FAQ and common issues

 

How do I quit the FS-UAE emulator?
How do I cancel a faulty session I started?
How do I restart a game or go back to the main menu?
How do I reduce/increase the volume in-game?
How do I chat with players during the game?
How do I see the list of single-player games?
How do I  find other people to play with?
Can I see or join other sessions currently playing?
Why do I see 2 mouse pointers?
How can I adjust the mouse movement speed?
Why doesn’t my keyboard work?
How do I skip the game crack-intro?
How can I save my progress?
Our game was disconnected, how can we resume?
How do I swap disks?
What is WHD, why don’t all games have that?
Can I add my own games?
Can we use AmigaLive to play serial linked games?
Can I use my own WHDload.key or kickstart ROMs?
Why am I getting an “error #8 desync…”?
Why am I getting “error #2 starting in offline mode”?
Do I need internet in “Offline Mode”?
What are the requirements to run AmigaLive?
What requirements do I need to host a server?
Can I run AmigaLive on a RaspberryPi?

 

 

• Q: How do I quit the FS-UAE emulator?
• A: You can try any of the following:
  Alt + F4
  F12 + Q
  Hit F12 to open the menu screen, go to the top right to hover over the X and hit return (or fire if you are controlling the menu with a joystick)
  Alt + tab and close the FS-UAE if it is running in a window (you may need to ungrab the mouse using the middle mouse (scroll-wheel) button or F12 + G before you can Alt + tab out)
  Alt + tab go to AmigaLive and use the “Stop FS-UAE” button
  Alt + tab and quit AmigaLive will also prompt to close FS-UAE  (as if hitting the “Stop FS-UAE” button mentioned above)
  Note: Left Alt key will not work for emulator shortcuts when full keyboard emulation is enabled, use F12 + K to toggle
  The keys F10 or * (Asterisk)  are usually assigned as a WHDload quitkeys and may also close some WHDload games (Will also close FS-UAE for everyone connected)
  You can assign your own quit-key using the custom-setting (you can contact me in Discord for this)
  For more shortcuts, click here

 

• Q: How do I cancel a faulty session I started?
• A: You can ignore the faulty session and start a new one. The netplay server will remove abandoned or timed-out sessions when another session starts successfully.

 

• Q: How do I restart a game or go back to the main menu??
• A: Most games allow this by hitting “Escape”, some games require you to Pause the game by hitting “P” and then hitting “Escape” or “Q“.
  You can also reboot the amiga with using the three finger salute (Ctrl key + left Amiga key + right Amiga key) which emulated is: left Ctrl + left Windows-key + right Windows-key.
  An emulation reboot can also be performed with modifier key F12 + R or left Alt with R (will not work with full keyboard emulation enabled).

 

• Q: How do I reduce/increase the volume in-game?
• A: The shortcut keys to reduce the volume are F12 + , (Comma-key or < symbol key)
  The shortcut keys to increase the volume are F12 + . (Period-key or > symbol key)
  Additionally, you can also use the Left Alt key instead of the F12 to trigger shortcuts
  Note: Left Alt key will not work for emulator shortcuts when full keyboard emulation is enabled, use F12 + K to toggle
  Some keyboards may require you to hold the “Fn” key to make the functions keys work.
  For more shortcuts, click here

 

• Q: How do I chat with players during the game?
• A1: During an online game, you can can press the “Tab key” to toggle the chat and write a message for all players to see.
• A2: If you have a microphone, you can all join any of the available Voice channels on the AmigaLive Discord server 
  (Preferably use a headset or lower the volume on your speakers so not to allow any game audio echo back through your microphone)

 

• Q: How do I see the list of single-player games?
• A: The main focus of the project was to cover multiplayer games with netplay and not to compete with other emulation products.
  Since more and more users demanded the ease of use that AmigaLive offers to be available for more games, the single-player games-list was created.
  You can switch lists from the top menu “Game-Lists”, or by clicking on the games-list label.

 

• Q: How do I find other people to play with?
• A: AmigaLive has an IRC client built-in and available, but the IRC channel is quite dead.
  There is no official game-lobby at the moment but you might have more chances by asking in Discord or even through the Twitch.tv channel’s chat.

 

• Q: Can I see or join other sessions currently playing?
• A1: No,  all connections are performed only during the session startup, once the game is started you cannot see or join the session anymore.
  All players must quit the current game and start a new session with the exact amount of players (connections).
  if you see active sessions of games, those are possibly dropped sessions which failed during startup.
  A2: You can see sessions in progress only if the players chose the option to stream their gameplay on the twitch.tv/amigalive channel.

 

• Q: Why do I see 2 mouse pointers? one from the host PC and one in the emulator when I play mouse games.
• A: Use the middle mouse button (scroll wheel button) to grab/ungrab the mouse in the emulator window.
  Additionally you can use  the shortcuts F12 + G or left Alt-key with G.
  You can also start the emulation with the mouse already grabbed by enabling the “Mouse Grab” option in AmigaLive.
  (This was deliberately disabled so that new users don’t ungracefully restart their PCs while being locked in the emulator window)
  For more shortcuts, click here

 

• Q: How can I adjust the mouse movement speed?
• A: You can set the “Mouse speed” in AmigaLive before you start the session, go to “More Options” and change the “Mouse Speed” option, increase for faster, decrease for slower.
  Any changes require you to start a new game session to see the result. I had to set mine to “98” to get the required results (default is 100).

 

• Q: Why doesn’t my keyboard work?
• A: When choosing “keyboard” in AmigaLive as a controller, this means it emulates a “Joystick” using that keyboard layout (default: right Ctrl to fire and Arrow keys to move).
  In the game you should pick a “joystick” as a controller even if it has an option for keyboard,  otherwise if no joystick is available for that player, leave the default keys as is,  configurations have already been mapped  for using the default keys to a controller port for each game. More information and details can be seen in the game notes.Additional info/workarounds:
  A) You can set your controller from “keyboard” to “none” using the F12 menu, this will disable the virtual joystick using the arrow keys.
  B) Use a joystick or any other keyboard layout other than “keyboard”, so not to use the arrow keys to map a virtual joystick.
  C) Any player connected using a controller other than “keyboard” can use the keyboard arrow keys, as they are not mapped to a virtual joystick.

 

• Q: How do I skip the game crack-intro? (The game is playing a tune with scrolling text during boot)
• A: This is the common crack-intro, which usually requires you to press left-mouse-button for it to skip.
  Player 2 is usually on the mouse port, so he has to hit fire on his controller to skip it.
  Additionally, you can hit F12 and set any controller (keyboard, joystick, mouse) on the mouse port (2nd port from the top) and hit its fire button (right-Ctrl key for keyboard or left mouse button for mouse controller).Note1: Sometimes games require you to hit the Escape-key or Return-key or both left-right mouse buttons to exit the crack intro.
  (You are not a real Amiga user if you have never smashed all the keys and buttons to exit a cracktro)
  Note: By default, AmigaLive toggles the mouse-port autoswitch to automatic when playing games in “offline mode”, so it should not be an issue for most cases.
  Note2: For games that have mouse/joy auto-switch enabled, this is not a problem, but for game configurations which this is disabled, (as in most 2 player games, so hitting the mouse doesn’t interfere with the player on the mouse port) the issue might appear when a single player plays a 2 player game on the twitch stream-server (which is not running in offline mode).

 

• Q: How can I save my progress?
• A: Use Save-States through the F12 menu. They do not work 100% with WHD/HD games as there is still improvements required.
  Saving on disks through the game itself will not work, and even if it does, all modifications will be deleted/discarded as soon as the next game session begins.
  This is done on purpose as the my main focus is stability for netplay without desyncs.Saving may be an issue as Save-States are not fully compatible with the WHDload games and AmigaLive removes any disk modifications to avoid desyncs while in multiplayer.Note: In-case you encounter VBR ‘resload_Diskload‘ issues, please report the game in the Discord bugs list so a “theoretical” fix is applied to that configuration.
  You will need to scrap the current Saved-States before trying again after the “theoretical” fix is applied and there are no guarantees it may work.

 

• Q: Our game was disconnected while in a critical stage, do we lose our progress?
• A: Yes and No, this is case by case scenario.  if no saved-states happened during the game, one person can still save the state and transfer it to all connecting members by selecting the “Saved-State” he wishes to transfer in AmigaLive before starting the game (some servers may not support transferring the state correctly). This is more like a hit/miss situation as some states might not be compatible with WHDload or HD games, but should usually be good enough for example to complete the round of “Worms” or other games.

 

• Q: How do I swap disks when a game is requesting me to switch disk number?
• A: Check on the game side-notes before starting, some configurations allow you to use the shortcuts to swap disks in DF0, Ctrl+F1 for disk #1, Ctrl+F2 for disk #2 and so on.
  Another way to swap disks is to hit the menu key F12 and go to the bottom and hit enter on DF0 and enter again to swap the disk.Note: Some games are compatible with loading from multiple drives (maximum of 4 floppy drives), allowing the Amiga to handle up to 4 simultaneous mounted disks.

 

• Q: What is WHD, why don’t all games have that?
• A: Most games in the AmigaLive list are replaced with WHDload versions of the game (WHD), which means that they are HD installed and do not require manual disk swapping.
  This goes back to the era where not all Amiga games could be installed or copied to the hard-drive because most commercial floppy disks were not using a filesystem table, these were also known as NON-DOS disks.
  WHDload installations added the option to create a whole image file of the 880kb disk(s) and use a custom “game.slave” file to load them from hard-drive or preload them to Fast-RAM (optional).
  This also allowed for many features and adaptations per game, allowing more compatibility, as WHDload could load kickstarts ROMs from other Amiga models and add extra features such as 2nd button for performing specific in-game actions, trainer modes etc..
  Each game requires its own adaptations and its own unique .slave file, so WHDload support is not available for all commercial games.
  The WHDload project continues up to this day, game adaptations or patches can be requested through their support website http://whdload.de/Note: The most common quit-keys for WHDload games are the * (Asterisk) and the F10 key. The quit-key will close the game and emulator,  so use with caution!

 

• Q: Can I add my own games?
• A: Currently no, you can request a game to be added in the  Discord #wishlist but it is required to be either multiplayer or a worthy to play single-player game.

 

• Q: Can we use AmigaLive to play serial linked games?
• A: No, serial link is not fully supported in FS-UAE so AmigaLive cannot tap into that feature.
  I recommend you use Parsec with WinUAE (master/slave) for those type of games (tested and works great).

 

• Q: Can I play single player games using AmigaLive?
• A: Yes, although AmigaLive was created with the focus on multiplayer games using the same Amiga.
  There is a “Single-Player” game list which can be selected from the AmigaLive “top-menu bar”, but saving your progress using saved states might be of an issue as mentioned earlier.
  So for safer results, I suggest you use other game resources such as OpenRetroDB, AmigaForever etc..
  You can create your own configurations with the FS-UAE Launcher and use them locally. Experimentally, there is a configuration called “Workbench 3.0” which includes most known single player games downloaded from whdownload.com and launched through iGame  and allows you to build on that using your own local HDD by following the configuration notes.

 

• Q: Can I use my own version of WHDload or kickstart ROMs?
• A: No, everyone needs to have the exact same configuration and machine specs. Therefore updating these files manually will cause desyncs.
  However, it is highly encouraged to own a copy of the kickstart ROMs by purchasing them from the AmigaForever website .
  You can download the AmigaForever-Essential for Android  package which includes most common ROMs and costs less than $3.

 

• Q: Why am I getting a “error #8 desync emulation running on offline mode”?
• A: Make sure you are using the same version of FS-UAE and have not tampered with adding hardware changes in the custom settings.
  A slow computer system, network issues, HDD differences or changing controller mode during a game may also cause an error #8 desync.

 

• Q: Why am I getting “error #2 starting in offline mode”.
• A: This means you are not using the same password as the one who initiated the game.
  Check under “More options” for the password field and update it according to the game host , the default password for everyone is “amiga” (without the double quotes).
  If you are a streamer and do not want to share the password with viewers, you can safely transfer the password to others using the IRC Chat feature included in AmigaLive.

 

• Q: What are the hardware and OS requirements to run AmigaLive + FS-UAE emulator with netplay?
• A: AmigaLive is just a front-end application only used shares configurations with FS-UAE being main emulator, this means you can close AmigaLive after FS-UAE starts so it doesn’t consume any resources after the connection, keeping AmigaLive running shouldn’t make much of an impact on high-end machines.Since the main emulator is FS-UAE, we are basing our requirements for this by application alone and by user experience.
  Any modern commonly used 64bit OS (Linux, MacOS or Windows) should be ok.
  Any x86 CPU with passmark single-thread performance over 940 (Core2 Duo E6600+)
  Network requirements: Low latency ping to the server with less than 60ms for any fast paced games and up to 150ms high for slow paced games.
  Minimum speed is ISDN line 128kbs, but I recommend fast ADSL internet with at least 0.01 Mbps upload (PSTN line is not recommended)
  Wi-Fi might not give a good experience for the majority of users as its network quality may be saturated and have lots of disturbance from the surrounding environment.Requirements for streaming on Twitch.tv/AmigaLive:
  Same Network requirements as above. The stream is not broadcasted from your own PC, but from the connected spectator client, therefore the network demands are the same.
  No OBS required (for the same reason as above)
  No Twitch account required (But I do suggest you have one and associate it with your netplay-tag by using the !tag command in the twitch chat, so that the viewers know who is playing)
  No subscriptions required to stream (I do not require you to subscribe to my channel, playing is more than enough to contribute)
  No fees

 

• Q: Can I run AmigaLive on a RaspberryPi?
• A: This is currently in the tests by a few users, AmigaLive is already compiled for ARM32, but the FS-UAE emulator does not yet have an official binary to run on a Pi.
  I do not offer any support in compiling FS-UAE for RPi so you are on your own on this until it is officially supported by the FS-UAE vendor.
  The FS-UAE vendor is working on optimizing the software so that an Rpi400 can run a stock A500 and A1200 configurations with cycle exact emulation.
  There are unofficial FS-UAE compilations for Rpi, but features such as “JIT” are not implemented/supported. I use JIT to enhance a few A1200 configurations which demand 3D performance and with this feature missing, desyncs are bound to happen.
  Additionally, running FS-UAE on anything less than an RPi4/400 may give synchronization problems and thus a bad overall experience.
  Since AmigaLive uses quite a few A1200 enhanced configurations, might have to create a list with RPi compatible games.

 

• Q: I’m running in “Offline Mode” do I still need to be connected to the internet?
  A: Yes, AmigaLive requires to be connected to the internet so it can download all available game configurations on startup and retrieve the required game files during launch.

 

• Q: What OS and requirements do I need to host an AmigaLive server?
• A1: if its for temporary usage, you can choose to to start a local netplay server.
  You need to create a port forwarding rule on your router to point to your machine running AmigaLive. One TCP port is required (preferably you can use TCP/UDP port 27886 as this is also used by default for Kaillera SWOS). This configuration is required only once unless you change network adapter settings on your computer.
  Now all that remains is to open AmigaLive and under the “More Options” menu select the “Start as Host” and pick the port you setup earlier (default is 27886).
  You can then choose any “Server Location” to start the game.
  *The “Start as Host” option, does not remain permanently enabled, this was done on purpose because people tend to forget it enabled. So check every time before you start a new game.
  *Doesn’t matter which server you pick anymore, the game started will be deployed with a game configuration storing your external IP:port information on that server,  so anyone connecting to that game will automatically use your external IP:port and bypass the original server IP:port, making it seamless for everyone connecting.
  *You can also use this feature when playing single-player games on the twitch stream-servers to ensure you have the best latency for fast paced games (ex. Pinball)
• A2: if you want to host a permanent server which can be found in the AmigaLive server location list:
  System requirements:
  CPU equivalent of a Rpi 3B+ or faster
  64MB RAM minimum (256MB recommended)
  10GB HDD (Suggested to have about 1.5GB HDD space free after the setup for OS updates etc.
  OS and software requirements:
  Debian 8-10 (RPi default OS or any Debian based OS).
  I will need SSH with super user access to setup Apache, PHP and Python on the host
  Network requirements:
  Static IP (or domain name)
  1 Mbps minimum upload speed (0.2 Mbps per connection)
  Port forwarding of about 6 to 10 sequential ports (recommended TCP ports: 24511-24520)
  1 HTTP port (recommended TCP port: 24508)
  1 random port for SSH access (I need this to connect and deploy the server and test netplay)
  Time required for the deployment: 1 hour (usually takes less, but I need this time without interruptions in-case something goes wrong and I need to troubleshoot)