The best Commodore 8- and 16/32-bit software emulation packages are back, this time with Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 9. There are new Arcade Tile modes via the View menu, Light vs. Dark modes, Virtual Keyboard, Virtual Mouse, Fullscreen Controls, and many more new features in this latest release.
What follows is the press release with more details:
Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 9 Released
March 10, 2021 – Cloanto released today version 9 of Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, the official Commodore/Amiga preservation, emulation and support suites for Windows.
The new editions are the result of more than two years of development since the previous major version, which also saw the parallel release of numerous free updates to the previous version, and the development of Amiga Explorer 8 and Amiga Explorer 9 (now included in Amiga Forever 9 Plus Edition and Premium Edition).
Version 9 celebrates beautiful new visual features like Arcade mode, Tile mode, light vs. dark options, and a first set of more colorful skin variants. Under the hood, hardware-accelerated technologies like Direct2D are used to provide a snappy experience. Powerful new column and tile field selection and sort options provide unprecedented control within the player interface, while a new property handler and an enhanced preview handler enable seamless content access via File Explorer and Windows Search.
New automation and title authoring features make it possible to automatically run a script or application on startup, e.g. to quickly invoke different features or games from a shared Amiga setup. This is envisioned to be only the beginning of new automation capabilities which are planned to be released over the next months.
Additional Amiga improvements include RDB disk image enhancements, while 8-bit features include new SID audio, drive and media options, and support for the MAX Machine and the C64 Magic Voice cartridge.
On the input front, shared Amiga and 8-bit improvements include the ability to use the player entirely with a game controller, and enhanced virtual buttons that can now simulate guest joystick events (e.g. autofire) in addition to keyboard events.
Hundreds of smaller new features and refinements also made it into these new versions. Windows too went through several new releases since the previous major release of Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, and the new code base provides better support for new features introduced in Windows 10 versions 1909, 2004 and 20H2.
Amiga Forever 9 is available now in three editions:
– Value Edition (downloadable installer)
– Plus Edition (downloadable installer with option to build DVD ISO image)
– Premium Edition (downloadable Plus Edition, plus boxed software and additional videos on 3 DVDs)
C64 Forever 9 is available now in three editions:
– Free Express Edition (feature-limited version)
– Downloadable Plus Edition (downloadable installer with option to build CD ISO image)
– Boxed Plus Edition (downloadable Plus Edition, plus boxed CD)
Both packages recognize and work with each other, with options to merge the different platforms into the same interface. Prices start from $9.95 (Value Edition, or special upgrade offers).
Press Release with Links
https://www.amigaforever.com/news-events/af-9/
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