What type of software can be found here?
All kinds! Games, music, pictures, applications, tools and utilities, and random things that defy classification! And of course the demoscene — audiovisual showcases created to push the hardware to its absolute limits and show off their creators' skills.
It is all software for the Commodore Amiga series of computers that were manufactured between 1985 and 1996. It covers the models based on Motorola 68000-series CPUs, and Kickstart (the ROM portion of AmigaOS) versions 1, 2 and 3.
All the software here is freely-distributable.
How is it "free"?
The people who created this software wanted it distributed far and wide, and made it available for free.
At the time it was called "PD" software, short for "public domain". This is a misnomer, however - public domain is a legally-recognised term meaning that a work has no copyright, whereas much of the so-called PD software was actually copyrighted by their author. Following the explosion of open source software in later years, the use of the term "public domain" was more widely understood and was not applied to much software. This is the reason why this website is called "Amiga Freeware Archive" and not "Amiga PD Archive".
There are various kinds of "free" that you'll find in the archive. You are free to copy anything here, but you may have some restrictions on what you can do with it, or it may put an obligation on you some other way.
Here are some of the kinds of "free" you can find here:
Freeware - software that is copyrighted by its author, but you are free to use it and copy it however you like.
Shareware - software that you can get for free and try it out, but if you use it you are expected to pay the author for it. Decades later this can be quite a challenge, and probably the author does not care any more - but some authors can still be found online and may be very happy to hear you tell them that their creation is still being used! Shareware might only be partially functional, with deliberate restrictions - paying the author would result in you being given the fully-functioning version.
Demonstration software - a cut-down version of a commercial software package, usually with a restriction that gave you a taste for how to use the software, but limited its usefulness. An application might have its "Save" function disabled; a game demo might only contain the first level. If you liked the demo version, you could then buy the full commercial version. Again, this is probably difficult to do after all this time, and you may be limited to searching the second-hand markets to find commercial software full versions.
True public domain - as noted, most software distributed by PD libraries wasn't actually public domain, but some of it is. Public domain means there is no copyright, and therefore you can freely copy it, modify it, and do anything you like with it.
There's many niche variations on these categories (like postcardware, where you are expected to send the author a postcard if you use their software), and also much "unlabelled" software where it's not actually clear what the legal situation is.
Is this legal?
Yes - the creators wanted their software to be copied and swapped! There is no illegal commercial software in this archive, at least not knowingly.
Can I find the newest Amiga software here?
No, this is a historical archive of Amiga software distributed in the pre-Internet era. If you're looking for the latest versions and new software, check out Aminet instead.
Can I browse this website on an Amiga?
Yes! The website is designed to look good on modern browsers and still remain functional on older browsers. The pages are "XHTML 1.0 Transitional" which is backwards compatible to even earlier HTML standards. CSS is used extensively, but the pages will still be usable on browsers with no CSS support. The website is tested on IBrowse 3 - and although the website looks pretty basic on that browser, it is still fully usable.
The web server does require modern TLS. AmiSSL supports modern TLS, so although you can use an older browser, you will very likely need to get the latest version of AmiSSL.
What are "PD Libraries"?
Essentially, they were software retailers - send them some money and they would send you some disks. But because there wasn't as much as a profit motive, the disks were very cheap.
The PD libraries built up a catalog of titles. Their disks were numbered, and on request they would send you a catalog disk which listed everything they had. When you bought disks, you would request specific disk numbers. PD libraries often carried each other's catalogs too.
Why are some collections missing disks?
It's difficult to tell. Most of the archive content came from CD-ROM compilations, which simply omitted some titles. The CD-ROM catalogs didn't explain why disks were missing, so we are left to guess as to why. Occasionally a commercial software title would accidentally end up in a PD library catalog, and that title would have to be withdrawn from the library for copyright reasons. Titles may also be removed for other legal reasons, or because they contain content that the PD library no longer wants to distribute (in the early days, some PD libraries distributed some adult content, and later removed it). Disks are also a fallible and sometimes fragile medium, and especially in the later days it's possible that during the transfer to CD-ROM that some disks had deteriorated and could no longer be read.
Will this work on my Amiga?
Generally, titles in the archive work on all Amigas, but incompatibilities can be a minefield.
The Amiga product line evolved over its lifespan, and new features were added to the hardware, and new updates to the operating system made. Titles made for the later hardware and/or operating system will obviously not work on earlier ones. In particular, titles made for "AGA" Amigas - the 1200, 4000 and 4000T - will not work on earlier models.
As far as the OS goes, generally older software works on newer OS versions, but this is not always the case. Especially in the early days of the Amiga, and despite clear warnings from Commodore against it, some programmers misused Kickstart, bypassing the correct AmigaOS interfaces and instead making incorrect assumptions about the OS internals. Such software was liable to crash in weird and wonderful ways when run on newer OS versions.
Finally, while most titles would run on Amigas with either no expansions or with very common expansions, very occasionally a title would require an Amiga with a larger expansion. This was unusual so would expect to be clearly stated in the title's description.
So working out compatibility can be tricky. There is some effort to catalog in the Amiga Freeware Archive the exact hardware requirements, but this is not fully developed and may have significant inaccuracies.
Is there a risk of viruses?
Generally, no, the PD libraries want to keep their titles safe - distributing viruses was bad for business. But it's very difficult to guarantee this, and mistakes did occasionally happen, leading to publishing a title containing a virus.
To minimise the risk of damage from a virus infection, use the disk's write-protection tab as much as possible, and switch your Amiga off and back on instead of rebooting.
Grab yourself a virus checker - there are many in this archive! VirusZ is a good place to start. This may also be a good time to go to Aminet for the latest virus checkers!
Is there offensive, objectionable or illegal content?
Generally, no, the PD libraries had wide appeal and would try to keep their titles family-friendly. While there is unlikely to be any "adult" content here, some titles may contain swearing or mature themes, so please proceed with caution if you find such content offensive. It is also possible that some of the "docs" (text documents) disks may contain descriptions of activity that are borderline illegal, but this will be rare.
However the curators have not personally vetted every single file available in the archive so some may slip through the net. While the curators are not aware of anything that is illegal under UK law (where the archive is managed), if anything of that kind is brought to our attention, we will deal with it.
I found a mistake or something wrong. What should I do?
Please let the curators know by emailing curators@amigafreeware.downer.tech
Bear in mind that this is a historical archive, and its primary goal is to preserve the material that we find. The material has many problems - inaccurate catalog entries, spelling and grammatical mistakes, corruption or damage, missing information - which we preserve in the interests of historical accuracy. That said, the curators have the ability to add new information, and as such we can add clarifications and repair damage, and offer it next to the original materials.
Why is my favourite PD library from back in the day not represented here?
It's now been 30 years since the PD library scene faded away. The bigger libraries managed to get their collections onto CD-ROM compilations, which were easier to preserve and can be found relatively easily on the Internet (archive.org has been invaluable for this). But the smaller libraries have mostly faded into obscurity - finding anything other than the occasional single disk is hard.
If you have access to the back catalog of any PD library not represented here - even if only a part catalog - we would love to be able to incorporate it into the archive. Contact us at curators@amigafreeware.downer.tech.
I'm interested in trying some of this software but I don't have an Amiga - what should I do?
You could hit the second-hand markets for a real Amiga, but far easier (and probably cheaper) is emulation. Pretty much all PCs sold today are capable of emulating a real Amiga at speeds far in excess of any contemporary Amiga.
The quickest and easiest way to get started is with Amiga Forever, which offers officially-licensed AmigaOS and several commercial games in an easy-to-use Windows application.
Once you've outgrown Amiga Forever, switch to WinUAE (which Amiga Forever is based on) and get full control over the Amiga emulation.
If you are not on Windows, consider Amiberry, which is available for macOS, Linux and Raspberry Pi.
The Amiga ROMs, known as Kickstart, are still protected by copyright and cannot be freely copied. To get these ROMs legally, your options are to either own a physical ROM (for example, by having a real Amiga), obtain offically-licensed versions (as Amiga Forever is), or purchase Hyperion Entertainment's newest version of AmigaOS.
What is the "server version" and "database version" shown at the bottom of each page?
The database is the store of all the downloads and their metadata (title, description, series, etc.) The database is filled by specially-written import scripts that extract the files and metadata from various sources, mostly CD-ROM images. When there is a change to the data imported - for example, a new data source is added, or the import script is modified to change how data is imported, the database version gets incremented. For anything other than small bug fixes, there will also be a post on the News page when this happens.
The server is the software that reads from the database and presents it as a web site. Changes here will be to fix bugs and add new features. Again, for anything other than small bug fixes, you'll find an announcement on the News page when there's a new server version with something interesting to see.
Who is running this archive?
This archive is run by Richard Downer. You can contact me at curators@amigafreeware.downer.tech.