Missing Link: Amiga40 – Review of the Birthday Fair
In Mönchengladbach, the world's largest Amiga festival took place: Amiga40. More than 2,000 visitors celebrated the 40th birthday of the cult computer.
(Image: René Meyer)
In the eighties, the Commodore 64 was the star among home computers. But its successor has the largest fan base today: the Amiga. It brought many things that seem obvious to us today – a graphical interface called Workbench, mouse control, later even CD-ROM and hard drives. And of course: impressive music, graphics, and animation.
The games are more complex and hardly differ graphically from today's indie games, says Dennis Pauler from the streaming project Virtual Dimension. For him, Amiga40 represents an alternative timeline that picks up in the second half of the nineties.
Impressionen der Amiga40 in Mönchengladbach (27 Bilder)
That was also the motivation for organizer Markus Tillmann. He fondly remembered the Amiga fairs in Cologne. When the Amiga's 30th birthday approached ten years ago, the idea for a gathering emerged. Initially just for the community. Then the concept grew; and in the end, the Amiga30 party was held at the Rheinische Landestheater Neuss.
Ten years later, this has evolved into an impressive mix of trade fair, community gathering, and conference – spread across two halls. NRW, the cradle of the German home computer scene, provides the fitting setting. Many of the exhibitors have been involved for decades. At the center: Factor 5, the creators of "Turrican," arguably the most popular Amiga game. "Lemmings" and "Monkey Island" notwithstanding.
Dizzying Variety
Amiga is not just Amiga. The platform has been and continues to be constantly developed. Everything is interchangeable. Casing, keyboard, processor. The multitude of offers and expansion possibilities can confuse beginners and returning users.
The Amiga 500 from 1987 has 512 KB RAM in its basic configuration; later games like "Monkey Island" or "Wing Commander" require 1 MB. The next step is the "advanced" AGA graphics (Advanced Graphics Architecture) from the Amiga 1200 onwards. The CDTV (1991, without AGA) and CD32 (1993, with AGA) consoles introduced the CD.
In 1994, Commodore filed for insolvency. The rights passed to Escom, then to Gateway 2000, and finally to Amino Development – which renamed itself Amiga Inc. Among the fruits of this odyssey was the contemporary successor AmigaOne in 2002. It runs AmigaOS 4; under the hood is a PowerPC processor. New Amigas are still called AmigaOne today; the current model is the AmigaOne A1222.
That's not all; there are plenty of alternatives. You can upgrade your Amiga with a turbo card like Vampire or PiStorm, for example. Or rely on software emulation like AmiKit, which recreates an Amiga environment on new hardware. You don't even have to deal with floppy disks anymore, thanks to USB emulators like Gotek.
To provide a suitable framework for everything, the British company iMica comes into play. Under the brand name CheckMate, they produce alternative cases for the Amiga and other computers. Their flagship is a monitor designed for retro systems, 4:3, with numerous connections from HDMI to RCA. The highlight: the monitor has slots for expansions, so-called Pods, for additional connections up to complete systems based on a Raspberry Pi, for example. The German distributor is Dragonbox Shop.
New Gadgets
At the Alinea Computer booth, the PowerShark, a USB adapter for power supply as a replacement for the bulky power supply unit, was particularly in demand. Also popular was the MAS Player, a plug-in module for the parallel port, to play MP3 files with the Amiga.
MP3 was also a topic for solo developer Gregor Schillinger aka RetroArts: He presented a remastered version of his fantasy adventure "Evil Dungeon" for the C64 with voice output. This is made possible by the new FunMP3 player, a plug-in module that plays samples from a micro SD card – controllable with simple BASIC commands.
Easy Start with a Mini Console
The easiest access is an inexpensive pre-built solution based on a Raspberry-like system; following many mini-consoles that emulate a range of built-in games. One advantage is the HDMI connection for modern televisions. For example, the popular The A500 Mini from Retro Games Ltd., which is purely focused on games. Or The 1200 with a "real" keyboard, which is announced for summer 2026. Or the A600 GS from AmigaKit Ltd., which comes with the emulator Amiberry and the Workbench alternative AmiBench and is aimed more at tinkerers.
Dispute over Rights
Developments are overshadowed and slowed down by the eternal dispute over the rights to the operating system, AmigaOS. It includes the firmware KickStart and the graphical interface Workbench. Already in the nineties, Cloanto secured rights for its emulator package Amiga Forever (for Windows, Mac, and Linux); later, Hyperion started with the further development of AmigaOS. Both parties are at odds. Who exactly has which rights is unclear; but roughly, Cloanto claims the rights for the classic Amiga systems up to 1993, up to AmigaOS 3.1; Hyperion claims the further developments of AmigaOS 3 as well as AmigaOS 4 for PowerPC.
This has many consequences. Players in the Amiga scene must observe trademark rights; users need usage rights for AmigaOS; and the further development of AmigaOS is agonizingly slow because Hyperion is the sole developer – with the handbrake on, because the market for an Amiga operating system is small. Especially since there are alternatives to AmigaOS like MorphOS and AROS, which appeal to some users.
New Games
There is no shortage of new games. First and foremost, of course, is "Die Siedler II," which was released just in time for Amiga40. After 30 years, it rectifies the injustice that part 1 was initially developed for the Amiga – but part 2 was not even released for the platform. However, the game doesn't run on an original Amiga today. A computer with an AGA chipset and at least a 68040 processor is required. The publisher is the book publisher Look Behind You, which acquired the rights from Ubisoft for this. Experienced developer Steffen Häuser, who already implemented games like "Heretic II" and "Quake" for the Amiga, was won over for the port. The basis for code and assets is the Mac version.
One of the most sought-after new releases was the tactical game "Roguecraft": the boxed version sold out after just a few hours. It's been quiet lately about the remake of "Software Manager" announced several years ago. Now a playable version has been shown; it's expected to be released later this year.
Also new is "Freak Out," a variation of "Breakout." It was developed by Michael Kafke. After the completion of his "ASM – The Computer Game" started more than 30 years ago, he has apparently developed a taste for it.
Also new is the cute jump'n'run game "Phantom Leap" by HooGames2017. Both and many other games are available in a collector's box, with a manual and data carrier, which can be a floppy disk or a CD depending on the game. Occasionally a soundtrack CD, a poster, postcards, and similar items are included.
Magazines for the Amiga
Because the print is dead is not something known in the retro scene. In addition to the magazines RETURN and Retro Gamer, the active Amiga Germany Fan'zine (in A5 format) had a booth. The French magazine Boing presented a double-sized special edition for the Amiga's round birthday, which is available in English for the first time. And of course, Amiga Future was there. The magazine has been run for ages by a volunteer editorial team around Andreas Magerl. For Amiga40, there was another special edition; and old hands know that it contains license codes for the current issues of the emulator packages Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, worth almost 60 Euros. Also fresh from the press was a double DVD with a documentary, interviews, and recordings of discussions from the previous Amiga38. A DVD for Amiga40 is in the works.
Fresh from the press came a new issue of Amiga Joker. The magazine was published until 1996 and, after a two-decade hiatus, was revived in 2017, 2019, and now 2025 for the Amiga festival with commemorative issues. Richard Löwenstein, who was already editor-in-chief back then, is leading the project. Right next to it: an equally fresh issue of ASM. The legendary game magazine, which was published from 1986 to 1995, has been re-released annually by fans since 2023.
For their long-standing commitment, Amiga Future received one of the four Community Awards; alongside the Pistorm team for the best hardware, the AmigaOS team for the best software, and the developers of "Die Siedler II" for the best game.
Books also had their premiere at Amiga40. The publisher Microzeit presented "REDO FROM START." It contains interviews with game designers from the early eighties from the USA and Japan. The project was pre-financed through a Kickstarter campaign. A second part with developers from Germany and Canada is planned to follow. Hans Ippisch, former editor-in-chief of the magazine Amiga Games, specifically chose Amiga40 as the release date for his autobiography "Drei Leben fĂĽr Games" (as a developer, as a media professional, and in the industry).
Trading Card Fever
He is one of the 20 honored guests who were recognized on a trading card, alongside composer Chris Huelsbeck ("Turrican"), streamer Amiga Bill, and Juergen Goeldner, founder of publishers Rushware and Softgold. The cards were distributed at various booths, actively traded, signed – and provided constant conversation material about where to find which card.
An exhibition of numerous Amiga models and prototypes was the first appearance of the planned Commodore Factory Museum 2.0. Collector Mario Schweder saved a large portion of the exhibits from the Factory Museum in Braunschweig, which closed at the end of 2024. He is now working towards a new permanent exhibition – as Factory Museum 2.0. He is supported by Petro Tyschtschenko, who held leading positions at Commodore Germany and later Amiga Technologies and has preserved extensive written materials such as contracts.
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A wild assembly of circuit boards was easily overlooked: Lorraine, the prototype of the first Amiga computer, as it was exhibited at CES in 1984, made its first appearance in Germany. Along with some developers from that era. They enjoy the visitors' devotion to the cult computer: In Germany, Amiga enthusiasts are particularly loyal.
Whether the event will continue is left open by the organizer, given the enormous effort for the volunteer team. In any case, it didn't happen every year: After Amiga30 came 32 and 34, the Corona years, 37, 38, and now 40. Perhaps they won't miss the iconic number 42; that would be in two years, 2027. However, the date for its little sister is set: The ARC – Amiga Ruhrpott Convention in Duisburg will take place for the fourth time on May 16, 2026.
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