Input handling¶
All Amiga computers came with a keyboard and a mouse. Including a mouse as a standard accessory was a big selling point back in the day, so most Amiga games are primarily mouse-operated. The exceptions are action, sports, and racing games—these usually need a joystick (or two for “player vs player” gaming).
All Amigas have two DB9 (9-pin) joystick ports for connecting your input devices. The
mouse usually needs to go into port 1 (labelled as 1 JOYSTICK), and the
game controller (typically a joystick) into port 2 (labelled as 2
JOYSTICK).
Input capturing¶
When you start a game, the emulator automatically captures all your mouse and keyboard input. What this means is your Windows mouse pointer disappears, and all mouse events and keyboard button presses are sent to the emulated Amiga instead of Windows. In windowed mode, input capturing is indicated by the following text in the WinUAE window’s title bar:
This tells you how to uncapture the mouse and keyboard: either press the middle mouse button or Alt+Tab to switch to a different window (but “alt-tabbing” only works if you have at least on more other window open).
Tip
Pressing the Alt key might trigger something in the game when attempting to “alt-tab” out of the WinUAE window. For example, many games skip the intro sequence if you press any key on the keyboard, including the Alt key. Using the middle mouse button is the 100% safe way as middle button presses are not forwarded to the emulated Amiga.
To capture the input again, “alt-tab” into the WinUAE window, or press any mouse button inside it.
Now, not all games support the mouse or display a mouse pointer. If you see neither the Windows mouse pointer nor the “emulated” mouse pointer in the WinUAE window with the mouse captured, it means you’re dealing with such a game.
Warning
Due to a bug, if the WinUAE window is unfocused and you left-click on the title bar of the WinUAE window, the window will rapidly move downwards on the screen as long as you’re holding the left mouse button pressed. Currently, there is no solution to this minor issue so the advice is simple: just don’t do this.
The bug will be fixed in the next WinUAE version, which will be incorporated into a future RML Amiga release.
Mouse¶
All Amigas came with a 2-button mouse, so the vast majority of games that are not action games are mouse-operated. Even most text adventures have some rudimentary mouse-driven interface—that’s how big of a deal built-in mouse support was back in the 80s.
The left and right mouse buttons work as expected, and the middle mouse is used to uncapture the mouse (see Input capturing).
Keyboard¶
Amiga keyboards are very similar to standard PC keyboards. Even the numeric keypad is present on most Amiga models. This means you can use your normal PC keyboard rather seamlessly to control your emulated Amiga.
There are a few minor differences, though:
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There are only 10 function keys in the top row (F1 to F10).
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The special Help Amiga key is mapped to the Page Down key, and the Delete Amiga key to the (surprise!) Del key above the standard cursor keys.
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Similarly to the Windows keys, all Amiga keyboards have two special “Amiga keys” (the keys in the bottom row with the big A letters on them, next to the Alt keys). The left Amiga key is mapped to the Left Win and Home keys (you can use either), and the right Amiga key to Right Win, Ins and Home (either will work). For example, if a game asks you to use the left Amiga plus S key combination to save your game, you’ll need to press Left Win-S or Home-S.
WASD movement keys¶
Many RPGs in the first-person dungeon crawler category (e.g., Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder) only support the standard cursor keys or the numeric keypad to move your party around. However, some people might prefer to use the WASD keys instead.
All such RPGs in the collection feature optional WASD-style movement via a custom WinUAE keyboard mapping:
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Press Home+W to switch to the alternative keyboard mapping which maps the party-movement keys (usually the cursor keys) to the WASD keys.
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Press Home+Q to restore the normal keyboard mapping.
You’ll need to return to the normal keyboard mapping if you want to type in some text that contains the letters “WASD” (e.g., to name your characters, the name of your save game, or when entering a password).
Some game configurations might remap a few more keys in WASD mode. For example, in Dungeon Master you can turn left and right with the Q and E keys, respectively, and the Ctrl+S save game shortcut has been remapped to Ctrl+X (because it clashes with the remapped S key used for movement).
Refer to the Game notes to learn about the exact WASD mode remappings for each game.
Joysticks¶
Most games in the collection are controlled with the mouse and the keyboard, but a few need a joystick. Games that support or need a joystick are configured for an emulated joystick (usually in port 2). You can 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.
The vast majority of Amiga games only support single-button joysticks. The Game notes will mention if a game supports a two-button joystick.
Using a real joystick¶
To use a real joystick, press the fire button on your joystick after starting the game. WinUAE will auto-detect the joystick and plug it into either port 1 or port 2 of your emulated Amiga. The selected port depends on which fire button you press on your physical joystick.
Most games look for the joystick in port 2, but some expect it in port 1. If your joystick doesn’t do anything or performs the wrong actions, WinUAE must have plugged it into the other port than what the game expects. In this case, press End+J to swap the joystick ports. You might also try pressing a different physical button on your joystick to auto-detect it the next time you start this game, so you won’t need to do the port-swapping trick.
Tip
Some action games are next to unplayable with the virtual joystick keyboard mappings (typically sports and fighting games). You really need to use a digital joystick to play these games (analog sticks found on game controllers won’t do).
There are many USB joysticks available, but quite a few have unacceptably high input latencies, so make sure to do your research before buying one. Generally, you’re better off with a 9-pin plug (DB9) digital joystick also usable with real retro computers and a USB DB9 adapter.
This is not an advertisement, but I can wholeheartedly recommend the ArcadeR 9-pin joystick by RetroRadionics and the DaemonBite DB9 USB adapter (sold fully assembled here, for example). This combination is relatively cheap and works 100% reliably with hardware-like sub-millisecond input latency. It’s a dual adapter, so you can connect two 9-pin digital joysticks to it for two-player games.
Note
As noted, the input latency can be increased by the USB joystick adapter and the joystick themselves, but also by certain vertical syncing (vsync) methods. Both need to be kept low if you want hardware-like low latencies in action games.
This is an advanced topic; see the Customising your setup section for details.
Two-player games¶
The Amiga was one of the last machines in a long line of home computers that had a healthy dose of two-player games. Many sports and fighting games (e.g., Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe and IK+) support “player vs player” gameplay.
Two-player games are great fun, so make sure to try them if you have two joysticks and a friend not afraid of some healthy competition!
Gamepads¶
You won’t find many Amiga games that were designed for gamepads, but many CDTV and Amiga CD32 games cannot be played without one. See the CDTV and Amiga CD32 games section for further details.