A browser-based Amiga emulation for iPad and iPhone

[galu]

Hi All,

I am here to tease a new project for iPad and iPhone owners:

* a browser-based Amiga emulation solution for the iPhone and iPad
* basically a front-end for ScriptedAmigaEmulator (naTmeg’s JavaScript port of UAE), launched as a standalone, fullscreen, mobile web app

Some highlights (please switch to 1080p/60 fps mode in Yt player):

Launching the web app from an icon, touch-friendly user interface styled on KS1.x era apps, searching/browsing for a game in user-supplied external URLs database:
[ Show youtube player ]

(Amiga software can be loaded using either standard browser File API (from local storage or from cloud providers) or you can feed it with a list of ADFs hosted on external www servers)

Playing Superfrog using responsive touchscreen controls:
[ Show youtube player ]

Multiple touchscreen control schemes will be available, including joystick emulation optimised for platform and racing games, custom touchscreen keyboard and trackpad-style mouse emulation. Safari on iOS/iPadOS13+ supports gamepads (including PS4/PS5 and Xbox One controllers).

Playing Oh No! More Lemmings:
[ Show youtube player ]

I have it running on my devices for almost three years but only recently decided that I will be sharing it (I developed it for personal use it casually to run floppy-based A500 era software only on my iPhone and iPad). It’s not intended as a “hardcore” UAE experience or as Amiga replacement. The JavaScript overhead is really huge and it wouldn't make sense on any other platform, but Apple chips are really fast and they don’t get warm too quick so expect a full speed A500 experience on a iPhone 8 / X or newer. No Android devices I have tested were fast enough to make use of it, but Snapdragon 865 and 888 might be OK.

I will be posting some more information soon and hopefully release it (hosted version + sources) later this month.

[kriz]

That looks really smooth, dont have any recent iphones but got a Ipad here so looking forward to check it out

[Pyromania]

URL for emulator pretty please?

[galu]

@Pyromania: please read the last paragraph :P

Sanity's World of Commodore '92:
[ Show youtube player ]

Augmented Reality experiment:
[ Show youtube player ]

Controller support:
[ Show youtube player ]

[alpine9000]

Great stuff! Looking forward to this being released!

[twenty90seven]

Galu did you make the Omega 500 app for Android (which is no longer available on the Android store)?

[galu]

@twenty90seven:
Yes. I stopped posting updates for the Omega 500 in 2013.

[Harrisonmike]

Hi Galu -

I came across this thread today and I am super excited! How’s it all going with iMiga?? I can’t wait to play my old Amiga games from the comfort of bed on an iPad!!

Thanks and well done working on this!

Mike

[yesplease]

Hi,

just to inform you that I started the vAmigaWeb project which focusses to bring Amiga Gaming to iPhone/iPad. Emulation core is done in WebAssembly ... this makes it also run fluently on lower end devices ... minimum is only an iPadAir A8X from 2014 or iPhone 6s from 2015. (I tried galus iMiga too ... but it was way too slow for my old iphone 6s plus)

although it is still in its infancy, gaming is already quite nicely possible ... also taking Snapshots and reloading them later from snapshot gallery, XBoxGameControllers, multivolume ADFs in zip files are supported, virtual touch controller ... (stop .. wait ... Why is that? how can it be done as a spare time hobby project in just two weeks ? This is because it uses the same frontend as "vc64web with demoscene galery browser" my other emulator project. see -> https://vc64web.github.io )

be sure to save/install it to home screen as it will do away then the safari related adressbar, gestures and buttons ... It is then also complete offline capable ... that is you can start vAmigaWeb app from homescreen and load your game snapshots without a network connection.

run it on
https://vAmigaWeb.github.io

to follow project development or to post an issue visit
https://github.com/vAmigaWeb/vAmigaWeb

[Amigabeaver]

Hoping you read this..

I absolutely love this interpretation of the emulator and managed to get it up on my iPad. Got my ROMS all ready but I can’t seem to get any further.

I looked at the GitHub page but I couldn’t make head nor tail of it it (I’m pretty tech proficient - but nowhere near that calibre unfortunately.. It felt like I was trying to read a different language!)

The issue I just couldn’t get past is mapping keys on my Apple Magic Keyboard to act as mouse buttons etc.

Hoping you pick this up and can DM me? I’m off work with COVID and this would be the perfect way to while away the boring self isolation!

Thanks

Originally Posted by yesplease

Hi,

just to inform you that I started the vAmigaWeb project which focusses to bring Amiga Gaming to iPhone/iPad. Emulation core is done in WebAssembly ... this makes it also run fluently on lower end devices ... minimum is only an iPadAir A8X from 2014 or iPhone 6s from 2015. (I tried galus iMiga too ... but it was way too slow for my old iphone 6s plus)

although it is still in its infancy, gaming is already quite nicely possible ... also taking Snapshots and reloading them later from snapshot gallery, XBoxGameControllers, multivolume ADFs in zip files are supported, virtual touch controller ... (stop .. wait ... Why is that? how can it be done as a spare time hobby project in just two weeks ? This is because it uses the same frontend as "vc64web with demoscene galery browser" my other emulator project. see -> https://vc64web.github.io )

be sure to save/install it to home screen as it will do away then the safari related adressbar, gestures and buttons ... It is then also complete offline capable ... that is you can start vAmigaWeb app from homescreen and load your game snapshots without a network connection.

run it on
https://vAmigaWeb.github.io

to follow project development or to post an issue visit
https://github.com/vAmigaWeb/vAmigaWeb

[yesplease]

Hi AmigaBeaver

you have a pm ...

... just discovered that I introduced two days ago a silly javascript bug ... an uninitialized variable ... which led to strange behaviour on my iphone too (it did not anymore recognise kickstart roms in the rom dialog) ... that one is just now fixed

might well be that it was that error which also confused you

be sure to hit vAmigaWeb->settings->update installation manually
to get the fixed version... (it should update by itself but some browsers will check for updates more lazily than others)

[zx80]

Originally Posted by yesplease

Hi,

just to inform you that I started the vAmigaWeb project which focusses to bring Amiga Gaming to iPhone/iPad. Emulation core is done in WebAssembly ... this makes it also run fluently on lower end devices ... minimum is only an iPadAir A8X from 2014 or iPhone 6s from 2015. (I tried galus iMiga too ... but it was way too slow for my old iphone 6s plus)

Sounds like a very cool project to me. Is it meant to browse your site and e.g. load games via URL parameter, or should we clone the Repo and access the emulation frontend from the clone e.g. to save bandwith etc.? Really keen to try it out on my iPad.

Cheers

[yesplease]

Originally Posted by zx80

Is it meant to browse your site and e.g. load games via URL parameter, or should we clone the Repo and access the emulation frontend from the clone e.g. to save bandwith etc.?

you can run vAmigaWeb inside the browser but... there are these annoying menu/navigation bars, safari swipe gestures etc...

better do the following steps to properly install vAmigaWeb as a real PWA app to your homescreen (then it runs like a regular standalone app and not within safari)

1. go to https://vamigaweb.github.io/

2. put it to the home screen this will install the progressive web app (PWA)

3. when you launch it from home screen rather than from safari it will nearly behave like a native app thanks to PWA, i.e. offline capable and no annoying safari gestures etc...


regarding your question ... since it is a local installation to your device there is no bandwidth to the server ... you can go offline and vAmigaWeb will still be able to start (in fact it is hosted on github.io so there is no serverside communication other than loading the app files ...) when you select a kickstart rom from your file system or save snapshots of a game it will all be stored inside vAmigaWeb on your local device ... you can export it manually from there to continue playing on another device ... you can load floppy disks or hard disks from your device file system and they are also stored within vAmigaWeb on your local device too ... you can export ADF or HDF files and continue playing in other emulators ...

Originally Posted by zx80

Really keen to try it out on my iPad.

it should run as a dream on every iPad not older than 8 years... although it needs iOS14 at least because it uses the modern web audio API




if you have any questions I will be glad to help ...

[zx80]

Hi thanks for all your hints. Managed to add the icon to my home screen and start the emulated Amiga with AROS ROM replacements. Then I uploaded a KS 3.1 ROM for A1200 (not encrypted, working on WinUAE and Amiberry), but only see a black screen on boot.

Using an iPad (7. generation from 2019) wit iOS 15.5 installed. Any advice how to proceed or what to check from here?

[zx80]

Tried an older KS 1.3 Rom for A500 and tataa, the AmigaOS kickstart disk is showing up. How cool is that? Now trying some ADF files. Cool, Blood Money and Bubble Bobble run with sound on my iPad. Only the touch support needs some time to get used to it, but works. Very impressed, cool project.

[yesplease]

Originally Posted by zx80

... Then I uploaded a KS 3.1 ROM for A1200 (not encrypted, working on WinUAE and Amiberry), but only see a black screen on boot.

yes ... we are using the vAmiga emulation core, that one is very efficient, accurate, brand new (development started in 2019 from scratch) , clean code ... but does not emulate 68020 so far ... therefore only kickstarts for 68000 are runnable ... the one you tried to load had 68020 opcodes and could not be understood by the 68000 hence black screen.


... for higher speeds you can still overclock the 68000 up to 100Mhz ... that combined with some fast ram makes fa-18 interceptor or frontier/elite2 really fly (be sure to disable slow ram)

[yesplease]

@zx80 just published https://vamigaweb.github.io with the very latest vAmigaCore 3.0b1 ...

now we got support for CPUs up to 68030 ... still without MMU (@dirkwhoffmann is working on it) ... but the mentioned kickstart 3.1 for A1200 does work now without any flaw

grab a cup of finest black coffee with some cake... fire up demos on your iPad which require at least an 68020 ... for example the stunning https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=3251 ... sit back, enjoy and relax

[zx80]

Cool, will test soon.

[japandrej]

hey I just wanted to thank you for this!
Works like a charm, it's so amazing to see the Amiga emulated on iOS, and especially having the A600 connected to the iPad via Keyrah/usb-C is mind blowing to me, like a small and portable demostation!

[aZtOcKdOg]

Originally Posted by japandrej

hey I just wanted to thank you for this!
Works like a charm, it's so amazing to see the Amiga emulated on iOS, and especially having the A600 connected to the iPad via Keyrah/usb-C is mind blowing to me, like a small and portable demostation!

How are u navigating OS GUI? Is this all floppy based or do hdfs work?


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