Install uade with Homebrew, Nix

Project links

• Homepage

Commands and aliases

• bencat
• mod2ogg2.sh
• uade123

Project history

The UADE homepage says the project plays old Amiga tunes through UAE emulation and a cloned m68k-assembler Eagleplayer API. It credits UAE for the emulation infrastructure and the Eagleplayer and Delitracker projects for the player architecture that made many Amiga-specific replayers reusable on modern platforms.

The same homepage frames UADE as free software under the GNU GPL and says it runs on Unix variants such as GNU/Linux, Free/OpenBSD, and Mac OS X, plus AmigaOS and MorphOS. It is designed for both command-line use and player-plugin use.

Adoption history

UADE's adoption is strongest in preservation and demoscene-adjacent music collections rather than mainstream desktop audio. Its homepage points users toward Amiga music resources such as Exotica, Modland, and Amiga Music Preservation, and the FAQ describes practical use with command-line playback, XMMS-style plugins, and music archives.

The batch input lists Homebrew and Nix packages for uade, which matches the tool's role as a small Unix package for collectors and format nerds who want reproducible access to Amiga replay code from modern systems.

How it is used

The package exposes uade123 for command-line playback and helper scripts such as mod2ogg2.sh. The FAQ repeatedly describes debugging and playback from the command line, including passing custom tunes directly and using verbose mode when reporting bugs.

UADE is used when generic module players are not enough: its value is reusing Amiga replayers and recognizing older Amiga naming and file-format conventions rather than treating every tracker file as a generic MOD-family asset.

Why package nerds care

UADE is package-nerd interesting because it packages software archaeology: old Amiga player logic, UAE-derived emulation, and command-line Unix workflows in one small formula.

It is also a reminder that preservation packages often depend less on broad popularity than on exact behavior. A package manager makes that behavior available without requiring users to reconstruct old player stacks by hand.

Timeline

• 2005: The official FAQ is dated 2005-11-22 and already describes command-line, XMMS, plugin, and archive-oriented workflows.
• 2008-2009: The homepage lists UADE 2.10 through 2.13 releases.
• 2022: UADE 3.00, 3.01, and 3.02 are listed as released.
• 2024: The homepage lists UADE 3.05 as released on 2024-10-06.

Related projects

• UAE provided the emulation foundation UADE builds on.
• Eagleplayer and Delitracker supplied the historical player API model UADE reimplements.
• Exotica, Modland, and Amiga Music Preservation are adjacent archives named by the project as useful sources of Amiga music.

Sources

• https://zakalwe.fi/uade/ describes UADE's purpose, licenses, releases, repository, platforms, command-line/plugin design, and historical dependencies on UAE, Eagleplayer, and Delitracker.
• https://zakalwe.fi/uade/faq.html documents command-line usage, bug-report expectations, format behavior, plugins, and archive workflows.
• source_facts.executables and source_facts.package-manager identify the packaged commands and Homebrew/Nix availability.