Nearly whole area of Amiga emulation is covered by emulation of classic models with Motorola MC680x0 processors. We have no possibility to have fun with emulation of newer models, like X1000 or X5000. Is it too complicated? Or maybe there are issues with performance? I don't know - I'm not an expert there. What could do people, which would like to check (even just as a curiosity) how does system AmigaOS in version 4? Do they have to buy Amiga NG (which is very expensive) for this purpose? Lucky we, we could do it other and cheaper way. We don't have to buy a whole brewery to drink a beer (just to check how it tastes - because drinking (speed) could be different - comment by SZAMAN) and we don't have to spend 9000 zł - about 2000 euro on X5000, to just have fun with AmigaOS 4.
What do we need? First of all - we should buy AmigaOS 4.1 FE (version for Amiga classic with PPC cards). It costs about 130 zł, so about 30 euro (June 2019). We need also a proper ROMs (available together with Amiga Forever package). And now just a accurate configuration of WinUAE, install on virtual machine and we could have a fun! It's so easy, isn't it? Very easy, when we are talking or writing about it. The issue is, that such road is not so easy. Here it was described by Krzysztof "Radzik" Radzikowski here (PL version). We have to say, that even such detailed description will not guarantee your success. So, what could do less experienced users (like for example author of this text)?
What could help us? Using Flower Pot (made by team responsible for AmiKit). I had opportunity to make some test of exclusive Crystal USB (containing also such program), so why do not take a look at Flower Pot? Here you could find description and conclusions from tests session (using Windows 10).
The instruction, attached to package, is easy and clear. I went through the process by myself and here are my experiences and comments. Hope, that it could be valuable for you.
Let's start with Flower Pot installation. It is probably the easiest part. Just please confirm and confirm until the last screen.
The next step will be collect all necessary files, which are needed to install AmigaOS 4. Lat's start with ROM file for PPC. It is named ralphschmidt-cyberstorm-ppc-4471.rom and is available (together with the rest ROMs/Kickstarts) within Amiga Forever package. By default it located here: C:\Users\Public\Amiga Files\Shared\Rom. The issue is, that on the beginning has a size 0 bytes. To get a proper size we have to launch Amiga Forever, choose "Amiga 4000 PPC", and next "Play with" and "WinUAE (64-bit)". The emulator will launch, but we could stop it just after a while - it is not important for us at this moment. The final result of this action will be a file with a proper size (about 130 kB).
The next step will be adding all necessary files in the place, where Flower Pot is already installed. The standard path is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Flower Pot\ROMs\. Let's make a summary - here is what we should have in this folder:
- ISO file with AmigaOS 4 FE Classic - file should be named "ClassicInstallCD-53.71.iso"
- Amiga 4000 ROM - amiga-os-310-a4000.rom (from Amiga Forever)
- ROM for PPC card - ralphschmidt-cyberstorm-ppc-4471.rom (from Amiga Forever, as before)
- file rom.key from Amiga Forever (if you have it)
And here it is. Now we could launch Flower Pot and choose option "Install OS4".
Flower Pot will follow us through whole installation process.
And that's all! Now we can feel how AmigaOS 4 works. Please remember, that speed depends of course on host machine, where emulation works (some additional RAM and MHz will be needed). And now you could answer by yourself - is there any sense to put your money and buy computer with PPC processor (it is not a cheapest toy) to use it natively. The answer will be only yours. It is the easiest and quite cheap way to check your assumptions. And of course a way to verify questions about buying Amiga NG machine.
PS. Many thanks to Krzysztof "Radzik" Radzikowski. Without you it could be extremely hard to finish this text.
