Running DOS on Amiga is more than a nostalgic experiment. In his latest video, Jan Beta sets out to make an Amiga 2000 operate like an IBM PC through the A2088 bridgeboard, a Commodore expansion that integrates an entire 8088-based system onto a single card.
The project begins with Jan reflecting on DOScember, a collaborative theme among retro YouTubers. Despite his usual focus on Commodore and Atari systems, he uses the opportunity to revisit the A2088 board he purchased on eBay. This hardware includes an 8088 processor, 512 KB of RAM, floppy controllers, and connectors that effectively turn the Amiga into a dual-purpose workstation.
After cleaning the board, reseating chips, and installing period-appropriate Kickstart ROMs, Jan struggles through failed boots and scrambled displays. Persistence pays off when reseating contacts finally brings the bridgeboard to life. Soon, MS-DOS 3.3 loads within the Amiga’s multitasking environment. Watching DOS run in a window on Workbench remains striking, even decades later.
The experiment does not stop there. Jan wires in a period-correct 360K floppy drive and crafts a new cable to connect it properly. The drive allows him to load software directly. He then configures a virtual hard disk, formats it, and installs MS-DOS, creating a fully bootable environment on his Amiga 2000.
With the system running, Jan tests it further by installing Planet X3, David Murray’s modern DOS game made for low-spec PCs. Despite the XT-class performance, the game proves surprisingly playable, especially given the setup is running entirely through the A2088 board inside an Amiga.
For viewers, the video offers more than technical tinkering. It shows how Commodore’s design gave users in the late 1980s the ability to merge Amiga multitasking with PC compatibility in one machine. Jan’s efforts highlight both the ingenuity and limitations of this hybrid approach, making it an engaging watch for retro computing fans.
If you want to see an Amiga 2000 double as a DOS PC, quirks and all, this video is worth watching.
