Jammy: a brand-new Amiga emulator for Linux not based on WinUAE

For many years, Amiga emulation has largely revolved around one major project: WinUAE. It has become the standard solution for running Amiga software on modern systems and has served as the foundation for many other emulators over time. Because of that, most Amiga emulators today are based on the same underlying technology that traces back to the original UAE (Unix Amiga Emulator) project. Over the years this shared codebase has been improved, expanded, and adapted to run on many platforms, making it the backbone of modern Amiga emulation. Jammy takes a different path. Developed by Jim (jimshawx), Jammy is an Amiga emulator that is being written completely from scratch. It is not based on WinUAE, and it does not reuse code from the UAE family of emulators. Instead, the project aims to recreate the Amiga hardware using an entirely new implementation. In a scene where most emulators share the same technical heritage, this approach immediately makes Jammy stand out. Starting from a clean slate allows the developer to design the emulator in a new way rather than building on decades of existing code and design decisions.

Creating a new emulator from the ground up is not a small undertaking. The Amiga was built around a Motorola 68000 processor and several custom chips that handled graphics, sound, and memory access. These chips—Agnus, Denise, and Paula—worked together closely and were responsible for many of the features that made the Amiga special. Games and demos often relied on very precise timing and direct hardware interaction, sometimes even using undocumented behaviour to achieve certain effects. Recreating this behaviour in software requires careful implementation and a good understanding of how the original system operated. Jammy attempts to rebuild these systems independently. That means implementing the CPU, the custom chips, and their interaction without relying on existing emulator logic. Because it is not derived from the UAE architecture, Jammy represents a fresh interpretation of how Amiga hardware can be emulated. For developers and enthusiasts interested in emulation itself, this can be particularly interesting because it offers another way to study and understand the machine’s behaviour.

The project is still in development, but it has already reached some important early milestones. Current builds have demonstrated the ability to boot Amiga Workbench and run a number of classic applications and games. For a new emulator project, this indicates that the basic systems are starting to work together correctly. Like most emulators in early development, compatibility and accuracy will likely improve gradually as more hardware features are implemented and tested. Some might wonder why a new Amiga emulator is necessary when mature solutions already exist. In practice, independent emulator projects are valuable for the preservation and study of older systems. Multiple implementations help confirm how the original hardware behaved and sometimes reveal differences or inaccuracies that might otherwise go unnoticed. They can also encourage experimentation with different design approaches and help keep interest in the platform alive. Jammy may still be at an early stage, but its main idea is clear and straightforward. It is a completely new Amiga emulator that is not based on WinUAE or any other UAE-derived code. In a field where most tools share the same roots, that alone makes Jammy an interesting project to watch as it continues to develop.

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