Meta Amiga Emulator vs UAE4ARM

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.

UAE4ARM is a free Android port of an Amiga emulator. It supports AGA, OCS, and ECS Amiga models and reads ADF, ADZ, HDF, ISO, CUE, and RP9 disk images. Kickstart is not included. Audio support uses WinUAE’s paravirtual AHI driver for 16-bit sound through AHI. Graphics include RTG modes sized to the device screen and an option to preserve the 4:3 ratio. Input can use touch, on-screen controls, a Bluetooth mouse, or selectable joystick and cursor-key D-pad modes. File dialogs browse internal storage, SD cards, and readable USB volumes, including removable media connected through an OTG adapter. Save-state files and preview images stay together, and users can choose the save-state folder. Release notes identify version 1.0.5.5 as the latest release and add 16-bit AHI sound support. They also state that 32-bit Android devices are supported with JIT disabled; enabling JIT can freeze the emulator when returning to emulation. The project is GPL-2.0 licensed, free of charge, and provided without warranty.