Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: orb85750 on September 26, 2010, 03:47:34 PM
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Do you have a CD32? Is it a worthwhile unit to own? Is the controller good? Do the games load up quickly? Is it well-built and reliable? and are NTSC games difficult to find? Thanks.
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Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, and Yes. Your welcome
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The controller.. I like the design but the directional pad has an internal ABS plastic frame that will eventually break. Get a competition Pro CD32 controller as that is patterened of a more robust SegaGensis controller with a better designed DPAD.
The ABS plastic part that breaks can be repaired but it's a pain.
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As much as I like and respect Commodore, I don't know what the f were they thinking while making CD32. It's such a bad console and it even looks cheap - the plastic is so lame that just looking at it hurts.
That reminds about this auction with a CD32 with SX32 add-on:
http://allegro.pl/amiga-cd32-sx32-8mb-fast-hdd-fdd-od-kolekcjonera-i1238672046.html
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I know a few people who've enjoyed them. I think the intention was very much as a quick cash injection for Commodore. THey seem to have sold pretty well in the UK for a short while.
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As much as I like and respect Commodore, I don't know what the f were they thinking while making CD32. It's such a bad console and it even looks cheap - the plastic is so lame that just looking at it hurts.
What were they thinking was, we need to make something that isnt too expensive so hopefully we can sell enough to stay in business.
All in all, it's not bad. most game systems from that time are hard to look at.
So, to the original questions.
Is it worth owning one? Yes, depending on the price.
Is the controller good? Yes, the Commodore controller actually feels good in the hand. If you arent an animal and take care of your stuff, it shouldnt break. The Competition Pro is okay, but what it uses as contacts for the buttons is crap and will require opening it at some point to clean them or bend them to make them work well.
Do games load up quickly? Not really. It's not slow but it's not a speed deamon by todays standards. Remember, it's from an early era where CDs were just starting out.
Is it well built? Yes and no. Plastic is cheap but at least wont yellow. Usually you find them missing the back panel over the expansion connector. This is because companies like Scala used them in the rack mount video equipment they sold and had an SX-1 connected there. The door mechanism feels flimsy and was an obvious problem. Older systems have the door flat in the back, later ones add plastic over the hinge to make it stronger so I suspect the flat versions (along the back of the CD door) could have an issue cracking along that due to the springload of the door hinge. Therefore a unit with the extra plastic (seen as a raised area along the back) is preferable.
Are NTCS games hard to find? Yes. Since Commodore was so in the hole they never managed to get enough into the US so most sales were in Europe therefore games companies made most money with PAL versions.
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Having to plug in a mouse to select PAL mode on the NTSC unit I had to get some games to run killed the "console" feel for me. I was happier just using the CD32 joypad on my 1200.
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I think the CD32 is a beautiful machine. It is the smallest classic Amiga motherboard, and the most advanced. It has Akiko and 1MB of ROM! Of course if Commodore had the forethought they obviously lacked, they would have included a 030 and FastRAM as standard, just as the A4000 had (and the A1200 should have), but that's in the past and we can only work with what we were given.
With a plain CD32 you can play not only CD32 games but hundreds of Amiga games through WHDLoad. The CD drive is 2x speed, so it's slow. Games take a little while to load, especially from burned CDs. The controller is alright while the D-pad is still working (especially if you have the additional + pad for it), but it's best replaced with something better eventually. The Competition Pro/Honeybee CD32 controller is great, but it's been the rarest and most sought-after Amiga peripheral for many years now, so you'd have to be very lucky to find one that doesn't get snapped up by wealthy collectors. You would be really better off asking AmigaManiac how much longer their Playstation2-CD32 adapters are going to take before they come out. These ones are based on Paul Willingham's design so they're the most advanced program around, allowing you to use the analogue sticks as joysticks or mice, programming extra buttons, and it lets you use a guitar controller in Tracker Hero.
All PAL CD32s need at least one large capacitor changed around, it was put in backwards in the factory. Most NTSC CD32s don't suffer the same problem. Unfortunately many people have problems running PAL games on NTSC CD32s. The only real solution to this anyone has come up with is to install an Indivision and output your CD32 through a VGA monitor. Unfortunately no one in the world seems to have installed the Indivision in an NTSC CD32 and reported back if PAL games work or not.
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The CD32 is a nice little machine. I had one and loved it. I got me a CD32 Communicator to be able to use it as an (slow) external CD drive for my A3000 desktop and it also enabled me to use an A2000 keyboard and a mouse to make it an A1200 without floppy-drive and harddisk but with CD-drive. Had some great fun with it playing Pinball Illusions and some other games. As a matter of fact, I liked it being able to hook a mouse and keyboard to it.
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I bought one this past summer for CDN$75, and I'm pretty happy with it. It came with the original box and instructions, a CD32 gamepad, a competition pro gamepad, and a mouse. The original owner broke the edge of the hinge, so the CD door doesn't hold itself up when open. From the looks of it, the plastic is just very brittle.
Most games need to be played in PAL mode, and with some games on the WHDload multigame CDs, I have to actually access the display menu again after choosing a game, otherwise it'll revert to NTSC mode. Luckily, I have a 1084s that can display the PAL video.
For the multigame discs and most of the native cd32 games, any one-button joystick will do, but I actually like both of the controllers I have. The pack-in controller is nowhere near as bad as I was led to believe.
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What were they thinking was, we need to make something that isnt too expensive so hopefully we can sell enough to stay in business.
I disagree with this comment bigtime. £350 at launch? Cheap, I think not.
The reason for the CD32 was clearly stated at the time. Commodore saw the CD era was dawning and an A1200 with CD ROM was required, they thought the console market was a good viable in-road and with hopes for FMV and the ability to add a keyboard/mouse it seemed a winning idea. It was, for a short while the CD32 rocked the CD-ROM sales chart outselling the PC CD-ROM market of the day (I still remember CD32 sales being 76% of all CD-ROM software for the month at one point). Many people seem to have forgotten just what an impact this machine had and it's a shame. The CD32 was a strong contender for a short while, sadly bankruptcy killed it off. Oh, before anyone points out the lack of forsight regarding 3D Chips in the CD32, Sonys PSX (original playstation name) caught everyone out. Sega only just shoe-horned in the powerVR chip into the Saturn (another under-rated machine) at last minute. It was generally considered by all the video game companies of the day that 3D would wait 'til the next gen. Sony upset the proverbial apple cart and jumped in early. The game playing public rejoiced and the other companies of the day cried foul.
Anyway, all that aside, if I only owned one classic Amiga I would choose the CD32 with an SX32 Pro module. It's a lovely system and a pleasure to use. Buying the competition pro pad is a good idea and one I most emphatically support, no, thinking about it, don't buy one, buy two of them and invite a friend to join you. :)
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I bought one this past summer for CDN$75, and I'm pretty happy with it. It came with the original box and instructions, a CD32 gamepad, a competition pro gamepad, and a mouse. The original owner broke the edge of the hinge, so the CD door doesn't hold itself up when open. From the looks of it, the plastic is just very brittle.
Most games need to be played in PAL mode, and with some games on the WHDload multigame CDs, I have to actually access the display menu again after choosing a game, otherwise it'll revert to NTSC mode. Luckily, I have a 1084s that can display the PAL video.
For the multigame discs and most of the native cd32 games, any one-button joystick will do, but I actually like both of the controllers I have. The pack-in controller is nowhere near as bad as I was led to believe.
OK, I was not aware that the 1084 monitor displays in PAL mode. So virtually all CD32 games are playable if you have a 1084? (Is that really true?) My biggest concern is being stuck with a game system and struggling to find any games that I can play seamlessly.
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yeah, the 1084 works great. Problem is finding a cable to use it, they do not make one. You need an expansion to use 1084.
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Actually you can connect the 1084 to svideo, but I think it is grey scale output. At least it is with pal version, I do not have any NTSC cd32's left to try.
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CD32's are very cool and fun to own.
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I've had the CD32 with SX-1 and FMV. The sx-1 is quirky as it never really aligned well with the expansion connector too well. The SX32 would be ideal. Unfortunately these are insanely expensive. I snatched up the last CD32 from the Chinese Ebay outfit that was selling them. New in box with original Plastic film on all the parts. I sold it as I just could not justify it. My 9 year old xbox runs the PAL and CD32 games without issue and I don't need an indivison. My throw away pcs (PEntium HT systems) run this great with Amigakit really well so I get flicker free displays, I use my XBOX 360 controllers and it's great.
So true UAE if you want to save cash. Amiga hardware hobby is expensive and it could put a strain on relations with family members becuase they will think you're crazy hoarding 25 year old hardware.
An emulator running on a netbook is less offensive.
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Crom00 your lucky, we have wanted a CD32 FMV for many years.
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I once saw an FMV unit for sale in a bargain bin in a pre-owned video game shop for £15. Being a bit skint 'til the next day I couldn't get it and came back the following day, sadly it was gone. I was heartbroken and I've never seen one close to this price since. Life is just cruel sometimes.
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The Amiga CD32 game console is pretty good in my opinion. There are some good games, I have 22 games and I really like Litil Divil, Body Blows Galactic, Defender of the Crown 2, Pirates, Alien Breed 3D and some others. The controller actually fits well in the hand, although the D-pad on mine is starting to act up (heck the machine is what 15 yrs. Games won't load super fast as it is only a 2x CD-Rom but it does its job well. I enjoy the system and if the price is right then go for it.
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@Pyro
My brother used it at his weekend DJ business a couple of times. In the late 90's to early 2000's in mainland China we could walkin to shops where you could get VCD movies of HK action movies for 20 cents a piece.
To be honest it wasn't worth it, I got it for $125 off of usenet. I sold it for $200 or something like that. I also had a peggy card at one point as part of a scala A4000T.
The most impressive demo I saw was WOCA New York show in 93 where they had a special plexi case A4000 with MPEG running a Bon Jovi video. I thought it was the DSP that they had planned but it made you wonder what was possible. At the time this was impressive.
You could also playback VCD's you make yourself provided you follow the standards and burn the CD at a low speed otherwise it would skip. Played Philips CDI Digital Video CD's too!
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The Amiga was always kind of crippled in that, the machines shipped with low amounts of chip ram for too long as standard. So you were limited in what you can do. At least with the CD32 you had a standard set of resources to work with, every machine had a CD drive, every machine had the 2 megs ram. This gave the cd32 the most arcade like experience.
The CD adaptations of Amiga games were great becuase the sound tracks were upgraded to CD Digtial Audio wheras the CDTV spooled audio files off of CD, it did not support the extra audio tracks in game if I remeber correctly. They generally fixed any problems or added a little something not around in the floppy version.
It would have been great to have fast ram and at LEAST a 16mhz 030 or better... come on it was 1994 when they made the last batch.
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Maybe the board of CD32 is a beauty for a tech person but the console itself was extremely ugly and believe me, it's one of the reasons people didn't like it. Even Megadrive with all those fugly add-ons doesn't look so bad.
(http://i46.tinypic.com/23hwy0g.jpg)
I appreciate the fact that Commodore wanted to make a console but they've utterly failed at making one. CD32 is basically a cut-down Amiga computer and that reminds me of their previous console failure which is C64GS. Commodore obviously didn't learn from past mistakes.
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Would it be technically possible to add a clockPort to the CD32 like has been done with the other Amiga's?
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I've owned 3 or 4 with the SX-1.
YOu can't add ram and you can't accelerate them.
The door hinge will break.
The power supply is crap.
Other then that a nice machine but a 1200 is the way to go for games
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I disagree with this comment bigtime. £350 at launch? Cheap, I think not.
Cheap didnt mean for the customer. Cheap was for Commodore. think about it, based on a system that was already developed (1200) so most of the cost of developing the CD32 was already spent. What is the cheapest way to get more revenue? Convert an already existing product into a new revenue stream.
In that, CD32 did well. Unfortunately Commodore was already so in the hole that it wasnt enough, fast enough.
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Buy a cd32 and enjoy the games and all the games compilations on cd... forget the plastic quality, desing....
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I bought one this past summer for CDN$75, and I'm pretty happy with it. It came with the original box and instructions, a CD32 gamepad, a competition pro gamepad, and a mouse. The original owner broke the edge of the hinge, so the CD door doesn't hold itself up when open. From the looks of it, the plastic is just very brittle.
Most games need to be played in PAL mode, and with some games on the WHDload multigame CDs, I have to actually access the display menu again after choosing a game, otherwise it'll revert to NTSC mode. Luckily, I have a 1084s that can display the PAL video.
For the multigame discs and most of the native cd32 games, any one-button joystick will do, but I actually like both of the controllers I have. The pack-in controller is nowhere near as bad as I was led to believe.
How are you connecting the CD32 to your 1084?
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For now, I'm just using composite, but I plan to use the chroma/luma inputs once I build an s-video adaptor.
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For now, I'm just using composite, but I plan to use the chroma/luma inputs once I build an s-video adaptor.
OK, so even the composite on the 1084 works with both NTSC and PAL? I learn something new on Amiga.org every day (really).
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I've owned 3 or 4 with the SX-1.
YOu can't add ram and you can't accelerate them.
The door hinge will break.
The power supply is crap.
Huh? You can add RAM to the sx-1. Not to the cd32 itself, but you follow mention of sx-1 with "you cant add ram and you cant accelerate them". Additionally you can accelerate them with a few different add ons, and even just adding some fast ram to sx-1 will give you a nice little boost.
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CD32 with SX-32 Pro 8 MB fast gives 2.39 mips which makes it 2.5 times faster. But I really find it ironic that the add-on has this written on its board:
(http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/424/img6903kd.th.jpg) (http://img22.imageshack.us/i/img6903kd.jpg/)
That's why Commodore failed with CD32 - it was supposed to be a console but it ended as cut-down Amiga that Amiga fans expanded so that it would be an Amiga computer again. But, of course, every hardware has its charms so I understand the love for CD32 that comes from some people.
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I am a CD32 collector in the USA and am on my second go around with the CD32.
Way back in 1995 or so I purchased an NSTC unit from a vendor named "Bigg Wolf" in New York. We chatted on the phone several times and it was generally cool having such a rare item in a country that was not supposed to have them. The reality was that the games either didn't play correctly when in NTSC or I would have to grab the mouse from my 3000, boot in PAL and play on my 1084 which was not an option at the time so I sold it.
Fast forward to this year and I own a PAL CD32, a PAL compatible TV set and about 30 CD32 games, many of which are unopened.
The games are, sadly, mostly crap... But that only makes me want them more sometimes. There are a few good ones, Frontier, Pinball Fantasies, Cannon Fodder.
At Amiwest this year I may be doing a "public lab" with an NTSC and PAL CD32 units to see which games will play on what systems and in which modes. I still run into people that claim they have played NTSC CD32's on NTSC TV sets and everything played fine and I just don't think it is possible.
Bottom line, unless you have some sort of twisted soft spot for the CD32 like I do, you would be better served with an A1200 or WinUAE.
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The games are, sadly, mostly crap... But that only makes me want them more sometimes.
I get that feeling about some console craps at times and to be honest, I find it sick and I rather fight that feeling.
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I am a CD32 collector in the USA and am on my second go around with the CD32.
Way back in 1995 or so I purchased an NSTC unit from a vendor named "Bigg Wolf" in New York. We chatted on the phone several times and it was generally cool having such a rare item in a country that was not supposed to have them. The reality was that the games either didn't play correctly when in NTSC or I would have to grab the mouse from my 3000, boot in PAL and play on my 1084 which was not an option at the time so I sold it.
Fast forward to this year and I own a PAL CD32, a PAL compatible TV set and about 30 CD32 games, many of which are unopened.
The games are, sadly, mostly crap... But that only makes me want them more sometimes. There are a few good ones, Frontier, Pinball Fantasies, Cannon Fodder.
At Amiwest this year I may be doing a "public lab" with an NTSC and PAL CD32 units to see which games will play on what systems and in which modes. I still run into people that claim they have played NTSC CD32's on NTSC TV sets and everything played fine and I just don't think it is possible.
Bottom line, unless you have some sort of twisted soft spot for the CD32 like I do, you would be better served with an A1200 or WinUAE.
From my personal experience (NTSC CD32, PAL CD32, Multi-system TV, CD32 games):
Some games (very few) run 100% properly on an NTSC CD32 console (might have built-in pal and ntsc detectable modes and they switch to the appropriate mode, depending of the territory)
Some games run...well, run, only...with glitches, etc., with an NTSC CD32 (these games are of course PAL coded only) however depending of your tolerance level, you might consider this running properly or just running in theory. :-)
Most games are PAL only, and require PAL mode to run as intended.
Some games will not run even in PAL mode on an NTSC CD32 (mouse, boot mode, swtich to PAL). I suspect that memory is so scarce with these games, that even after switching to PAL, it just doesn't cut it. That, or it's a deeper issue of PAL compatibility (requires a hardware forced hack vs software hack).
Again from my experience only, I suspect that some NTSC CD32 units have inferior CD drive mechanisms to their PAL counterparts (bad tolerance towards CD-Rs).
My 2 cents. :-)
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Well, I'm a game console collector and an Amiga-nut, so the CD32 was a no-brainer for me.... :insane:
I really like the CD32.... it needed more killer games. I have old Amiga mags showing 'works-in-progress' just as the CD32 would soon be a bad memory (to many people)..... {sigh} I wonder what games we might have seen if the CD32 lasted 2 more years......
I'd also recommend:
Robocod: James Pond 2
Operation Star5ish: James Pond 3
Simon the Sorceror 2
Exile
Also, I wonder if the CD32 was the first console to be localised... The other day, I forgot that I had my CD32 set to French, and Defender of the Crown 2 loaded as 'Defenseur de la Coronne 2'
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Hi,
I may have posted this link before, but it's a good one.
Please see http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/amiga/cd32/index.html
"Frequently Asked Questions about the Amiga CD32 - includes how to expand the CD32 to a computer and how to use the CD32 as an external CD-ROM drive for other computers. keywords => <
This FAQ about Amiga CD32 was compiled and written by Stuart Tomlinson with numerous contributions by others.
This is the FAQ for comp.sys.amiga.cd32 and rec.games.video.cd32. It's posted on the first weekend of each month. A lot of it is based upon the earlier FAQ by Edward D. Berger - thanks go to him for doing all the hard work. Another equally sized hand of thanks must go to Dan Cannon, who was the maintainer before I. Who has done the rest of this FAQ so far.
It's split into two parts. The first part holds the contents and the more general stuff. The second part holds the more technical stuff.
This document is freely distributable, but it's compilation copyright. No changes should be made to it and it can't be sold for profit or used as part of a commercial document without the author's permission. So there. If you're reading this on a CD-ROM collection then it could be out of date.
Some sections have wiring diagrams or details of how to connect non- CD32 specific peripherals to your CD32. These are taken from postings from Usenet or Email and the only guarantee is that it worked for the authors. There is a very good chance you could fry both your CD32 and the peripheral by accident. If you're not knowledgable in electronics, have somebody who is double check everything before turning the power on or buy a ready made adaptor instead."
Regards, Michael
aka rockape
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Under my oppinion CD32 was not a bad system, not at all, but not as good as it could have been either.
It's true it's plastics are not made off the best quality, the CD trap door is quite weak,
and the original pad has strong problems with the d-pad durability.
However, talking about the overall, CD32 came out on the very early CD-Rom era, when CD drives on PeeCees were x2 or x4, and the most of the new CD consoles featured a x1 or x2 speed CD-Rom.
CD32 had to deal with SEGA-CD, CD-i, Turbo-Duo, and the 3DO. The ONLY console that was able to beat CD32 on performance terms was 3DO, but it's price was really prohibitive. CD32 was faster than any other console CD system, and could play FMV's adding the FMV module (what was expensive, but still far from a 3DO), had more memory, and had more expansion capabilities than other consoles.
CD32 was fair on overall terms, it's failure attends more to the low quality of the CD32 ports (usually AGA or even ECS ports with CD-audio), the fact Commodore was never able to launch the CD32 on the US market, (it became bankrupt after building thousands of machines for the US, that were seized by the philippine government), and of course, the launch of the PSX, and Saturn that outperformed all the previous systems.
In other words, is a worth system to own? Yes, no doubt about it, there are some good games, and very nice compilation discs, it's been becoming a more and more rare system to find, and, it doesn't take much space around.
Of course if C= had added a 030 to the stock CD32, or even to the A1200, or even more, Akiko to the A1200, history could have been very different... But that's another story.
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and could play FMV's adding the FMV module (what was expensive, but still far from a 3DO)
Especially when you consider that the 3DO couldn't play FMVs (VCDs) unless you bought IT'S FMV module, which would have made it even more outrageously expensive!
(And I love my 3DO.. Didn't buy it back then tho.. )
desiv
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I like the machine, the official controller is crap though, get the Competion Pro by Honey Bee, I've had my 2 for well over 10 years, and they are as good as new, game loading times are pretty quick depending on the game I have an SX32 with 8MB so it's probably quicker on mine, I also have a CF Card fitted internally to the SX32 with most of the games on that, there for not much loading at all. see pic' below for the decent joypads/set-up.
(http://i54.tinypic.com/n1qqsl.jpg)[/IMG]
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I love my CD32.
I remember how mesmerised I was when I first saw one in a Commodore friendly computer shop running the Microcosm intro. I didn't buy one when they first came out because I'd rather spend the money on A1200 upgrades.
Earlier this decade I ran into a gaming computer/console collector. He had a veritable museum. He only had one CD32 but was prepared to contact me if and when he came across another. Several months later he called me as he had a line on a CD32, still in its original packaging, almost every CD32 title released and several CDTV titles, and an SX-1 expansion.
I picked it up the next day. I ran the SX-1 add-on for a while but I soon abandoned it, it's so ungainly, plus I have an A1200 for retro computing. There are many quick and dirty AGA title ports but some of them are lots of fun and have that little extra something. I love Superfrog.
I even have a few editions of EDGE magazine that lists the CD32 amongst the gaming systems covered.
How many people you think ever used it as a CD player?
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CD32, like an A1200, only its easier to fit into a front room :)
Seriously nice machine, expanded or otherwise. Not the quickest but grossly underrated by those who can't look beyond its dark plastic shell. By far the most consistently enjoyable experience I had using Amiga was with a CD32.
YMMV.