Legal Action Delays Release of Amiga Replica
Retro Games, the company behind replicas of the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, has announced that its full-size replica of the Amiga 1200 has been delayed due to legal issues. The company previously released the A500 Mini with 25 licensed, classic Amiga games built-in.
The full-size Amiga 1200 was set to be released at the start of 2025 but this delay comes through interference from Hyperion Entertainment, a software developer that has been at loggerheads with other companies linked with Amiga for quite some time.
“Unfortunately, the ongoing legal disputes between Hyperion Entertainment and the Amiga parties are preventing us from proceeding with manufacturing,” Retro Games said in a news post on its official Facebook page.
“Many of you in ‘The Amiga scene’ will recall that Hyperion initiated legal action against the Amiga parties in 2018, and in 2019 they even tried, unsuccessfully, to challenge the release of the A500 Mini, despite such interference being a ‘Hyperion Prohibited Action’ under their 2009 Settlement Agreement.”
Amiga Copyright
The details concerning who owns Amiga is a hot topic as it’s not a clear-cut case. Commodore were the original owners of Amiga until it went bankrupt in 1994. The Amiga name passed through multiple hands since then, with multiple companies making software and hardware based on the brand, such as AmigaOne and A1200.net.
As it stands, there are two main companies involved with Amiga software: Hyperion and Cloanto. Hyperion focuses on the AmigaOS from version 4 and upwards. Cloanto is a US game developer that worked on Commodore and Amiga games since the 1980s and started Amiga Forever, a game preservation service, in 1997. Cloanto has the rights to earlier versions of the AmigaOS.
A bone of contention within the Amiga community involves Hyperion working on AmigaOS versions (3.5, 3.9 and a reworked 3.1) around the ones owned by Cloanto (primarily 3.x versions).
While it’s not considered a good move to develop something on either side of a rival company’s product it is worth noting that, in 2023, a US court dismissed all remaining claims lodged by Cloanto against Hyperion.
Next Steps
Hyperion’s largest shareholder, and former Director, Ben Hermans, filed for bankruptcy in March 2024. Following a general assembly held in January 2025, Timothy De Groote was appointed as the new Director. De Groote is another shareholder and was briefly appointed CEO in 2016.
“The general assembly also instructed the new directors to prioritize consolidating the company’s financial situation and restarting development of AmigaOS,” Hyperion said in an official post on its website.
Cloanto hasn’t made a public statement related to these issues.
Retro Games has released properly licensed products before, but it remains to be seen when its Amiga 1200 replica will go into production.
