MEGA65 expands with Amiga core support for Workbench 1.3 and games

The MEGA65 has moved well beyond its original Commodore 65-inspired brief. Its latest Amiga core can now boot Workbench 1.3 and run Gods, the 1991 platform game from the Bitmap Brothers. That’s a meaningful step. Workbench proves the core can handle an operating environment, disk access, mouse input and normal desktop interaction. Gods pushes it in a different direction, testing scrolling, graphics, sound and controls inside a commercial game. Put the two together and you get a much clearer picture of where the project stands. It works. It’s also still early.

Workbench gives the core a proper workout

A Workbench screen might not look demanding, especially beside a fast-moving game. Underneath, though, several parts of the Amiga hardware model have to work together. The system needs to load Kickstart 1.3, read disk images, display the desktop, track the mouse and respond to menus, icons and windows. If one of those pieces falls over, the whole experience quickly starts to feel broken. That makes Workbench more useful than a simple boot logo or technical demo.

Games sometimes rely on a limited set of hardware features. Developers can also choose software that happens to behave well on an unfinished core. Workbench is harder to hide behind because it keeps several systems active at once. You move the pointer, open windows, access disks and interact with the machine in a way that feels familiar to anyone who has used an early Amiga. The result isn’t just a static screen. It’s a functioning desktop.

Gods tests a very different workload

Then there’s Gods. The Bitmap Brothers’ platformer has detailed graphics, scrolling levels, animation, sound effects and controls that need to respond without noticeable delay. It’s the sort of game that can quickly reveal timing errors or graphical problems.

If the colours are wrong, you’ll see it. If scrolling stutters, you’ll feel it. If sound timing slips, the game won’t seem quite right. Running Gods shows that the MEGA65 Amiga core can do more than start an operating system. It can load and play real commercial software designed for original Amiga hardware. That doesn’t prove every game will work. Not even close. But it gives the core a practical test that matters more than another carefully chosen technical display.

This isn’t a software emulator

The MEGA65 uses an FPGA, which means developers can configure its programmable hardware to behave like another computer. In this case, the Amiga core recreates key parts of an early Amiga system inside that hardware. That’s different from opening an emulator on a PC.

A software emulator runs as a program inside another operating system. An FPGA core defines the processor logic, graphics behaviour, audio functions and supporting circuitry directly within the programmable chip.

This approach can provide accurate timing and very low input latency. Still, FPGA doesn’t automatically mean perfect. The developer has to reproduce every important behaviour closely enough for the original software to accept it. Interrupt timing matters. Disk routines matter. Graphics tricks matter.

Amiga software often pushes the custom chips directly, so even small errors can cause visual glitches, broken sound or complete crashes. Compatibility comes from careful engineering, not from the FPGA label itself.

The alpha release still has clear limits

The core remains an alpha release. That matters. At the moment, it focuses on disk-based software loaded from ADF files stored on an SD card. The MEGA65’s internal floppy drive doesn’t work with the Amiga core yet, so users can’t simply insert an Amiga disk and start playing. The current setup also targets OCS hardware with Kickstart 1.3. In practical terms, that puts it in early Amiga 500 territory.

Don’t expect support for later ECS or AGA software. Programs that need newer chipsets, extra memory or later versions of the operating system may not run. Even software written for an original Amiga 500 could expose bugs that haven’t appeared in testing yet. That’s normal for an alpha. It just sets the right expectations.

A bigger role for the MEGA65

The MEGA65 already runs several alternative FPGA cores, covering systems such as the Commodore 64, Commodore 16, Plus/4, PET, TI-99/4A and ZX Spectrum. An Amiga core raises the difficulty.

The Amiga introduced a 16-bit processor, custom graphics chips, advanced audio and software that often depended on exact hardware timing. Recreating that system takes more work than adding another straightforward 8-bit core.

Workbench 1.3 and GODS don’t prove full compatibility, but they do show real progress. One demonstrates the desktop and operating system. The other demonstrates a complete commercial game. That’s a solid combination.

The next job is broader testing. More games, more demos and more applications need to run. Storage support, audio accuracy, input handling and chipset behaviour will all need attention. For now, the MEGA65 Amiga core sits somewhere between experiment and practical feature. It isn’t finished, and nobody should treat it as a complete Amiga replacement. But it boots. It runs Workbench. It plays Gods and probably more games. That’s enough to make the next version worth watching.

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