Amiga OS 3.X on the PS3

Here’s a way to quickly get up and running with Amiga OS 3.X on your PS3 running Yellow Dog, complete with internet access running through the E-UAE emulator and virtual hard disks.

1. First, install E-UAE, an Amiga emulator based on WinUAE. I use the version from the Dribble repository, installed via Add/Remove Software or simply yum install e-uae. Setup instructions for Dribble and other repos can be found here. Alternatively, you can manually install the linux-ppc binary located here.

2. As noted on the E-UAE site, “you will need access to an image of some version of the Amiga Kickstart ROM (although UAE does include a ROM emulation which may work with some old games). The Amiga Kickstart ROMs are copyrighted material and may not be freely distributed (so don’t ask me for a copy). If you don’t have an Amiga from which you can legally make a ROM image, a selection of ROM images are available for purchase online from Cloanto - publishers of the Amiga Forever distribution.”

I got the Premium Edition of Amiga Forever by Cloanto, but I think the Plus and Online Editions include the same files I’m using below.

With the Premium Edition I downloaded an installer file called “afplus.exe” that I had to run on a Windows machine to extract the files. I think the Plus Edition downloads as an ISO file (in a ZIP file) so you can avoid installing on Windows. See here for more info.

The installer extracted a folder called “Amiga Files” in My Documents folder on my Windows machine. In that folder was a “System” folder. Quoting the readme file, The “System” directory contains all Amiga system files, including ROM and OS files, workbench ADF files (floppy disk images), and the ‘System” and “Work” partitions of the Amiga OS 3.X environment (which are mapped to directories on the host file system).

To transfer the contents to my PS3 I just shared the folder and copied it over my network. Alternatively you could burn the files to a CD, copy to a memory card, etc. The entire Amiga OS and applications only take up around 30 MB.

The actual folders I needed were: “Amiga Files/System/dir” (both the “System” and “Work” folders) and the “Amiga Files/System/rom” folder.

Note: It took a couple of weeks but eventually I received the CD + 2 DVDs for Amiga Forever Premium Edition from Cloanto. On the Amiga Forever 2006 CD, the System and Work folders are located on the CD under: /Emulation/System/dir. The roms are in the /Emulation/System/rom folder on the CD.

The “Amiga Files/System/dir/System” and “Amiga Files/System/dir/Work” folders will be set up as virtual hard drive partitions in E-UAE.

The “Amiga Files/System/rom” folder includes the Amiga ROM files needed by E-UAE (and also a key file required to use Cloanto’s ROMs).

So, on the PS3 I now have the following folders:
~/UAE/System
~/UAE/Work
~/UAE/rom

3. Then E-UAE needs to be configured to emulate the right Amiga hardware, use the system ROM file, and use the System and Work folders as virtual hard drives. E-UAE uses a config file in your home folder called .uaerc

To make things easier, you can copy/paste/modify this one (save it in your home folder as .uaerc ):

unix.rom_path=/home/bill/UAE/rom/
unix.floppy_path=/mnt/shared/emulators/amiga
cpu_type=68040
chipset=aga
kickstart_rom_file=/home/bill/UAE/rom/amiga-os-310.rom
kickstart_key_file=/home/bill/UAE/rom/rom.key
chipmem_size=4
fastmem_size=8
z3mem_size=64
gfxcard_size=32
cpu_speed=max
filesystem2=rw,DH0:System:/home/bill/UAE/System,1
filesystem2=rw,DH1:Work:/home/bill/UAE/Work,0
gfx_width_fullscreen=960
gfx_height_fullscreen=720
gfx_fullscreen_amiga=false
use_gui=false
gfx_linemode=double
gfx_center_vertical=true
gfx_center_vertical=smart
show_leds=true
joyport0=mouse
joyport1=joy0
bsdsocket_emu=true

Note that you’ll have to modify these file/folder locations to match your own in the above config file:

unix.rom_path=/home/bill/UAE/rom/ (the rom folder path)
unix.floppy_path=/mnt/shared/emulators/amiga (this is where I keep my .ADF floppy disk images, not necessary)
kickstart_rom_file=/home/bill/UAE/rom/amiga-os-310.rom (the ROM version required to use Amiga OS3.X or Workbench 3.1)
kickstart_key_file=/home/bill/UAE/rom/rom.key (the key file required to use Cloanto’s ROM file)
filesystem2=rw,DH0:System:/home/bill/UAE/System,1 (path to the System folder copied from Amiga Forever, works like a hard drive on the Amiga, DH0:)
filesystem2=rw,DH1:Work:/home/bill/UAE/Work,0 (path to the Work folder copied from Amiga Forever, works like a hard drive on the Amiga, DH1:)

Note that you have to use the actual path names and not ~ or $HOME …

Also, you may need to adjust the fullscreen resolution — I have mine set this way since I’m running my PS3 at 720p:
gfx_width_fullscreen=960
gfx_height_fullscreen=720

4. Finally, you can start E-UAE from a terminal window (uae) or the Applications -> Games menu in e17. With the above settings in the config file, it should load straight into the Amiga OS3.X Workbench. Pressing F12-s toggles between windowed and full screen.

You can actually run Amiga OS3.X at 1280×720, full screen, on the PS3. On the Amiga Workbench, open the System drive, then Prefs, then ScreenMode, and select uaegfx: 1280×720 32bit under Display Mode. (assuming you’re running YDL at 720p)