The Amiga CD32 - Commodores last machine explored.
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- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
- This week on 10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast @10MARC I am introducing a new friend to my Amiga collection - the Commodore Amiga CD32. This was Commodores Swan Son... or possibly death rattle depending on how you look at it. Was the final Amiga product from 'ol Chicken Lips a truly wonderful piece of hardware or a hunk of garbage no better than an Atari ST? Watch the darn video to find out!
Want to upgrade your CD32? Check out the TerribleFire accelerators here!
amigastore.eu/en/860-terrible...
amigastore.eu/en/794-terrible...
Want to learn about calibrating your laser?
www.tsb.space/knowledge-base/...
• Amiga CD32 Drive Calib...
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Hey Doug, regarding the warranty after Commodore went broke. I can confirm that in Australia at least, all of Commodore's warranty obligations were met as the receiver had appointed a company to take care of all existing warranty claims. As a young bloke, I was employed by the company for my first real job (from memory I think it was called CompuAid??) and had a great time fixing all sorts of Amiga's. The service manager was great at giving me computers to fix (rather than monitors). During lunchtime I got to rummage through pallets and pallets of "faulty" parts, I managed to gather enough parts to fix in my spare time to build an entire A4000/030, and later was gifted a 040 card!
Now that is too cool! Glad to hear the warranties were honored, and you got an A4000 out of the deal!
I love my CD32. Best ever using AGS!!!
It is really a nice piece of hardware. I think the motherboard could have been used for a real entry level Amiga.
Congrats man! You are dead on with the controller...those things are not bad at all! I have an NTSC CD32 myself. Much like the A600, they weren't much when new but NOW they are top shelf! Enjoy it man, and we NEED Doug Karaoke in the future...I feel a twitch stream coming on! Make it happen!
I will only sing a Karaoke Duet with you...
Another great video Doug. I had new caps installed in my CD32 just recently and it works great. Mine came with a TF330, I love it. Look forward to future videos with the CD32.
TInylauncher is good for the CD32 as well. Good interface for choosing games set up in WHDLoad.
Oh thanks for that! I was just thinking this morning that would be an awesome front end, but could not remember the name of it. I had it visualized in my head, it the brain was drawing a blank.
Welcome to the CD32 club :) TIP: The CD32 can run in NTSC or PAL and is switchable via the pre-boot menu. Connect a Mouse to the mouse port (2) and hold down both mouse buttons. that will allow you to switch into PAL and then boot a PAL game etc. once you get your TF330 running you can switch between NTSC and PAL display modes from workbench. I tend to run in PAL for the extra real estate. The lockup is probably do to the unit needing a recap. while looking for game to play on your new CD32 don't forget the awesome "new" titles being released do yourself a favor and get a copy of all the reshoot games especially Reshoot 3 Proxima.
Love me some Reshoot Proxima 3. I would suspect caps being the lockup issue, but it is really only with the CDTV Defender of the Crown. Doesn't even really lock up the system, just the interface. The disk keeps spinning, the cursor keeps moving .. just no response to clicking. Everything else I throw at it works pretty well... I do have some issues with Xenon 2 getting weird on the store screens with Collin. Sometimes they just go wonky for a moment or two. I need to look into the CDTV compatibility a bit more.
I enjoyed this Doug. It's not a machine that I'd ever have given a second look but it's really nice to have a tour of its features and pros and cons.
It is a nice machine for sure. It would have been my first AGA machine if they would have sold in the USA before Commodore went bust
you're like the exact opposite of my parents. When I was preparing to move out, the first thing they did was remove the amigas from my room
Yeh, my parents threw away the Amigas I gave my little brother 😞😶. Man was I angry. An extended Amiga 500 (RAM ext, 68010 and GVP HDD) and a 1200 with HDD.
I mysself hold on to an extended 2000 and a 1000.
I had a Stepmother who would have done that. I came home one day and my Stepmother was having a yard sale. She had put a ton of my personal things from my room in it without asking. I blew a freaking gasket! I still flipping lived there and she took my stuff! I took it back of course.
This machine should have been the next ticket for Commodore, but $$ and production problems killed it. No "small" American computer company was going to compete with the big money laden video game guys in Japan, unfortunately. Atari learned this also. "Buster" was a name trying to be "Blast Processing" or "Do the math" =)
It could have at least kept them going for a few years. Some people suspect the lawsuit for royalties that ended them was intentional - somebody wanted them out of the market.
Gloom had way better framerate than expected!😮
I was pleasantly surprised on how well it ran. It looks OK, too. Not "Doom" quality, but certainly usable
I got one some 5 yrs ago. Tested if it works at sellers place. There was some distortion in the picture but it worked. Took it right away to a pro to recap it. Ordered a TF330 for it and its a wonderful Amiga!
Excellent! It is truly a nice little machine. The TF330 is wonderful for sure.
Hey Doug, welcome to the cd32 club :) and thanks for this nice video, like always. and big up for adjusting the laser in Doug Style - because, i tried it yesterday also that way, and ... wait for it ... my cd32 reads all cds again! Thanks for advice :)
Ha! That's awesome. I seldom test things for hours when I know I can just plug them in and give them a try. And in the past 30 years I have had about a 99.5% success rate.
As an expat Brit, I can confirm that Spotted D is indeed the highest form of respectable currency.
I see. What is the current Spotted D vs. Crumpet exchange rate these days?
@@10MARC oh, two and a half crumpets per SD. Three if you add a cup of tea.
So sad to remember those events, i was 20, i went to buy my favorite montlhly magazine Commodore Gazette (an italian magazine that was not sponsored by commodore) and there were the news of C= bankruptcy, that was really a sad day for me, i grew up with commodore computers from vic 20 to Amiga passing for c64 and 128. It was also sad because Amiga 1200 were selling very well at last in Europe, and cd32 were doimg very well at last in UK for the first months until bankruptcy, who knows, could be it could have done well in America too... that makes things even more bitter
It was a frustrating time. A lot of us here in America were buying the A4000 systems, but many of us had two year old A3000's with a lot of life still in them. I think '95 would have been the year a lot of us Americans jumped onto the AGA bandwagon full force
I have three PAL CD32s that I picked up. They're nice little machines, kinda a neat way to experience the platform.
Someone I know used to work for NewTek and said they did some work on a prototype of the Video Toaster that used the expansion port. They wanted to buy up that stock of NTSC machines and turn them into video workstations but that obviously didn't work out.
Makes sense, really. That would have made for a nice all-in-one Toaster kit.
Doug excellent video on the CD32. Thanks for the share and a Merry Christmas and happy new year.
You too! Thanks so much!
Time to construct an Amiga Walker.
I will start disassembling an ugly vacuum cleaner to get a case ready!
Nice vid Doug 👍🏻 I have a CD32 too! A few years ago you could pickup a CD32 on it’s own in the U.K from Analogic for £80! Since then they just shot up in price. I’m guessing because of the TF cards that started to come out. Should have bought a few when they were £80! 🙄 I’m guessing Buster was something that just got mixed up and was printed on the box in error. Just like the “AAA” chipset mentioned on some of the A1200 Boxes.
I really want to find out if all CD32 boxes say "Buster" on it. Time to do some detective work!
I will take a half- dozen of those £80 CD32's, too! Fire up the Delorean!
hi doug’s and welcome to the club CD32 💿 🙏 , well done 👍 you know , some of the first’s video i looked on my console was your first podcast (10 mn 🤪) cdxl format Agablaster and it rocks , i have done some first beta tests with Markus Schordan for entire movies , playing good with a tf 330 . have fun and hope see some upgrades :) .
Oh yes, playing back AGA Blaster videos from CD is one of the things I want to try for sure! Thanks!
@@10MARCyeah, it’s the ultimate entertainment jukebox 😅 , you’re can see some examples i’ve done on my channel some years ago 😃 cheers 🥂
I had a couple of these back in the day no body wanted them after Comadore went bust I got em cheep £30 for the two in the 90s I upgraded one and saved one I loved em very good sound quality 🙂
I will buy yours for £60 and DOUBLE your money! ;)
This is cool. I’ve wanted a CD32 for quite some time myself, never got one
They are reasonable in Europe, but horribly expensive in the states! Totally worth it, though. Lovely console!
My first CD+G disc was "Female Standard Songs" by Backstage Karaoke.
Then I got Fleetwood Mac's - Behind The Mask, followed by:
Anita Baker, Gram Parsons, 10000 Maniacs, Lou Reed, Little Feat, Van Dyke Parks & EmmyLou Harris.
Always looking for more at a sensible price
I also have a few Anime discs with video converted to CDXL. I can't find/afford an MPEG Unit for VCD.
I have an Aux to Keyboard adapter but I believe A4000 keyboards work, but they are expensive.
I had to replace the LASER because I left it powered (but not switched on) on for ages.
Did you notice the Power Caps are reverse polarity because the Silkscreen is.
Looks like they changed the component size/type at the last moment.
There was a "Simply Red" CD that was supposed to have CD+G, but it has been hard to find. I found a copy of it with no CD+G so apparently they had two versions of it out
I got mine in '98 from a company in Milan, Italy who used to add some circuitry and stuff the cd32s running their laser quiz soft in arcade cabinets (cubo cd32). I had to recap mine last year as it started to boot with a blinking green screen.
The board is so small, yet quite powerful. I bet if Commodore had stayed in business it could have been used as the core for a lot of neat equipment. With some minor additions like an IDE controller it would have made an excellent Amiga Laptop motherboard
IMHO you are right about the Buster. Probably they meant Akiko.
I honestly had never heard that mentioned before. I wonder if it was only printed on some boxes? But my CD32 was made very late in Commodore life - like early 1994. It is odd
My brother bought an NTSC CD32 prior to the injunction. Some CD32s got through to dealers like Compuquick in Ohio before C= could no longer ship them.
I still have some CD32 games even though I don't have a machine on which to play them.
So a few got into the country? That's too cool! I hear a couple of Commodore 65's actually got to a few dealers shelves, too
I managed to grab one of these when they came out, very dissapointed it died very quickly, can't complain though as that got me into pc's at the right time.
That's a great haul for only $500. Maybe I'll get my hands on one of these someday. They sure don't come up in the US eBay listings all that often! Problem is, the longer you wait the more expensive they're going to get. :(
BTW I think the payment for eBay's "Best Offer" immediately getting charged is brand new this year. I just did a best offer for a Suncom Starfighter joystick and the same thing happened to me, the payment went right out through PayPal. They had me pick a payment option when I made the offer which I thought was strange. Like you said, the old way was to put the item in your cart when you won, and asked you to pay later. I may be wrong, but I don't think you can use PayPal Credit or Pay in 4 when using Best Offer now.
Agreed that it is a new thing. And it's kind of annoying, really. I always thought it was nice to have a bit of communication between seller and buyer
Chris Edwards recapped my NTSC CD32 just a couple of months ago. They looked a lot like yours - but when he pulled them off, he did find some leakage. Fortunately the damage was very minor and cleaned up easily. I only mention it because I didn't want you to assume it's ok. I do have a recap kit that I ordered from the UK (Chris used his own caps). If you need them, let me know.... otherwise I was planning on sending to Chris.
For sure! Chris does an awesome job without a doubt. Don't tell him I said that, or he will get a big ego!
I will be sending mine to Retro Rewind for recapping soon(ish)
@@10MARC Sounds good and glad to hear that you plan to recap it.. Thank you for the tips, especially surrounding the laser adjustment. Mine seems to do OK with just about every disc I've tossed its way thus far. My stuggles are more around finding NTSC software that works. I was hoping I could find a CD image with a compilation, but no dice thus far. Also, I just wanted to point out that David Murray (The 8-Bit Guy) has a CD-32 controller on the market that is similar to the SNES style controller. Highly recommended! It's even better than the Honeybee/Competition Pro controllers that so many seem to prefer to the OEM originals.
@@cwa107 I think the only real solution for ntsc software is to get one of the terrible fires and a hard drive and run ntsc software via WHDLOAD
I have two PAL units, both recapped and running well. Recent games from Geezer Games and the recently released Reshoot Proxima 3 are brilliant.
Yes, I love Reshoot Proxima 3. I own the digital version, but now I need to order the CD32 version! I know I will be able to run it via my TF330, but it would be nice to have the disc in my collection
congratulations... 38 capacitors later.... the Aux port adaptor is the same as the cdtv's keyboard adaptor i believe. so if you have one you have both.
I was curious about that. I have never seen them being listed as the same part and as being compatible. I have a CDTV adapter so I will check that out
So, the CD32 aux socket is actually physically the same as an a4000 keyboard connector. You can book up an a4000 keyboard just fine. You only need the adapter if you want to connect a cdtv keyboard to the CD32 or a4000. Additionally signal wise the CD32 aux connector also carries serial port signals
@@timdaeleman hmm, weird, ill test mine tonight. i have a newer converter cdtv to ps2 and i swore it worked on there. but i have adhd... oh look a bird.
@@ChrisEdwardsRestoration Yes, a cdtv keyboard on a cd32 requires an adapter. With that same adapter, the cdtv keyboard also works on an a4000. Sorry if I wasn't clear.
Great video! My guess: Buster = Blitter (new = AGA).
Akiko is control chip for CD drive (no known commercial released cd32 game use it for C2P),
note: VideoCD has been a popular format in Asia,
Jim Sachs made the intro, confirmed.
I thought Microcosm used the enhanced graphics capability of Akiko?
Have 3 of them here in la Suisse, there is enough from this AGA Girl around here 😅😊also in my opinion it is the best AGA Amiga ever, like a1200 with CDRom in one box❤
It really seems to be a neat little unit. It does not even seem to be made too cheaply! I love the tiny motherboard.
I thought "Buster" was the BUS conTrollER (Letters taken from the type of chip it was). There was a Fat Buster in the 3000 and 4000 series.
Precisely. Which is why it is odd they would think of reusing it for a totally different chip
never had one of these machines looks good though. I can play it now using the amiga emulator.
Nice! Emulation is fun for sure. I am glad we have it
I sold my CD32 with a load of games for 350 spotted dick's a few years ago, and I regret it, may get another one if I can find one for not too many biscuits ;)
Just got 3 more CD+G discs = Laura Branigan, Ella Fitzgerald and GRP Digital Sampler.
Possibly another on the way = Jimi Hendrix Experience (+ 2 extra songs).
Oh those sound good! I will have to look for them
Haha you picked English but I did notice American was at the top of the list
Pip Pip and Cheerio! Bob's your uncle and all that. I guess I am a Brit now
No music even on the cd32 version of Banshee that sucks what a lam port
Hmmmm... The one I downloaded had two CD tracks with it, but they did not seem to be playing. I wonder if the disk burned correctly?
Realise there is also a TF360, if you really want to supercharge your cd32.
Is that shipping or still in the design phase? My 68060 machines are fairly incompatible with many games, so I will leave that performance to my Big Box Amiga's. Now I wonder if someone is working on a PiStorm for the CD32? I have not looked into that
@@10MARC Not fully sure. In think I saw the tf360s offered on Amibay. There is a cd32 to a1200 accelerator adapter, but that requires specific riser. So that theoretically allows for a pistorm. But same here, I think tf330 is enough for a cd32.
and what about a nice Ctrl controller 😀 , same design than snes controller and can program (like change up ⬆️ to button) . CD32 should be out normally six months after september 1993 , many projects were on the way but Ali Mehdi ruin all ! 😢 for cash 💰
Very true...
WAY too close Doug. Back away from the camera about 4 feet. Dang
Really? I will have to watch it again and see. Maybe it's the tighter quarters in the room I put my CD32 in.