Amiga Emulator FAQ

Updated 2 September 2024

Winuae Configuration F.A.Q.

1. How do I set up an Amiga Configuration?

If you have not used an Amiga before, use the Quickstart Configuration screen which is the easiest and quickest way to set up a pre-set configuration for you. For advanced users, you can set up a configuration using the screens under Hardware and Host and saving it under Configuration.

Step by step:

a) Select the Model of Amiga you want to emulate (see below for list of models):
b) Select configuration, use default for most games but if you want more memory select the '4 MB Fast RAM expanded configuration'
c) You may leave the compatibility and Host Configuration at defaults.
d) For Floppy drive DF0: click on 'Select disk image' and select your ADF file.
e) Click Set Configuration and click Start.

2. I am having problems running some programs or games on WinUAE?

First make sure your WinUAE configuration matches the game's requirements. Very old games depend on specific versions of Kickstart, processor and memory. If you still have problems then download WHDLoad program which can degrade the Amiga to such a state that the program will run correctly. You will probably need the Installer program installed to your HD to install these tools.
Also, try using FS-UAE, Fellow or WinFellow as an alternative emulator to run the game.

Try some of these typical configurations as a guide:

Classic Amigas

The A500 normally has a 68000 processor and 512K or 1MB Chip RAM with 1.3 Kickstart and OCS/ECS or 2.04 Kickstart for the A500+ with ECS. See review of A500 Plus in Amiga Format.See hardware info.
The A1000 normally has a 68000 processor, 256K RAM, OCS and Kickstart 1.0 to 1.3. See review in PCW Aug 1985. See hardware info.
The A2000 shares the same hardware as the A500 but uses ZII memory, and gfx card option. See review in PCW Apr 1987.
The A600 normally has a 68000 processor and 1Mb of Chip RAM with 2.05 Kickstart and ECS.
The A1200 normally has a 68020 processor and 2Mb Chip RAM and 3.0 Kickstart and AGA (Winuae 0.8.8 or better) for 256 colours. See news of A1200 in Amiga Format. See hardware info..
The CD32 normally shares the same hardware as the A1200 but has a built in CD ROM drive. Requires CD32 roms. See review in Amiga Format.
The A3000 normally has a 68030, 1Mb Chip RAM, possibly some Fast RAM and ECS or Gfx card.
The A4000 normally has a 68030/040/060 processor, 2Mb Chip RAM, 2Mb or more Fast RAM and AGA or a graphics card (use Picasso96 to simulate one).

PPC Amigas

Eyetech AmigaOneXE has a PowerPC 750CXe processor (or Freescale 7451 or 7455), four PCI slorts, one AGP slots, IDE and Ethernetw controllers, Radeon 7000 with 32MB VRAM.
ACube AmigaOne 500 with 460EX 1.15GHz processor, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, PCIe and PCI slots, SATA 2, Giga Ethernet, 6 x USB2, 1 x USB 1.1.
A-Eon AmigaOne X1000 with a 64 bit dual core PWRficient PA6T-1682M PowerPC 1.8GHz processor, 2x DDR2 memory slots, 10 x USB 2, 1 Xorro, slot, 2 PCIe, 4 x SATA 2., IDE, Radeon R700.
A-Eon AmigaOne X5000 with a P5020 2GHz processor, DDR3 SDRAM, SATA2, Gigabyte ethernet, 8 x USB 2, PCIe and Xorro sslots.

3. I have updated my version of Winuae and some things no longer work?

In new versions of Winuae, new features are added or changed and the old configuration files may not work. Load up the old configuration, check the settings and resave them or delete the old configurations and create new configurations for your new version of Winuae.

4. I do not understand some of the settings?

To understand Winuae configuration settitings go to the Winuae help pages or download the Winuae.chm help file which will explain some of the settings and what they do. To look up the meaning of some jargon, try the A-Z Computer Dictionary.

5. How can I speed up graphics output?

Emulating the OCS, ECS or AGA chipset is slow, instead, you can use the PC's graphics card instead to output graphics and use 256 or more colours. Download the latest Picasso96 software from Aminet (version 1.32 or better) and use the UAE driver supplied with it. On the Display tab, make sure Full Screen RTG is enabled and set at least 2Mb of RTG (graphics card) ram is available. Currently only the Permedia 2 and Voodoo cards are compatible with the CyberGraphics, Warp3D and WarpUp driver software for 3d games. For OpenGL and Warp3D support you can use the QuarkTex wrapper in Winuae.
Picasso 96 is supplied AmigaOS 3.9, Amiga Forever, Amikit and AmigaSys.

6. What limitations can I expect from using an Emulator?

An emulator cannot fully emulate everything on the Amiga as it has to emulate the Motorola 680x0 processor and the Custom Chipset chips, so performance can suffer on slow machines. The latest versions of Winuae will try to use buffers for sound to improve output and Just in Time instruction emulation for extra CPU speed, Chipset graphics is improving but 256 colours can be very slow due to the Amiga's bitmap system of using multiple layers. Using Picasso 96 emulation can improve graphics a lot, use that wherever possible.

Emulators are improved all the time, so keep an eye out for new versions. Sound emulation can depend on your processor as well, turning it off will
improve emulation speed though.

7. Can I access the Internet through Winuae?

That is possible. You can through the PC's Internet connection by enabling the bsdsocket.library support feature on the Expansions page of
Winuae configuration. Make sure you go on line before loading Winuae. It will work on Dial up and Broadband internet access. There is no need to
install any other TCPIP/Internet software.

For AmigaOS 4.1 on PowerPC systems, do not use the bsdsocket.library option in Winuae, instead use the bsdsocket.library v4.307, that is supplied with AmigaOS 4.1 (see Libs:).

8. Can I access the CDROM through CDROM drivers?

Yes, if you enable the uaescsi.device on the Expansions tab. Then install the CDROM drivers on Workbench, I would recommend something like AmiCDFS or CacheCDFS (with OS 3.9), and select uaescsi.device as the device and enter the unit number of your CDROM drive eg. 0, 1 etc. If unsure what your Unit number is, enable logging on the Misc tab and start Winuae. Close Winuae, then open the winuaebootlog.txt file created and it will display unit number somewhere in there.

For AmigaOS 4.1, do not uaescsi.device, instead use the Build-in Expansions for 'A600/A1200/A4000 IDE (Commodore)' for the device, and define a SCSI/DE CD Drive entry on the 'CD & Hard Drives' tab in Winuae to point to your machine's CD/DVD drive.

9. Can I access my USB Key or my PC files on the Hard disk using Winuae?

For AmigaOS 3.x or earlier, enable Add PC drives at startup on the Hard Drives tab it will show your PC disk(s) on the Workbench as a disk.

In AmigaOS 4.1, you will need the ethernet.device driver and set it up via Configuration Prefs and Internet/New Connection wizard.
Then, you can run c:ShowNetstatus ethernet to view network card settings. If your address is say 10.0.2.15, then the host gateway is 10.0.2.2.
You can use FTP to 10.0.2.2 to copy files between your host machine and AmigaOS. Also, you can use SMBMounter for file sharing.

10. How do I configure it so when I double click an icon it will start my Amiga game immediately?

You need to create your configuration in Winuae with the floppy drives filled with the appropiate adf files then save the configuration. Now on your desktop, create a new shortcut to the Winuae program and add the -f parameter e.g. C:\Program files\Winuae\Winuae.exe -f mygame.uae and name shortcut to the name of your game. So, when you double click the shortcut, your game will instantly load and start up.

11. Where can I get ROM files and games?

Amiga Forever includes all the files required to emulate the Amiga. Look in the C:\Users\Public\Documents\Amiga Files\Shared\rom folder.
You can also copy a Kickstart ROM file from a real Amiga using the transrom tool supplied with Winuae. Links to games and applications can be found on the UAE FAQ page.

12. Can I emulate the new PPC based Amigas like the AmigaONE, SAM or E-ON X5000 ?

Yes, Winuae 3 or later can emulate the PowerPC processor and use Workbench 4.1 Final Edition and it requires a plugin called uae_qemu.dll
The PowerPC is enabled via the 'CPU and FPU' tab on Winuae and enable the PPC CPU emulation (Blizzard PPC / CyberStorm PPC). You will also need to enable the 'Phase 5 - CyberStorm' and 'CyberStorm PPC' option and finally the cyberstormppc_44.71.rom file on the 'Expansions' page. If using the Picasso IV RTG card, you will also need the picasso_iv_flash.rom file from here.
Any Miscellaneous expansions such as bsdsocket, uaescsi, uaenet and other uae type devices should be turned off.

13. Can I create localised (or other languages) versions of WinUAE?

Yes, you need the WinUAE Translation DLL (which matches the version of Winuae you have installed) and a program to edit the DLL file, for example, ResEdit. Copy and rename the DLL to the language you want to translate to e.g. Winuae_French.dll. Open Resedit and open the DLL file. The area you will want to change is the String Table which contains the wording to be changed to your language. Change the word in the box on the bottom left side. When done click on Save. Copy the new DLL to your Winuae program directory and run WinUAE and select the language in the Miscellaneous tab.

14. Settings

Here is a complete list of settings.

Back to UAE FAQ.