FS-UAE vs Meta Amiga Emulator

FS-UAE is a free Amiga emulator for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with an emphasis on games and support for high-end Amiga systems. It emulates systems including the Amiga 500, 500+, 600, 1000, 1200, 4000, CD32, and CDTV. It accepts floppy images such as ADF and IPF, CD-ROM images such as ISO and BIN/CUE, and computer folders mounted as Amiga hard drives. Its optional graphical Launcher configures the emulator without configuration files and can identify games through the Open Amiga Game Database, retrieving covers and screenshots. The Launcher can also recognize many archived WHDLoad games. An on-screen menu supports gamepad control for tasks such as changing disks and loading save states. FS-UAE supports cross-platform online play and offers graphics options including aspect correction, zoom, shaders, and visual themes. It is free software under GPLv2, with some project parts and dependencies under other open-source licenses. It requires a moderately fast computer with accelerated OpenGL graphics; a gamepad or joystick is recommended, and users should ideally have the Kickstart ROMs for the systems they want to emulate.

Meta Amiga Emulator is a free, open-source project intended to emulate Commodore Amiga systems on macOS, Linux, and Windows. Its planned machine range includes A1000, A500, A500+, A600, A1200, A2000, A3000, A4000, CDTV, and CD32 systems. The specification covers floppy, hard disk, directory-mapped, and CD media, with formats including ADF, Extended ADF, ADZ, DMS, SCP, KryoFlux raw, HDF, and ISO/CUE/CHD. IPF/CAPS support is optional and requires the non-free capsimage library.

The project is written from scratch in C++23 and licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. Kickstart ROMs are not included; the project says it can load ROMs owned by the user and includes AROS as a fallback. However, it is currently pre-alpha and there is no emulator to run. The repository contains design, architecture, build work, and CI. Building the current core requires CMake 3.28 or newer, Ninja, and a supported C++23 compiler, and still does not produce a runnable emulator.