AmiKit 12 released!

This weekend sees the release of AmiKit 12 from Amikit, which is a subscription-based Amiga emulation package for Windows, MacOS, Linux and Raspberry Pi. 

AmiKit 12 gives you a fully functional legally distributed Amiga system out of the box with all the bells and whistles that would take you many years to customise the standard Workbench 3.1/3.2 installation to achieve by yourself. All you need to supply is the copyrighted AmigaOS files from a legal source like Amiga Forever or Hyperion's AmigaOS 3.2.

Let's take a closer look!

As mentioned in another blog entry this month, I have been away overseas through January and most of February, so I have had no time to do anything with my favourite machines at home until this month.

As I returned to Australia in late February, I was told that there is this upcoming new version of AmiKit 12. The author Jan asked me if I would help beta test it. Of course! 

To be clear, please note that I receive no money or compensation for testing or reviewing this product. I just got early access to the pre-release versions of AmiKit 12 for beta testing prior to release.

I tested the AmiKit 12 upgrade extensively on Raspberry Pi 4B, Linux Mint 20 (Intel x64), Windows 11 (Alienware Aurora R12) and MacOS Ventura (Intel Mac Pro). 

To save some time, I can report that AmiKit 12 works very well across all platforms I tested!

It has been a busy time testing and refining, but it has been a fun and interesting experience! I wanted to share my experiences across all the platforms, so you can see what to expect on each platform.

You can see my earlier reviews of older versions of AmiKit XE 11.6 on MacOS and Windows here. 

Since that 11.6 review almost 12 months ago, AmiKit has released several updates for subscribers, and the current version at the time of the release of the latest Version 12.0 was 11.9. This is a very actively updated product!

So what is new with AmiKit 12?

• WHDLoad and most of other pre-installed games now run in full-window mode for better gaming experience. This makes a huge difference!

• CopyMem operations are 5 times faster now thanks to using the native WinUAE code. This also means much smoother solid window moving and resizing. I have tested this, and noted the improvements when using multiple multitasking applications under Workbench.

• AmiKit now supports 8K resolution, along with 6K, 4K and the previous resolutions supported. (As an aside, with a real Amiga, even with the newest zz9000 RTG Zorro card or Vampire 2/Pistorm installed, 1080p Workbench output is the maximum possible!)

• Enhanced WinUAE/Amiberry emulation engine including optimized configuration for better stability, performance and gaming experience.

• Support for the latest AmigaOS 3.2 Update 2 from Hyperion, alongside the existing supported AmigaOS versions and Amiga Forever. I installed Update 2 from Morpheuz - I did this in Windows 11 AmiKit 12 testing. 

Just place the 3.2.2 update lha from Hyperion in the Rabbithole folder, and then start the upgrade from Morpheuz System Settings menu as below. The AmigaOS 3.2.2 update is detected and installs automatically, and works well!

• AmiKit has a new white & dark look. I like it a lot!

• There are 3 new theme presets - check them out with Morpheuz (as below). Besides the default Panther one, there is a green kitty one, as well as blue one showing High Tatras mountains in Slovakia.

• AmiKit has 2 exciting new old games included: An unofficial AGA remake of Turrican II - The Final Fight!, and a Colonization-style strategy game Settle The World. The Raspberry Pi version includes a third game called Mad TV.

     

• MousoMeter, a very interesting tool measuring the distance you make with your mouse is running in background now. How many kilometers can you make? Press Ctrl+Alt+m to find out. And then RightAmiga+a (while the MouseMeter window is active) for some really funny statistics. Just don't forget to calibrate your mouse first!

• Overall system responsiveness is improved especially if using CPU intensive tasks. Just enable "Executive" in new Morpheuz > System Settings > Startup Manager. IMPORTANT: Be advised that not all programs might run as expected with Executive enabled.

• New Morpheuz 12, the tool allowing you to fine-tune system and visual settings to your preference.

• Many DOpus FileTypes have been enhanced, including the Essentials menu.

• Included special version of AmiKick (Windows only) can now recognize almost all AmigaOS Kickstart ROMs including 3.2.2. Just double-click some to display details or even extract ROM modules from it!

• For increased security, AmiKit doesn't reveal that it runs under emulation anymore.

• New software has been added such as RNOTunes (using dark theme):

• Another new software called Image2PDF has been added, allowing you to convert images to PDF in Amkit 12 with a right-click on an image as shown below.

• Being able to view PDF files using RNOPDF in AmiKit 12 is also great!

• There are new demos added (even including Terminal, an AGA demo I helped create way back in 1998 and gave permission to be included)

• Also, many existing software version updates too. eg. Hippoplayer latest 2023 version with MP3 support, latest Hollywood Player 10 and many more.

Although not new, I also covered in a previous blog post that Greaseweazle V4 works perfectly under AmiKit 12, allowing me to load real Amiga floppy disks under AmiKit 12, and install applications from real floppy disks too! It works perfectly on the Raspberry Pi also, as I tested here.

Below I am installing Deluxe Paint V onto AmiKit 12 on Windows 11, directly reading from a real original Amiga Deluxe Paint V floppy disk set I have, with connected Greaseweazle V4 hardware via USB. Really awesome we can do this in 2023.

The full list of changes in AmiKit 12 across all versions is covered in the official changelog here.

You can purchase the latest AmiKit 12 software from AmiKit's website, with a number of subscription options as below. 

You can even buy a synthetic leather USB stick with your AmiKit 12 installers on it, ready to install! If you already have an active subscription, you can download this latest version 12 at no extra charge from the Live Update in AmiKit.

I have covered builds of AmiKit for Windows, MacOS and Raspberry Pi many times on this blog, so for something different let's look at installing AmiKit XE v12 on Linux instead!

I decided to install AmiKit XE 12 on my Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon build PC, a Dell Optiplex 7810 Tower PC I bought second hand in 2021. 

 

The specs of the machine are below and I covered the original linux build of this machine in more detail in a blog post here.

 

As AmiKit was not installed on it yet, I downloaded the AmiKit XE v11.5 linux install files as the base version onto my rather cool limited edition Crystal USB stick I bought in an earlier AmiKit version. 

As AmiKit 11.5 is a subscription product, there have been many updates to the base version as mentioned, with the most recent version being v11.9. Now we have 12.0!

I already have the required Amiga Forever DVD iso image, which I have covered how to create in previous blog posts (if you bought the download-only version of Amiga Forever as a Windows MSI file )

There is also a process to get the iso file for Amiga Forever in Linux, which is covered in the installation guide PDF included with the Linux installation files for AmiKit.

 

For the installation under Linux, we need to have the free software PlayOnLinux installed on our Linux 64bit system, which I already have in place as I used the commercial product called CrossOver to install Windows applications and games under Linux.

In reality the MacOS and Linux versions of AmiKit are really the Windows version, setup to work under PlayOnLinux under MacOS and Linux. 

With PlayOnLinux launched, I can get started with the installation as per the instructions in the PDF included with the package.

 

First up we go to Tools > Run a local script

 

 This then launches the wizard in PlayonLinux to run a script file:

 

Next up we need to select the script file supplied with AmiKit Linux version:

 

The file is called POL_install_AmiKitXE:

    

I follow the instructions and Click Next through the warning messages from PlayonLinux about the script.

I then get the initial setup window for the AmiKit XE 11.5 installation:

I then select the correct setup file as per the instructions:

The installer needs Microsoft fonts and a specific version of Wine (6.10) for running Windows programs under Linux, and it immediately sets about downloading what it needs:

Job done, shortcut now placed on the desktop to run AmiKit.

PlayOnLinux install is now completed.

Having finished the initial installation, when I run PlayOnLinux, I get the two newly created programs - I select AmiKit XE and run it.

After running AmiKit XE I get the launcher, which looks the same as the Windows and MacOS versions.

On initial launch we walk through the installation process for AmiKit, same as we would on Windows too.

 

I then attached the Amiga forever iso file to the CD drive configuration in WinUAE as per the instructions in the Quick Guide.

That done, the installation process detected the Amiga Forever iso file and begins the installation process. This process is unchange in AmiKit 12, so the 11.5 install shown here is basically the same.

It then prompts for the screen mode, which I set at 1920x1080 as my Linux PC is using a 1080p screen. On my Mac Pro I use 3K, and 4K under Windows 11.

All done, and ready to restart to see the AmiKit Amiga system for the first time!

On boot, I get the AmiKit 11.5 Workbench and download the additional software when prompted. 

But of course we want to run AmiKit 12, so I need to update this. 

 

But before I do that, I need to fix the sound. Specifically, the absence of it in WinUAE under linux. I should stress that this is not a AmiKit issue, but a WinUAE issue under Linux Mint - It doesn't detect the sound driver at all - it is greyed out completely.

 

 

After some mucking around, I worked out that I needed to run the 64bit version of WinUAE under Linux Mint 20, rather than the default 32bit version setup by AmiKit under Linux. 

For this very reason, there is a 64bit version of the WinUAE 4.9.1 executable located in the AmiKit folder under PlayonLinux virtual folder in Linux as shown below. I renamed winuae.exe to winuae32.exe and copied and renamed the 64bit version to winuae.exe. 

 

 

Once I did that, and relaunched AmiKit XE from PlayOnLinux, the sound worked fine under AmiKit 11.5 using Linux Mint 20. I hope this tip helps others who run Linux and encounter this issue.

 

 

I then moved on to enter my subscription details into the Live Update program in AmiKit so I could download and upgrade from 11.5 to AmiKit 11.9. The updates went fine, and I was soon running 11.9 and ready to upgrade to AmiKit 12.

AmiKit 12 is also installed via the Live Update tool in AmiKit, and is installed via an automated process, so no further work is needed! 

 

Once completed, the AmiKit 12 desktop appears and the intro video explaining the new features appears. I can then start to play with the new version!

 

 

I tried out Hippoplayer 2023 latest version (as shown earlier in this blog post), and the other new applications included (also shown earlier). 

 

I then took some time to try out some other games I didn't try before, like Diablo. I would never have believed we would have this game on Amiga, and yet, here it is.

The heavily customised AmiStart menu unhides a pile of games, applications, utilities and settings, all easily launched from the start menu. No need to go hunting through drawers anymore!

Don't forgot to Press F12 and configure the Game port settings to use your game controller so you can play games using a proper joystick in the AmiKit 12 Amiga emulation!

I also fired up iBrowse web browser (time limited demo version - the commercial version is being updated still in 2023 and is available here). 

 

Using it, I could quickly connect to Aminet as I have since 1994, to try out the latest Amiga software under AmiKit 12. The internet connectivity is all configured out of the box. Netsurf and AWeb web browsers are also available in AmiKit 12.

The AmiKit 12 integration of the host os using RabbitHole to launch applications from the host OS is great. If you auto-hide the Linux Mate taskbar (I didn't sorry!), it will look seamless.

Having native os applications run over the top of the AmiKit environment means that you can use AmiKit 12 as your main operating environment on your modern computer, and just launch programs from Linux/Windows/MacOS/Pi 4B as needed directly from AmiKit 12! 

Adding additional programs to RabbitHole to suit your needs is straightforward too - just copy an existing script file in the Rabbithole directory, right click and edit it to point winlaunch to the host os application you want to run.

 

 

This Rabbithole setup applies in MacOS and Windows too of course - below is the MacOS equivalent Rabbithole under AmiKit 12 on my Mac Pro running MacOS Ventura using a 3K AmigaOS screenmode - click or tap on any of the photos in this blog post to enlarge them!

I could copy across my gigabytes of Amiga WHDLoad and direct load Amiga demos, games, MP3 and mods into the environment and use them without a problem in AmiKit 12, as the file types and applications to use them are already configured. 

 

Even easier still, just leave the files in a folder on the host os accessible to both, and access them directly from AmiKit 12 as the drives are all mapped into the Workbench environment automatically. 

For example, below I play mod files stored on the host Linux file system directly from AmiKit 12 in Hippoplayer.

 

In summary, AmiKit 12 is a worthwhile upgrade to AmiKit XE 11.9, and includes many new features and software.

The AmiKit 12 Amiga Workbench RTG environment is a labour of love and looks amazing, with a lot of attention to detail evident everywhere, and so many scripts and enhancements that make usually frustrating tasks under standard AmigaOS a whole lot easier to achieve. 

Morpheuz 12 saves a lot of time hacking scripts and is a great tool.

The regular updates and quick response to any problems encountered through the official Discord support means a smooth ongoing use of AmiKit 12, and I look forward to the future enhancements to come in versions to come!

AmiKit 12 is a great product and is highly recommended.