posted by Mike Bouma on Mon 4th Feb 2002 05:54 UTC

"The AmigaOS XL package and system requirements"
The AmigaOS XL package comes with two 68k AmigaOS emulators for the x86 platform, namely Amithlon and AmigaXL for the QNX Realtime Platform. An included CD contains a full release of the free for non-commercial use QNX RtP 6.1 distribution and another CD includes both Amithlon and AmigaXL emulators, as well as AmigaOS 3.9 and full releases of StormC 3.0 Professional, AmigaWriter 2.0, ArtEffect 3.0 and lots of extras. Also included is a small AmigaOS XL logo label to stick onto your computer. This content comes in a nicely blue waved box with bold statements like, "The most powerful and compatible Amiga you have ever seen!" printed on it.

Some printed sheets explain the basic setup of the emulators in both German and English languages. Also included are printed German manuals for both ArtEffect and AmigaWriter. English documentation for ArtEffect, AmigaWriter, AmigaOS 3.9 and StormC is provided for on the CD.

- StormC is an Amiga Inc AmigaOS (68k/PPC) and AmigaDE certified C/C++ developer package. However the version included is only suited for 68k code.
- ArtEffect is a powerful paint program and image processor combined, which supports masks, filter PlugIns and unlimited layers.
- AmigaWriter is a good word processor which supports features like Word document import, footnote management and TrueType fonts with AntiAliasing. It also supports the use of all common and many exotic image formats through AmigaOS datatypes.

One thing that does draw the user`s attention is the look of the standardly provided toolbars for both ArtEffect and AmigaWriter, as they are drawn with use of only few colors. This was done to allow these applications to run well with low specced Amigas. Although they don`t look that bad there are more colorful looking toolbars available for download.

System requirements: Any modern x86 compatible processor. To be on the safe side, Haage&Partner states 500 Mhz and 128 MB of RAM as a minimum. In practice, it will run well on less.
- AmigaXL supports all common graphic-, sound-, modem- and network cards through QNX 6.1. To know if AmigaXL runs well on your system just download the QNX Realtime Platform for evaluation. If you can successfully connect QNX RtP 6.1 to the internet, Amiga applications running within AmigaXL will be able to use this functionality as well. The same goes for sound emulation. AmigaXL has good support for both paula and AHI retargetable sound, but to be able to enjoy this feature, your soundcard needs to be properly supported under the QNX Realtime Platform.
- Amithlon supports a much smaller variety of hardware. I successfully tested it with Matrox G450 graphic cards and the Soundblaster PCI 128. I failed to get Amithlon to work properly with ATI Rage Mobility graphic cards on several systems (used in many Laptops, including mine). Although Amithlon offers greater performance levels as compared to AmigaXL, most people would need to assemble or buy a pre-assemled PC specificly for use with Amithlon so to get the most out of this emulator.

ArtEffect 3.0 running on the AmigaXL emulator
ArtEffect 3.0 running on the AmigaXL emulator
Table of contents
  1. "A preface: The rise of AmigaOS emulation"
  2. "The AmigaOS XL package and system requirements"
  3. "Installing the AmigaOS XL package"
  4. "Using AmigaOS XL (part 1)"
  5. "Using AmigaOS XL (part 2)"
  6. "The Pros and Cons of AmigaOS XL usage"
  7. "The verdict"
  8. "Appendix: The Amiga platform and its user community"
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