The Amiga family of computers needs no introduction. Some of its models were the first computers for thousands of users, and although the Commodore 64 holds a special place in our hearts, simply hearing a name like Amiga 500 brings a smile. The number of games available on the Amiga was spectacular, and with the help (again) of the Internet Archive, we now have access to 10,000 of them, directly in the browser.
Personally, I was one of those people who jumped straight from the Commodore 64 to a 286 clone, but every time I passed by an Amiga 500 it was impossible not to admire its graphics and sound. Imagine my situation back then: behind me was Giana Sisters and its fabulous music, making way for Prince of Persia on a monochrome screen with the computer's internal speaker, while Amiga games were a festival of color and music. Time and market circumstances made the entire Amiga family take a knee in front of the advance of PCs, yet I still feel like I “missed out on something”. Thanks to the Internet Archive and the magic of emulation, I can change that.
The Collection
We've already covered arcade games, MS-DOS, shareware for Windows 3.1, and Apple II titles, and now 10,000 games compatible with the Amiga platform. Some of the names that appear there are truly impressive: Bubble Bobble, R-Type, Double Dragon, Frontier: Elite II, Lemmings, Arkanoid, Alien Breed, SimCity… Some are just demos, and there are many duplicate entries, but a trained eye will recognize the “diamonds” that deserve our attention.
Potential Issues
There are two details that could cause problems for this collection. The first is that emulation performance in the browser is not very good, to say the least. The Internet Archive offers the possibility to download the games in .ADF format (and run them under a local emulation environment), although that brings us to the second detail: some names on the list are without a doubt still protected by copyright. Most of them could be declared abandonware and stay on the page without issue, but if you notice that certain games disappear within a few days, it's likely due to an intellectual property claim. Until then, enjoy.
