Getting started¶

HALT! — No one shall pass before reading this first!

If you’ve never used an Amiga before, you will not get very far without reading this getting started section. You will probably not even make it past the intro of your very first game!

So please read these instructions very carefully!

Seasoned Amiga veterans who know the Amiga inside out should also keep reading as half of the information is emulation-related.

Starting a game¶

Start the bundled portable Amiga emulator called WinUAE by running winuae64.exe located in the WinUAE folder inside your RML Amiga installation folder. Creating a desktop shortcut icon for it would be a good idea.

WinUAE always shows the configurations tab after startup. You can return to this tab from any other tab by selecting Configurations in the left pane, or by just simply restarting WinUAE.

Once you’re in the Configurations tab:

Make sure Games\ is selected in the Filter drop-down.
To start a game, double-click on its name in the configurations list. Note some games might take a bit of time to load.
To narrow down the list, start typing into the Search box. Click on the X button right of the text field to clear the search filter.
If you want to play a different game, it’s best to quit WinUAE with Alt+F4 and then start it again.

Alternatively, you can load a configuration by single-clicking on it and then pressing the Load button. You can see the name of the currently loaded config in the title bar. After having loaded the config, click on the Start button to launch the game.

Important

You must press Load before pressing Start, otherwise WinUAE will use the last loaded config, or the default one if you haven’t loaded a config yet… which won’t do anything!

User manual¶

The latest version of the user manual you’re reading now is available on the RML Amiga website. Make sure to read it in its entirety to get the most out of the collection. A local version that you can read without an internet connection is included in the Documentation folder of your RML Amiga installation. Just double-click on index.html in that folder and the manual will open in your default browser.

Game notes¶

Always check the Game notes before trying a game for the first time. A few titles need some extra steps to even just start the game—this could be hard to figure out if you’ve never used an Amiga before. Some of this advice is next to impossible to figure out on your own (you’d need to do a lot of forum diving to find it), or the information is included in the manual but it’s easy to miss if you don’t read it carefully.

Skipping code checks¶

Some games have additional special configs to skip the intro or the manual-based copy protection check at the start of the game (e.g., Altered Destiny [skip code check]). It’s advised to start the normal config for the first time to experience the intro and the original game at least once.

Warp mode¶

You can speed up loading times (especially floppy loading times) considerably by entering “warp mode”. You can toggle warp mode with End+Pause. This “time-warps” the speed of the emulation to the maximum your computer can handle, so you are going “faster than real-time”. There is no sound if warp mode is engaged and the emulated CPU speed meter is pegged to 100% in the on-screen display.

On-screen display¶

The on-screen display (OSD) in the bottom-right corner is a handy little thing that gives you feedback about what the emulator is currently doing.

Audio buffer utilisation meter (if this turns red and you hear distorted audio, you’ll need to increase the audio buffer sizes with the configuration tool)
CPU utilisation meter (it’s pegged to 100 in warp mode)
FPS meter (shows the letter P if the emulation is paused; jumps up to the 150-300+ FPS range in warp mode)
Power LED of the emulated Amiga (usually blinks a few times if the machine reboots automatically because of a program crashing)
Hard disk activity LED (blue on reads, red on writes; only shown for hard drive games)
CD-ROM activity (only shown for CD32 and CDTV games).
Floppy drive activity of the four floppy drives (green on reads, red on writes; the number indicates the current track). The first drive is always present (except on the CDTV and the CD32), the rest are optional.

Game manuals¶

It’s important to understand that control schemes and user interfaces were a lot less standardised in the 1980s and early 90s. You won’t get very far in most games without reading the manuals, the reference cards, and other supplementary materials first. Look for these in the Manual and Extras sub-folders within the game folders.

The Manual folder contains not just the manual, but any other items included with the original game that are necessary for playing and completing it (e.g., code wheels, code sheets, or other documents and images you’ll need to refer to during your playthrough as a form of copy protection).

The Extras folder contains optional content not strictly necessary to complete the game (e.g., covers, posters, maps, hint books, etc.).

Floppy games¶

Hard drive games are the easiest to deal with, floppy games need a bit of practice. Read the Floppy games section for guidance. You can easily recognise a floppy game by the emulated floppy drive sounds.

Controller support¶

Most games in the collection are controlled with the mouse and the keyboard, but a few need a joystick. These games are configured for an emulated joystick: use the regular cursor keys (not the numeric keypad) for movement, and the Right Alt, Right Shift, or Right Ctrl keys for the fire button.

To use a real joystick, press the fire button on your joystick after starting the game. This will “plug” the joystick into either port 1 or port 2 of your “virtual Amiga”, depending on which fire button you press. Most games look for the joystick in port 2, so you might need to use the End+J Swap joysticks hotkey if the joystick doesn’t work.

Many CDTV or Amiga CD32 games are best played with the mouse, but some are almost unplayable without a gamepad. To use your controller (e.g., an Xbox 360 controller), press the green A button on it after starting the game and WinUAE will automatically “plug” it into port 2.

Keyboard shortcuts¶

There are a few important Keyboard shortcuts you should familiarise yourself with. The three most important are Pause to toggle pausing the emulation, End+Pause to toggle warp mode, and End+F12 to switch between windowed and full windowed mode. F12 stops the emulation and brings up the WinUAE GUI, but don’t touch anything there yet if you’re a newbie; things will blow up! Just press Esc or the OK or Cancel button for now to return to the game.

Saving your progress¶

When it comes to saving your game progress, it’s a bit of a Wild West situation. Every game is slightly different, and floppy games that require dedicated save disks are the trickiest to deal with. But fear not, help is provided on the Game notes page for these titles. Make sure to read the detailed Saving your progress section as well for general tips, and don’t forget about Save states as an alternative saving option.

Game variants¶

A few games have some abbreviations after their names in parenthesis, e.g., Eye of the Beholder (AGA) and Eye of the Beholder (OCS). These specify which variant of the game we’re dealing with if multiple different releases exist. Here’s a quick rundown of them:

OCS — This stands for Original Chip Set, which is the graphics chip of the original Amiga line (such as the Amiga 500). About 90% of all Amiga only have an OCS version, so if the game has no other variants, OCS is simply omitted from the name.
AGA — Later Amigas (Amiga 1200, 4000, and the CD32) had the Advanced Graphics Architecture chipset capable of displaying more colours on the screen. As AGA games are relatively rare, they always have the AGA suffix in their name.
CDTV, CD32 — These denote CD games for the two ill-fated Amiga consoles. As these are even rarer than AGA games, they all have the CDTV or CD32 suffix.

Generally, the collection only contains the best version of the games, unless the different versions offer something unique, in which case all are included. This is usually the case with later AGA and CD32 re-releases that feature different (but not necessarily better) graphics and in some cases a CD Audio soundtrack or other CD-only extras.

Customising your setup¶

RML Amiga comes with defaults that aim to recreate the experience of sitting in front of a real Amiga in the 1980s. Some other technical settings have been carefully chosen to ensure all games run without issues on most people’s setups. However, power users might want to tweak these settings for a better experience (e.g., to enable lagless vsync with the minimum possible input latency).

If you would like to change the defaults (e.g., you’d like to make the image fill the screen, or turn off the CRT shaders or the floppy sounds) or want to fine-tune the technical emulator settings, please refer to the Customising your setup section.

How to use this manual¶

The rest of the manual is reference documentation, but it’s recommended to read it once so you’re aware of the various Amiga concepts and RML Amiga features. At the very least, please skim through it. You can also use the Search box in the top right corner of the pages to look up information quickly.