GP32 Amiga Emulator?

[AlexW]

Hmm... I read a couple of those Linux ports which a couple is working on and if they get it to work it would be great! But would it not be possible to make a UAE (for example) port? I mean the and "old" Amiga 500+ (Kickstart 2.04 Workbench 2.04) had some really great programs... It worked GREAT with only 1 Mb memory (say emulated 512 Chipmem and 512 Fastmem) and from what I've read the GP32 have a bitmap graphics (instead of VGA ie chunky pixel format) and so on...

Some other strong points is that it has programs for "virtual keyboard" type programs. The GUI is one of the best made, the menu system in Workbench (for those that never seen, heard an Amiga its like PC Windows) would be perfect for a joytype mouse it has 4 channel sound (as GP32) and so on...

I think if someone used UAE as base and then make some key changes in assembly language it would be pretty speedy... It should be able to emulate a Amiga500+ 7.14 Mhz 68000 processor... but then it would be written mostly in assembly I guess...
But memory wise
1 Mb total (to the Amiga)
1 Mb total for emulator
512 Kb for the Kickstart file (Amiga OS ROM)

There is a huge program base for the Amiga on the net...
Maybe even A1200 and AGA could be emulated?
I would love to see this...
Anyone else?

 

[papapopalung]

never had an amiga (i had atari st) but it would be good to see an amiga emu on GP32...

 

[Spaz O Mataz]

This Is one of the things I've Been waiting for And would love to see it being made. I think it would work the controls would be good for it. and it could do what frodo does for controls aswell.

 

[gnipper]

I would LOVE to see an Amiga emulator but I just dont think it will happen..

Thing is, Amiga emulation has only come about FAIRLY recently on the PC and even once you get all the "gubbins" (Kickstart images, roms etc.) there are just SO many options which you can tweak to ensure it runs, and even then you CAN encounter performance problems.

Would love to see it tho.. someone prove me wrong!

 

[brutaLIzer]

what do you mean by "recently"? UAE is in the works for many, many years! started on UNIX (UAE = UNIX Amiga Emulator, in the beginnings aka Unusable Amiga Emu because of the incompatibilities) and only came later to DOS/windows.
and most games run with no option twiddeling at all. after all, there aren't so many options in UAE.
if some1 has a question what a particular option means, don't hesitate to ask one of the last amiga-fans who only joined the pc-world because of "unreal" in 1998

 

[AlexW]

The options would be a lot less because GP32 hardware is all the same with the exeption of SMC size...
I think a UAE port for GP32 would be the ultimate emulator.
Amiga has office applications, Many 3D raytracers (Lightwave anyone!), Music programs (that absolutly rock!), for example Octamed Soundstudio, Games and so on... This would make it the ultimate handheld!
If someone also made a EXT connector keyboard for the GP32 this would be like a dream come true...

If the ARM9 processor runs in 150 Mhz it does about 165 MIPS so a Amiga 500+ wich ran 7.14 Mhz and was about 1 MIPS I think it has a chance...
Amiga had alot of coprocessors but the UAE emulates these too so the really hard work has already been done I think...
First of should be to optimize 68000->ARM9, then Graphics and so on...
It can be done... hope some Amiga 68K, ARM9 coder could make this work...

 

[gnipper]

By saying "recently" I may have misled and not made my point clear.

As far as emulators go, Amiga emulation is and always has been difficult - there are LOTS of options in WinUAE - all of which have a direct affect on compatibility of the roms you play.

For example - chipset, memory amount, sound, floppy speed etc. etc.

I suppose IF someone could get the most compatible set of configs together it MAY be possible, but IME the Castaway emulator is a good substiute (although it does run quite slow at times)

 

[Belgarath]

A very large amount of A500 games will work with 1 basic setup, some games need slightly different memory configurations but it's nothing too complicated

The sound as long as it's enabled has nothing to do with compatibility, those options affect performance, floppy speed as well should be left to default as that's only there to attempt to speed the loading of games up.

The GP32 is more than capable of emulating an A500, it just needs someone with the skills and the dedication to do it.

 

[Wonder Boy]

A very large amount of A500 games will work with 1 basic setup, some games need slightly different memory configurations but it's nothing too complicated

The sound as long as it's enabled has nothing to do with compatibility, those options affect performance, floppy speed as well should be left to default as that's only there to attempt to speed the loading of games up.

The GP32 is more than capable of emulating an A500, it just needs someone with the skills and the dedication to do it.

¡Di que SÍ!
¡Ahí, con un PAR DE HUEVOS! X-D

¡Te Quiero AMIGA 500!

 

[sininc]

As GNipper said I would love to see the Amiga emulated, but it would be a very hard task to get going properly.

There are half a dozen custom chips to emulate, which can be a pain.

Also they changed these chips when they went to AGA (A1200\A4000) chipsets so to have A500 and A1200 emulation is almost double the work

A full speed SNES emulator is more realistic.

But the chance to play SWOS on my GP32 would take my breath away, I would gladly pay for an a portable Amiga emulator - And so would a great deal of the Amiga fanboys.

 

[AlexW]

Well, the UAE emulates the Amiga very good...
So http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~uae/ is a god way to start...
It has a compiled/source version for Linux with a ARMv41 processor...
If some one striped it to say a A1200 emul only. GP32 uses bitplane graphics and so do the Amiga and that takes time to convert (wich the WinUAE has to do)...

And yes I would gladly pay for this to come true!