Amiga Forever Upgrades

This page explains how to determine the software version, how to upgrade Amiga Forever, or how to update only the emulation or Amiga Explorer data sharing software.

The latest version of Amiga Forever is 2006 (internal version 2006.0.0.0).

Changes in the 2005 and 2006 Versions

Amiga Forever 2006 is available in an Online Edition (downloadable installer for Windows systems), in a Plus Edition (downloadable CD ISO image with additional Windows and platform-neutral content), and in a Premium Edition (a physical package containing the Plus Edition CD and two DVDs, combined with an instant download of the installer for Windows).

The choice to make the Plus Edition CD available for download reflects the following considerations and changes that occurred since the release of previous versions of Amiga Forever:

• Shift towards higher-bandwidth internet access
• Widespread availability of CD-recordable devices
• Multimedia content moved from CD to DVDs

Amiga Forever Online vs. Plus Edition, Standard vs. Upgrade

Both the Online Edition and the Plus Edition are also available as an upgrade, at a reduced price. The upgrade versions require an existing installation and license key.

Important information for cross-grades (Online Edition to Plus Edition and vice versa):

• The downloadable Online Edition upgrade of Amiga Forever includes the same emulation, operating system (Workbench 1.3 and 3.X) and connectivity (Amiga Explorer) content as the Plus Edition.

• The Plus Edition contains the following premium content which is not included in the Online Upgrade: Gallery, ROM and operating system files of historical interest, KX Light boot option.

• The Amiga Forever 2006 Plus Edition upgrade can also be used to upgrade an Online Edition (any version, including 2006 itself)

• The Amiga Forever 2006 Online Edition upgrade can also be used to upgrade a Plus Edition (1.0 to 6.0), but in that case the result will not include the updated CD-only content.

Amiga Forever Upgrades

Minor software upgrades between different 2005 and 2006 revisions (e.g. 2005.0.0.0 to 2006.0.0.0) are free. Please use Software Director to install these. The video content of the two DVDs has not changed between version 2005 and 2006.

If you would like to upgrade from a previous version of Amiga Forever (any version from 1.0 to 6.0) please be aware of the differences between the Online Edition,the Plus Edition and the Premium Edition. After the upgrade you will get the content of the new version you choose, not the version you originally had. Please refer to the Online Store section for additional purchasing and pricing information.

Amiga Forever - Upgrading from Online Edition to Premium Edition

If you have an Online Edition of Amiga Forever (any version) you can later purchase the Premium Edition version at little more than the price difference between the two (list prices). This includes same-version-upgrades from Online Edition to Premium Edition. Be sure to ask for the Upgrade Premium Edition when ordering the Premium Edition. Upon setup, the Premium Edition installer needs to access your existing installation.

Amiga Forever - Upgrading from Cross-Platform Version to Windows Version

The cross-platform Online Edition of Amiga Forever, which was available up to version 6.0, can also be installed on a Windows system and then be upgraded using the automatic installation procedure of the Windows version of Amiga Forever. However, for the setup procedure to be able to find the installation, the path needs to manually be written to the registry, as explained in this article.

Software Director

We recommend that you use Software Director to check if upgrades are available both to Amiga Forever as a whole and to its components (e.g. WinUAE, WinFellow or Amiga Explorer). This check can be either automatic (based on your preferred schedule) or manual (click the Check Now button). Software Director is included with all Cloanto software packages released since November 15, 2001. If you use Software Director you can skip the rest of this page.

Troubleshooting

If the Amiga Forever upgrade installer or Software Director do not appear to find your Amiga Forever installation please follow the instructions on this page. This applies both if you installed the Cross-Platform version of Amiga Forever Online Edition on a Windows system, or if you manually installed the files from a backup copy without using the installer. If you are running Amiga Forever 5.0 and you do not see a Software Director entry named "Amiga Forever 5.3 Update" then this applies to you.

Determining the Product Version

The version of Amiga Forever is normally printed on the label with the license key, in the documentation, and on the CD medium, but it can also be verified from the license key itself. The first three digits of the Amiga Forever license key indicate the manufacturing date, which can be used to determine the product version as follows:

• 132 or smaller: Amiga Forever 1.0 ("preview edition")
• 133 to 149: Amiga Forever 2.0
• 150 to 165: Amiga Forever 3.0
• 166 to 177: Amiga Forever 4.0
• 178 to 191: Amiga Forever 5.X
• 192 to 223: Amiga Forever 6.0
• 224 to 232: Amiga Forever 2005
• 233 or higher: Amiga Forever 2006

Certain components of Amiga Forever, such as the WinUAE and WinFellow emulation programs and the Amiga Explorer networking software may be upgraded individually, and as a result may have independent version numbers.

To determine the product version of the Amiga Explorer data sharing software right-click on the Amiga Computer icon, select Properties, then About.

WinUAE Upgrades

If you use Software Director to check for new versions of WinUAE, all you need to do to install a new version is right-click the WinUAE entry and select Install. This option is available exclusively to Amiga Forever customers.

Upgrades to the Windows version of the UAE emulation software (WinUAE) are also available for download from the WinUAE Home Page, and can be installed manually.

WinUAE - Upgrading from Old Versions

If you are installing for the first time a version of WinUAE with the just-in-time (JIT) compiler, and you would like to retain or import an old configuration, please be sure to change the "CPU Emulation Speed" in the CPU tab of WinUAE from "Adjustable... 5" to "Fastest possible, but maintain chipset timing". Leaving the CPU speed setting at 5 usually results in a very slow emulation, much slower than in previous versions. In the additional JIT Settings, you may also want to set Cache Size to at least 8 MB, and leave everything else to the default values.

If you are upgrading from WinUAE v. 0.8.6 (which was distributed with Amiga Forever Online Edition 2.0), you may have to manually double the amount of Chip RAM used in your favorite configuration, as the older version used internal units of 1 MB, while the newer version uses 0.5 MB steps.

If you are updating WinUAE from one of the versions which were included on the Amiga Forever 2.0 CD Edition (which were exceptionally stable, although older, releases) you must then run Amiga Forever's WinUAE Manual Configuration option in order to create and use a configuration. Your old hardfiles and other data will be retained, but all these settings need to be configured manually, and then saved, because the version of WinUAE included on the CD Edition of Amiga Forever 2.0 used a different format for the configuration data.

If you are updating Amiga Forever 5.0 (or earlier) with a version of WinUAE up to and including v. 0.8.22 R1, then you need to manually reset the read/write attributes for the disk drives (you will notice in the Hard Drives tab that the "R/W" flag is the opposite of what it used to be before the upgrade), and the CPU speed ("Fastest possible, but maintain chipset timing" settings are loaded as "Match A500 speed"). This is because newer versions of WinUAE did not properly import the "finegrain_cpu_speed=max" and "filesystem=0/1,..." settings as they were used in previous versions of the configuration files. This issue has been fixed in WinUAE v. 0.8.22 R2.

Remember to also download the "WinUAE.chm" help file, to be saved in the same directory containing WinUAE.exe, if so desired.

Amiga Explorer

Amiga Explorer is fully supported by Software Director. You can use Software Director to check both the installed and the latest version, and to upgrade the software (right-click the "Amiga Explorer" entry for a full list of options) at no cost.

To manually determine the version of Amiga Explorer, right-click on the Amiga Computer icon on the Desktop, and select Properties, then the About tab.

The current version is available both as a stand-alone package and as part of Amiga Forever Plus Edition (including upgrades).

Amiga Explorer major version numbers (1.X, 2.X, 3.X, 4.X, 6.X, 2005.X, 2007.X) usually match the major version number of the Amiga Forever package in which Amiga Explorer was first released, except for version 4.1 which was first released with Amiga Forever 5.0, and the 2005 and 2007 versions, which also shipped in Amiga Forever 2006. Amiga Explorer was released for the first time as a stand-alone version with version 3.5 of the software. Versions of Amiga Explorer previous to 3.5 were only available bundled with Amiga Forever 1.0 and 2.0 (both CD and Online Edition). Amiga Explorer 3.02 was bundled with Amiga Forever 3.0 before it was replaced with Amiga Explorer 3.5 in the Online Edition of Amiga Forever (it never appeared on a CD Edition). Amiga Forever 4.0 and 5.0 included Amiga Explorer 4.0. Amiga Explorer 4.1 was included in the Online Edition of Amiga Forever 5.x (it never appeared on a CD Edition).

Amiga Explorer 3.5 is functionally identical with version 3.02, except for the following:

• The software is now available as a stand-alone product. This does not in any way affect or require upgrades if you already own Amiga Explorer as part of Amiga Forever.
• The default packet size on both the Amiga and the Windows side is now set to 512 instead of 4096 bytes, which addresses both potential buffer issues with some serial configurations, and a possible problem of the Amiga serial.device operating in RTS/CTS mode on some versions of the Amiga operating system. This setting can be adjusted manually on all versions, so no software upgrade is required for this.
• The only new software feature of Amiga Explorer 3.5 is a Setup function which assists in the installation of the Amiga side of the software over the same null-modem cable that can then be used for the Amiga Explorer connection. You do not need this feature if you already installed the Amiga side of Amiga Explorer 3.02.

The Amiga side of Amiga Explorer consists of an Amiga executable named "AExplorer", which is installed by the Windows side of Amiga Explorer. The version of this file, as reported by the Amiga Version command, is 6.0.