Rexx derivate, called ARexx.
Most applications would support it, meaning, you could fully automate them,
extend them to do things, the programmer never dreamed about. Since all was
using the same scripting language (and Rexx was purposedly designed for inter
application scripting, its creator called it a language for job-control, you
had access to all environments (DOS, Application Hosts, shared libs) within
the same script. Man, did I create workflows... :-)

You could mount FTP, HTTP, your audio-speakers, raw memory, or whatever you
wrote a device-driver for, as a disk. No need for any VFS library/framework.
I've never seen such good ramdisk implementations. The system default one was
volatile and dynamic, it was always there as a volume on your desktop. The
other ones were configurable in block/tracksize, non-volatile and you could
boot from them, if you wanted (nice for games back then, when floppies were
slow and you had a game, that ran from 4 floppies. You would unarch them to
the Ram Disks (which was quicker than loading them hard) and reset the
machine. Voila!)

And now, that you can run host-applications via AmiKit, it seems to make
sense, to run it as your main environment. I did not test this part of AmiKit,
however, so I only can assume.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Back in the day I ran a 4 line BBS using CNet Amiga BBS software, and I used
to make amazing script doors using ARexx. The way you could hook into the BBS
and do things I've not seen since.

I just did purchase this AmiKit X and installed it. Perfect, flawless install.

The UI makes Win10 look plain, and yet retains the old style of window
borders. It mounted all my Windows network drives automatically. I could ALT-
Tab out of it back and forth between it and Windows.

Only thing it doesn't seem to handle is my multiple screen system. If it would
work across multiple screens I'd be in heaven.

~~~
zmix
CNet! So beautiful! Best BBS system I ever came around! I even had it
installed on my system to be able to develop ARexx doors, just for fun and
learning.

------
zmix
For those who do not want to pay money for this, older versions tended to be
free and the last release, which is 8.5, is still. Scroll down to the bottom
of this page:
[https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/store](https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/store)

Also there you may find the Linux and Android version.

------
sgt
I was a bit confused by what AmiKit X actually is, but I think I understand it
now and it does certainly make sense in order to get a turnkey Amiga
environment up and running, as opposed to going the bare bones hardcore route
of doing everything yourself. All in all it's pretty impressive.

------
kelvin0
OK, so this is simply amazing on so many levels. Amiga was truly an awesome
beast. The music in the amikit videos is really good too!

------
WillyOnWheels
Will this let me play Shadow Of The Beast or Blood Money or any other
Psygnosis games?

~~~
zmix
You don't need this for that. What you need for those games is WinUAE (on
Windows) or eUAE on other OS'. Both are free. Then you need Kickstart ROMs,
1.3 should suffice (get them legally via the AmigaForever product, the Android
version seems to be the cheapest). And, of course, disk images (ADF files) of
the games from your favorite abandonware site.

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rbanffy
What does this one do that others don't?

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TsomArp
No trial?

~~~
zmix
It's a distro. Not a programm.

Also, the version 8.5 is still free and will stay so. Scroll down at
[https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/store](https://www.amikit.amiga.sk/store)

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douche
Not running on windows makes this effectively useless

~~~
Aloha
It does say it supports Windows.

