Just wanted to announce that besides porting the modular Retro Emulation System to AmigaOS4, AmigaOS3, AmigaOS3 WarpOS and MorphOS I now started working on an AROS (x86) version.
Like for the others it will be "Get the Betaversion against a donation" - the final version will be free (PayPal: tirionareonwe@gmail.com). I already got one quite generous donation for it.
If you wonder what RetroArch is - it is a modular Emulation system, where the central application handles graphics, sound, gamepad etc. Someone doing an emulator then only needs to do the "Core" (without graphics, sound etc.). Porting a "Core" is much easier than porting a whole emulator, and all Cores then get the same features as to graphics sound etc. There is a very large amount of Cores available (on AmigaOS4 version for example I have MAME up to 0.174, SNES9x, PicoDrive, NeoGeoCD, Mednafen, Vice and a lot of others).
We are most hopeful for a Retroarch compilation for x86_64. We have many emulators for 32-bit, but not yet for x86_64 (Retroarch would perfectly fill this gap). I have sent a donation, and I will probably add something else when the emulator is ready to run.
I am trying my best to get it running (note I am on holidays from 18th to 29th though, not sure if I get it up and running before the 18th, if not it will take till September for the first working Beta). And yes, as to emulations that would benefit your platform enormous (I had a look what is available right now).
The complete list of the cores I have working (on the other targets, AmigaOS4, AmigaOS3 68k, AmigaOS3 WarpOS and MorphOS - and once I get the base exe running on AROS getting the Cores compiled will be something far more simpler) are the following:
A5200, Beetle NGP (NeoGeoPocket), Beetle PCE (PC-Engine, Supergrafx16, PC-Engine CDROM), Beetle PSX, Beetle Supergrafx, Beetle VB (VirtualBoy), Beetle Wonderswan, Caprice32 (Amstrad CPC), FBNeo, FreeChaF (Channel F), FreeIntV (Intellivision), Fuse (ZX Spectrum), Gearcoleco (Colecovision), Genesis Plus GX (Sega Mastersystem, Sega Megadrive, Sega Megadrive CD), Geolith (Neogeo AES&MVS), Handy (Atari Lynx), Mame 2003 (0.78), Mame 2003 Plus (0.78+), Mame 2010 (0.139u4), Mame 2015 (0.160), Mame 2016 (0.174), Mame Current (currently runs on no target due to out of memory but compiles and links, maybe it could run on AROS?), MGBA, NeoCD (NeoGeo CD), PicoDrive (Sega Megadrive, Sega Megadrive CD, Sega 32x), Prosystem (Atari 7800), QuickNES, SNES9x2010, Stella2014 (Atari 2600), Vice (C64), Virtual Jaguar. Have done some work on PUAE but the UAE Core does not work currently.
Some of the cores probably would run much better on AROS than on the other targets due to AROS having x86 CPU (for example Picodrive 32x Emulation has an optional JIT which only supports x86 and ARM CPUs, same on Beetle PSX).
Actually I am compiling rigjht now for x64 (and x32 later ^^). If 64 Bit Support is proving problems I might have to reverse that strategy.
>What version of AROS are you using, native or hosted?
I am running ArosOne 64 Bit on QEmu.
>How are you finding AROS compared to the other Amiga like OS?
Generally I prefer AmigaOS 4, but there are some features of AROS I like (for example that there is no memory limit - this might play a role with "Mame Recent" Core. Personally my opinion is though that all Amigaoid's need to stick together, "alone" we are too small (was not always my opinion, but is now for quite some time).
AROS Support will be rare from me, as mostly I do commercial game ports, and for those it is "licence fee once per operating systems supported" (while AmigaOS 4, AmigaOS 3 - 68k or WarpOS - all fit in to get it using an AmigaOS licence, and with a AmigaOS3 WarpOS version even a version compatible to MorphOS can be done - note for 68k AROS the same works out, as it can run - at least with Apollo OS - AmigaOS3 68k executables).
But in case of RetroArch - why not an AROS version ? ;-)
Update - I got the main exe running on 64 Bit AROS now (Fullscreen still has color issues, but Window mode already fully works, the color issues I think are easy to fix). Now compiling a first Core to really test it.
Okay, loading the Core does not yet work, still problems with the Dynamic Loading mechanism. I need to fix this for AROS.
Edited by MagicSN on 11-08-2025 13:44, 2 months ago
I did not deliver anything either yet which works. Hope I am on a good way though. Dynamic loader sort of works (just Executive the cores still crashes but I think I understand now why and
hopefully will be able to fix it).
I did not deliver anything either yet which works. Hope I am on a good way though. Dynamic loader sort of works (just Executive the cores still crashes but I think I understand now why and
hopefully will be able to fix it).
Thanks for the Icons. I already have icons for OS4 and OS3.x release. But the MOS and AROS versions might be handy eventually ;-) Just not sure if I can get the first Beta working before my holidays, might be after it.
Okay, take a look at all the icons. If they're not suitable, I can make some changes. They're all PNG, DualPNG for AROS and OS3, while the OS4 ones are in the PowerIcon OS4 style. The MOS ones, on the other hand, are normal PNGs in the MOS style.
EDIT:
Replaced the archive attached here, added Icon Installer and deleted the OS3 and OS4 icons that you didn't need.
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