How do I configure WinUAE?

From Jonnydigital.com, the only reliable source

The Amiga emulator WinUAE does a pretty great job of simulating the computer that was said to be impossible to emulate. On top of all the advanced proprietary hardware, the Amiga was released in over ten discrete versions, plus several third-party expansions, all of which WinUAE can handle.

Unfortunately, this complexity means that WinUAE has sixteen pages of configuration options, which are all the more difficult if you're not very familiar with the Amiga. I'll go through the options and tell you what works best for me.

Step 1: Download WinUAE

WinUAE releases important updates, so go and download it again. This tutorial assumes you're using WinUAE 1.5.1; newer versions should be much the same.

Next, source at least one Kickstart ROM image; if you don't have this already, it's sort of the Amiga's equivalent to the modern PC's BIOS. This is copyrighted software so I won't post it here, but you can find it online easily enough. For maximum game compatibility I recommend that you collect the following:

Take care not to confuse ROM with its meaning on other consoles, where the game software came on ROM chips in cartridges; Amiga software came on floppy disks, with the basic operating system in an internal ROM chip. Disk images of Amiga games are referred to as ADFs, or Amiga Disk Files.

Hardware configuration

The "Quickstart" page here will set most of the options you want, and the tooltips can advise you on certain configurations. Here are my recommendations:

This should suffice for a lot of software, but you may still wish to fine-tune the hardware settings from here.

CPU and FPU
For games, you have three real options. Most games used the 68000 CPU at about 7MHz, so "Match A500 Speed" should suffice. The A1200, A4000 and CD32 require the 68020 CPU and "Fastest possible", since it ran at 14MHz. Only some later high-spec games (1995 onward) require the faster CPUs, which actually caused many old games to run too fast.
Chipset
The defaults should pick OCS for A500, AGA for A1200, and Full ECS for A600. On an Athlon XP 1700 you should be able to run with Collision Level at "Sprites and Sprites vs. Playfield" and Sound Emulation at "Emulated, 100% Accurate". On a faster machine, also set "Cycle-exact"; on a much slower, you may need reduce the options. Only set Collision Level to Full for games that appear to require it.
Adv. Chipset
99% of the time you don't need to change any of these.
ROM
This should be set by the Quickstart settings. Avoid wacky combinations (like an A500 ROM with the AGA chipset).
RAM
For most games, 1MB Chip RAM and no other RAM is a safe bet, but reducing it to 512KB may solve compatibility issues with older A500 games. You should have at least 1MB for A500+/A600, and 2MB for A1200 games. A few newer games benefit from additional Fast RAM.
Floppy Drives
Insert your 'disks' (or rather diskfiles) here. Although it's usually safe to enable multiple disk drives, bear in mind that many games didn't support more than one or two drives. Don't meddle too much with the Floppy Drive Emulation Speed; it may confuse some games or cause them to crash entirely.
Hard drives
You can ignore this for games, but feel free to set up a hard drive and install Workbench from floppy disks if you're up to it. It's useful for non-game software and transferring Amiga disks. If you mount PC drives, remember that Amiga viruses can attack those drives.

Host configuration

This requires more configuration than the hardware, since there's no Quickstart option. Your settings will rely largely on your PC's speed. I've configured my own for an Athlon XP 1700, so when I say "fast computer" or "slow computer" that's my benchmark.

Display
For windowed, the defaults should be 720x568, resolution Hires, Line Mode Double. You shouldn't have to reduce Refresh unless your computer is very slow. Note that Fullscreen mode doesn't perform any scaling or centering; you should either set this under the Filter options, or run 800*600 with Centering set to Horizontal.
Sound
I set Sound Emulation to "Enabled, 100% accurate", with automatic switching enabled and a Sound Buffer Size of 2. Disable Interpolation; it doesn't do much except eat CPU cycles that would be better used making the sound emulate correctly. (Slow computers may have to increase the sound buffer size to solve errors). I like to enable Floppy Drive Sound Emulation on all drives, since as on the real Amiga it lets you know when the game is loading and not just stalled. I usually reduce the volume to 20%.
Game & I/O Ports
Odds are the only things you'll need to set here are the joystick port. I recommend investing in a real digital joystick like the replica Competition Pro USB (see AmigaKit.com). You might alternatively use a joypad with a digital control, such as a Playstation controller via a USB adaptor or an XBox 360 controller. Otherwise, I recommend Keyboard Layout B, but bear in mind that some games (such as Myth) require the cursor keys.
Input
Fiddle with this is your joystick isn't working. The defaults are normally fine.
Output
Recording videos of play is its own barrel of worms. I won't go into detail about the process; it's already covered by sites like Recorded Amiga Games.
Filter
Use these to scale if you're using fullscreen modes above 800x600. Note that you'll need a fast computer to handle most of these options. Note the PAL filter, which deliberately makes your look output like a crappy TV image.
Disk Swapper
I have to be honest, I haven't used this.
Misc
You can ignore most of these. If you're using a full-screen mode I recommend enabling On-screen LEDs if you want to track disk drive lights and CPU usage.
Priority
Defaults should be fine.

Remember to save out options once you've got them working how you like them. Keep note of the CPU access meter at the bottom of the WinUAE window. If it's low, you can afford to enable extra power-hungry features like Chipset Cycle-exact and filtering modes. If it's high, try reducing features, especially if you experience sound stuttering or slowdown.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I transfer Amiga disks?
This warrants its own article. See How do I transfer Amiga disks?
Where do I get Amiga joysticks?
Amigakit.com sells a replica of the Competition Pro (the black joystick with the red stick) in both Amiga and USB form. See the article Where do I get Amiga joysticks?
How do I avoid sound stuttering?
First, try updating to the newest version. My sound stuttering went away completely when I updated from v1.4.2 to v1.5.1. If that's not it, disable power-hungry features to reduce CPU load, or increase the sound buffer size. An Athlon XP 1700 emulating an A500 should not require more than a sound buffer of 2. Don't set the sound buffer too high, or the audio will lag.
What games are worth downloading?
It's a matter of opinion, but there are a few lists. Try The Amiga Report Top 100 Games of All Time and the Amiga Power All-Time Top 100 Games (1991-1996). See also my own list of recommended Amiga games.
How can I avoid messing around with diskfiles?
Look into something called WHDLoad, which allows hard-disk installs of games originally created as floppy disk only.
How do I ensure maximum game compatibility?
You had three main waves of Amiga games. The first was released for the Amiga 500, which had a 7MHz 68000 CPU and 512KB RAM and was released in 1987. The second wave took advantage of 1MB RAM, which includes upgraded A500s, the A500+ (1991) and the A600 (1992). The third was AGA games, which were A1200/A4000 only and expected 2MB RAM. Many first-wave games were incompatible with newer hardware. Some late-era Amiga games (1995-2002) took advantage of third-party expansion hardware; perhaps most spectacularly there is a functional Amiga port of Quake 2.

Page created: 23rd August 2008. Page updated: 16th January 2010.

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