One command

The configuration and the hardfile

setup_winuae.sh writes a1200.uae and a 22 MB System volume. The properties window stays closed.

Why any of this

The Amiga 1200 was the last great Amiga Commodore made, and the desktop people built on it is the one worth having back: Kickstart 3.1, AGA, a hard disk, a graphics card for a screen bigger than the chipset could draw, MUI for modern windows, color icons, and WHDLoad so every game lives on the disk instead of in a box of floppies. An emulator or a MiSTer puts that machine back on your desk. Getting to that finished desktop is the work.

You cannot download it ready-made. Workbench and Kickstart still belong to someone, so the disks and the ROM have to be yours, and Commodore’s own installer has to copy them. Everything after that is a recipe of Proceed buttons, the Green Amiga Alien guide, which people have followed by hand for twenty years. These notes turn that recipe into scripts, so someone new to Amiga emulation gets the upgraded A1200 in an afternoon, from disks they own.

The end of the road is a build nobody babysits. AmiPilot can sit inside the running Amiga, click what is left of the installers, and take a picture of the screen, so an AI agent can check that the desktop came up, that the icons are in color, that a game launches, and fix the script when they are not. Every page here is one step toward that.

Chapter 1 of the guide is the properties window, the first hour a newcomer loses, and chapter 2 opens with HDToolBox and Format. setup_winuae.sh does both before WinUAE starts. Pass the Kickstart you already have. Pass a Programs directory if you have one. Pass the archives and the same command also writes uaegfx, MUI, ClassAct, lha, and the kickstart drawer.

Automated
Run it
Browse to a Kickstart, create a 22 MB hardfile, and tick Enable RDB.
./setup_winuae.sh --out build --kick kick31.rom --programs /path/Programs. The hardfile is build/Workbench.hdf. The configuration is build/a1200.uae.
Automated
The volume
Format DH0 as System, with Fast File System, international mode, and directory cache.
The script calls create_system_hdf.sh --megs 22 --dircache. That is DOS\7: Fast File System, international names, and directory cache, plus the rigid disk block. Geometry is 1 surface, 32 sectors, 2 reserved, 512-byte blocks, boot priority 0.
Automated
The machine
68020 with an FPU, AGA, 2 MB chip RAM, about 8 MB fast RAM, and Faster RTG.
The file sets cpu_model=68020, fpu_model=68882, chipset=aga, chipmem_size=4, fastmem_size=8, gfxcard_size=16, and rtg_nocustom=true.
Automated
Programs
Add a directory drive named Programs on DH1.
filesystem2=rw,DH1:Programs:…,0 when you passed --programs. WinUAE mounts the folder. There is nothing to pack.
Automated
Start
Press Start in the properties window.
winuae.exe -f build/a1200.uae. The file already has use_gui=no.
A setting
SCSI and the network
Tick uaescsi.device and bsdsocket.library on the misc page.
Both lines are in the file: scsi=true and bsdsocket_emu=true. AmiCDROM and AWeb can use them. The installers for those programs are still their own windows.
Skipped
Display and sound
Choose a window size, full screen, and 44100 Hz.
Leave the display and the sound at whatever this machine already uses. They are not part of the install.

The manual steps are Chapters 1 and 2 of the Green Amiga Alien guide. The commands are in amiga-utils.