Amiga Forever: What's New

New features* in Amiga Forever 10:

• Revamped Amiga Files: custom folders, subfolders and folder shortcuts can be added anywhere to better organize titles and to handle massive content collections
• Improved player, including personal playlists, pervasive Rename, Cut, Copy and Paste commands, and intuitive resize of preview area and emulation window
• Faster title editing and application responsiveness: quick opening and closing of the title editor (asynchronous content extraction, differential compression) and runtime optimizations when working with large media images
• Export and Import commands to back up or transfer the software configuration
• Direct support for FloppyBridge-compatible floppy drive and controller devices like the DrawBridge, Greaseweazle, SuperCard Pro and Waffle (drives work in Amiga emulation, no additional software required)
• Hayes-compatible "internet modem" to access your favorite BBS systems
• Improved Windows File Explorer and Search integration: enhanced thumbnail provider to preview screenshots and box shots, and new details in property handler to view and index RP9 title properties
• Support for new features introduced in Windows 11 and Windows 10 versions up to 24H2
• Hundreds of other new features and refinements
• Release Announcement, R2 Update, R3 Update, R4 Update

Previously introduced in Amiga Forever 9:

• New Arcade mode, with an immersive fullscreen option and game controller navigation
• New Tile ("thumbnail view") visualization mode
• Powerful column and tile field selection and sort options
• Additional visual features like Light and Dark mode, and more colorful skin variants
• New automation features (e.g. to automatically run a script or application on startup)
• Enhanced input functionality, including virtual buttons that can now simulate guest joystick events (e.g. autofire) in addition to keyboard events
• Ability to extract and run content from LhA archives (e.g. WHDLoad packages)
• Windows File Explorer and Search integration: enhanced thumbnail provider to preview screenshots and box shots, and new property handler to view and index RP9 title properties
• Support for new features introduced in Windows 10 versions 1909, 2004 and 20H2
• Hundreds of other new features and refinements
• Release Announcement, R2 Update

Previously introduced in Amiga Forever 8:

• Accurate and reconfigurable onscreen keyboards, with multi-touch support and custom mapping and shortcut options
• New fullscreen experience: change floppy disks, pause, resume, save, etc. with the mouse, keyboard or game controller without having to switch back to window mode
• Rewritten and expanded game controller, keyboard and player shortcut customization dialogs (under Tools/Options/Input), with new layout and features for both shared and custom profiles
• Direct support for additional types of game controllers
• Hard disk imaging (convert disks to images and vice versa) and support for direct-attached disks (to more easily share media between Classic Amiga and emulation systems)
• Amiga-like pervasive drag-and-drop support: media files, screenshots, audio files, and documentation files can be added to a title, and vice versa
• Setup Wizard helps set up common configuration and privacy options
• Integrated Changelog feature (in Help/About and Updates Available dialogs)
• Discord status updates
• Player and RP9 Toolbox support .uae import and conversion
• New Developer menu options
• Support for multiple-monitor and high-DPI features introduced in Windows 10 versions 1709, 1809 and 1903
• When 8-bit systems are enabled (e.g. PET/CBM and C64 systems): virtual mouse option (move text cursor with mouse)
• Numerous other new features and refinements (performance, clipboard, title editor, AROS updates, Build Image, enhanced File Explorer integration, new Facebook Graph API, etc.)
• Release Announcement, R2 Update, Detailed Changelog

Previously introduced in Amiga Forever 7:

• New playlists, with ability to add custom content folders and to change the location of built-in Amiga Files
• Option to autostart PC into favorite Amiga configuration (or CBM 8-bit, if C64 Forever is installed too)
• Titles can be run from Windows File Explorer without opening the main Amiga Forever player, adding to previous playerless preview and editing capabilities
• Enhanced PowerPC emulation features
• General and title-specific game controller personalization, including support for Xbox, X-Arcade and I-PAC controllers, virtual buttons and arbitrary keyboard layouts
• Additional input features: left-handed support, configurable autofire (also with separate fire) and merging of multiple game controllers and keyboard layouts into single emulated hardware
• All systems support "Type Clipboard" and automatic Unicode-aware mapping of typed and pasted text, also when the PC and emulated Amiga keyboard layouts do not match
• New and improved media features: pervasive RDB disk support, shared drives, deployable large disk images, etc.
• Massively improved authoring and playback capabilities, as part of a project that reached more than 500,000 lines of code (not counting open source modules, in which we are active contributors as well)
• Update checks are now over HTTPS (TLS) and are combined with digital signature verifications for enhanced integrity, confidentiality and security
• Improved security sandbox
• Numerous other new features and refinements (performance, audio, WHDLoad and AROS updates, Rescan, Build Image, dynamic warning triangles, new Facebook Graph API, visualization of RP9 manifest changes, etc.)
• Release Announcement

Previously introduced in Amiga Forever 2016:

• New user interface with gorgeous high-DPI display features ("retina"/4K density and beyond, multi-monitor)
• Ability to merge Amiga and 8-bit CBM content in single player (if both Amiga Forever and C64 Forever are installed)
• PowerPC emulation support, including 1+ GB of RAM, PCI bridge, preset devices with native OS 4.1 FE driver support, and more
• A wealth of new content configuration and authoring features (right-click a title and select Edit)
• Enhanced Amiga serial port, MIDI and printer support
• New Amiga devices for storage, graphics, sound and networking
• New Shared folder to exchange data between different Amiga configurations and the host system
• New AROS, ROMs and more
• Release Announcement

Previously introduced in Amiga Forever 2014:

• All Windows versions now come with a Windows Installer download (no need to burn or mount an ISO image to access the installer, or to wait for postal delivery).
• New Build Image feature (Tools menu of Plus Edition), to create personalized ISO images (burn to CD or DVD) and portable environments (e.g. to run from USB storage). This is similar to the "old" Amiga Forever media, except that the content can now be updated and customized.
• Support for third-party "RP-Image" templates, to generate bootable content, etc. Documentation is available.
• New Restore System Files feature (Tools menu) to reset shared components (Amiga ROM and OS files, system RP9s, etc.)
• New RP9 thumbnail provider for Windows is pure eye candy. This accompanies new and faster Open, Edit and Convert to RP9 commands accessible directly from File Explorer, to offer a better content experience outside the player.
• Set personal rating for any title (not just cataloged ones)
• New visual Screen Clip Editor, for easy adjustment of Amiga screen mode settings.
• WinFellow is now available as an additional RetroPlatform-enabled emulation plugin. You can click any compatible title and select "Play with/WinFellow", or select plugin priority and additional options in the Amiga Forever Emulation settings.
• Brand new Personal Paint 7.2 preinstalled in Workbench 3.X environment
• Updated AROS and other content.
• Enhanced Title Editor, with new media mount options and dozens of new features.
• Integration with social networks for "Now Playing" updates, manual posts and screenshot uploads
• More...

Previously introduced in Amiga Forever 2012:

• Title Editor (create and edit any configuration, for playback on the local system or elsewhere)
• Improved player interface with access to RP9 extra content, enhanced image preview, multiple web links (including external content sites), audio files, etc.
• New playback window controls to configure and display the status of each input port
• Support for new systems, including AROS and Walker prototype
• New MIDI, fullscreen scaling, mouse and other settings in Tools/Options
• Player is now based on new, faster RetroPlatform 3.0 code base
• The Plus Edition ISO image is now a DVD instead of a CD
• The Premium Edition (now on 3 DVDs) features an exclusive Dave Haynie interview video both as standard DVD video and HD-quality Windows Media file
• The Gallery section features a new RJ Mical interview
• More...

Previously introduced in Amiga Forever 2011:

• Multiple snapshots (saved states) per game
• Faster loading times (up to 10+ times faster than Amiga Forever 2010 on a system with 512 MB RAM)
• More than 100 usability improvements for a more refined and productive experience
• New user interface features to more easily swap disks, insert blank disks, grab screens, apply existing screenshots, etc.
• Enhanced integrated Workbench 1.3 and 3.X environments (new configuration settings, easy printing, etc.)
• New preset Amiga configurations, including CDTV and CD³² (seamlessly work with RP9 files, ISO/BIN/CUE images, and physical CD media)
• Extended RP9 format to support CD images (CDTV and CD³² content), embedded configuration tags and third-party editors
• Enhanced RetroPlatform Library (to recognize and configure games, etc.) with live updates
• Enhanced Export to Device functionality to save games to SD card, etc.
• Now Playing data for use by Skype, Messenger, Twitter and similar plugins
• New Gallery content
• New system ROMs (e.g. some versions that were unique to the Amiga 600 and Amiga 3000)
• Vastly improved, multithreaded content caching (no more "Building cache" or "Please wait" messages)
• Officially tested to comply with "Compatible with Windows 7" requirements, with full support for Windows Vista and Windows 7, both x86 and x64 (possibly still the first and only Windows software with custom-shaped glass-enabled skin)
• More...

Additional new and improved features that were already included in part in Amiga Forever 2009:

• All included games and demoscene productions are now in RP9 format (uses less disk space and makes it very easy to add or remove files)
• RP9 Toolbox to scan for and import/export content
• Compatible with Amiga OS add-ons like AmiKit and AmigaSYS
• New system ROMs (e.g. 0.7 Kickstart required to run the software used by Andy Warhol in the 1985 Launch of Amiga demo, Amiga 1000, A590 and A4091 boot ROMs, etc.)
• Improved documentation and help (new Tip of The Day balloon, new documentation in Windows Help format)
• Emphasis on usability: interface and settings are improved, but remain consistent with the previous 2009 version and with C64 Forever (also see Tips for Upgraders)
• Content more than quadrupled (disk images are now compressed in the new RP9 format, and also used directly by the installer)
• New "Amiga Forever Game Pack I" (more than 50 games)
• More than 100 beautiful demoscene productions
• New Gallery items: original Tripos article, "top secret" Amiga-Atari documents, and much more
• New system HDFs: complete Amiga OS 1.3, 2.1 and 3.1 installations with only a minimum of add-ons (e.g. Y2K fixes, RTG update for 3.1), but otherwise identical to the original (including file attributes as intended by Commodore, which were lost in later distributions)
• New ADFs (1.3 Extras, complete 3.1 install set, etc.)
• Preinstalled WHDLoad "kickemu" support
• New KX Light, bootable from CD and with HD installation option (now featuring live updates) and extended hardware support

Additional details about the player for Windows, which was also greatly improved in the new 2009 version:

• Revolutionary new and intuitive player interface for Windows, for easy selection and playback of games and other content
• Professional skin design with familiar "media player" interface
• Buttons and other visual controls provide intuitive access to content and emulation features (pause, resume, disk change, reboot, joystick vs. keyboard selection, window size selection, full screen, Amiga screen capture, etc.)
• The new Amiga Forever player makes it possible to double-click or drag-and-drop downloaded disk images (e.g. RP9, ADF, ADZ, etc.) to play them, using heuristic content analysis to preset a suitable Amiga hardware configuration
• The player has built-in support for dual screens (can use secondary display for fullscreen Amiga) and multiple emulation sessions
• Rather than closing an emulation session, it is possible to save its state, for example to resume a game at a later time (the session is up and running again in an instant)
• It is also possible to undo the changes from the last session and revert to a previous saved state
• Full undo of RP9, ADF, ADZ, HDF and HDZ disk writes (disk changes may be committed or discarded when exiting the emulation)
• Windowed mode visualizes games and demoscene productions as they were meant to be displayed, without large unused overscan areas
• Helpful visualization of additional details (Amiga mouse options, device status with green/red read/write LEDs, context-specific help tips, Tip of the Day balloons, etc.)
• Integrated video playback (requires MPEG-2 support by the operating system, otherwise the Amiga Forever videos can be read by any DVD player)

* May indicate Plus Edition and Premium Edition Features. The Express Edition and Value Edition may be limited to configurations that use certain 1.x ROMs, and include fewer games and demoscene productions out of the box. Gallery items and KX Light support are included only in the Plus and Premium Edition. Video content is included only in the Premium Edition. Dark mode requires Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 1809 or higher.

Features describing the "player" refer to the Windows version. Plus Edition and Premium Edition Amiga content is also usable on other platforms, with additional software (both included and available for download elsewhere).