Best Amiga emulators for Android
Amiga is a word that maybe means nothing to a lot of people these days but, for many of us who were born in the 80s, Amiga is a big part of our youth. We decided to make a list of Amiga emulators for Android for all of the old-school gamers whose heart skips a beat whenever you mention some of the gems of their time.
I was the lucky owner of an Amiga 500+ and looking back now, I can definitely say that this machine was the reason why I fell in love with gaming in the first place.
I can't even begin to count how many hours I've spent playing TVS Boxing (one of my favourite games of all time), Sensible Soccer, Vroom, Afterburner, Lemmings, Turrican, Double Dragon, Golden Axe, Barbarian and the list goes on and on. There are so many titles, it would take a whole article just to write all of them and I'm sure everyone has their favourite one.
If you are feeling nostalgic and you are looking to take a trip down the memory lane to relive the Amiga gaming experience on your mobile device, or if you are just curious to see how games were back in the day you are at the right place. In this article, we will take a look at the best available Amiga emulators for Android. We already covered one of these in our article on 'How to play Amiga games on Android'.
1
AnUAE4All
AnUAE4All isn’t free like the other emulators on our list. It’s available for $2.99 on PlayStore but it does work. I could even set up an old PS3 controller to play Turrican at a decent frame rate. It’s not perfect of course. There are issues with it, but there are many problems with Amiga emulators for Android devices in general. Also, be aware that you might run into problems if you install this app on Android 11.
2
Uae4all2
Sadly I couldn't make Uae4all2 run pretty much anything. I ran into several problems, from storage permissions to a non-responsive interface, you name it. Maybe it will run on older Jellybean devices. Since I couldn't have any personal gaming experience with it, it wouldn't be fair to rate it. But since it's free and it's available on the Play Store, maybe it will run on some devices if you feel like giving it a try. Of course, you are going to need to find a Kickstart ROM for it.
3
Uae4Droid
The interface on this one might remind you of how MS-DOS used to be back in the day. The bottom line, it’s pretty basic but it does work. You will need to find your own Kickstart ROM though. ‘Amiga Forever Essentials’ offers numerous ROMs but it’s not free. It’s available for $1.99 on Google Play.
When you finally manage to play a game, the controls are somewhat buggy. Of course, it also depends on the game. Some will play better than others.
4
Uae4arm
Uae4arm is the closest thing to WinUae (probably the best Amiga emulator for PC) as its interface is pretty much identical. There are many options available that you can play around with if you are an experienced user. It also comes with a default Kickstart ROM, so all you have to do is download an Amiga game (.adf), load it up on the virtual floppy disk(s) and cross your fingers. Sadly not every game is playable in my experience.
5
RetroArch
RetroArch is my favourite Amiga (and not only) emulator for Android devices. The problem is, it’s not exactly ‘plug and play'. There are several things that you need to do in order to play games. You need to download PUAE core, you need Kickstart Roms to be renamed a certain way and stored in the /RetroArch/System folder. Of course, it doesn’t include any Kickstart Roms so you’ll either have to dig around the internet or get ‘Amiga Forever Essentials’ for 2$ on PlayStore.
