CD1200 Prototype where to buy?

[Rob]

@danwood

I'm so glad it still exists and is safe in a museum in the UK! There was so much hope and optimism wrapped up in that little prototype. In reality the Squirrel CD-ROM interface was a far better solution for the period but the fact this was the official Amiga CD-Rom solution for the A1200 with the possiblity of 100% compatibility with CD32 software would have given the market a much needed boost had the Commodore UK buyout succeeded :-( As it turned out users were better off picking up the widely available CD32 consoles and adding a SX-1 or SX-32 to make the console into a A1200 type computer. It's a shame that only 2,000 SX-32 units were sold as they were absolutely great.

... that's 1,999 more SX-32s produced than CD1200s though ;-)

I wish I'd got an SX-32 back in the day but I was much more interested in upgrading the A1200 at the time.  Looking back through my old magazines I realised that Eyetech sold them for quite reasonable prices and I could probably have bought one as well as all the A1200 gear but how was I to know that today I'd have greater desire for a CD32 based WHDload system with the idea of an A1200 being completely out of favour for me.

I have a CD32 and an A4000 keyboard waiting for the day that either a Vampire32 or Ian Stedman's project Hermes become available.

[Rob]

A1200 should've had an '030 from the get-go.  Or at least some fast ram.  But meh, hindsight is 20-20, another example of Commodore shortsightedness, etc., blahblahblah.  

The CD32 would have been a lot better with 1MB of fast ram and a number of UK developers said so at the time.

[Rob]

Some people say Doom killed the Amiga. By the end of 1992, the 68040 was available at 40 MHz. A 68040 at 40 MHz eats Doom for breakfast! A 68030 at 50 MHz can also pull it off.... so it certainly wasn't Doom that killed the Amiga - it was definitely something else (or shall we say someone else?).

I found it playable enough on a 33Mhz 68030 with AGA.  If Doom had come out for Amiga in 1993, 68030 accelerator sales would have gone through the roof and Commodore would have probably sold enough A4000's to keep afloat.  This was well before the days inexpensive home build PCs.  Instead many people went to Time UK or wherever and paid over a grand for a PC to play Doom.

[Rob]

@skolman

Nice links ;-) Almost makes me want one reading all that again despite the fact that I know that not using the PCMCIA slot and blocking up the accelerator slot was a big mistake and would have cost C= big time.

Commodore never made accelerators for the A1200 and judging by the amount of unexpanded A1200s that come up on Ebay then I doubt it would have been an issue.  Many customers would have felt that ability to add some extra RAM would have been more than enough.  Also I think that there might have been problems with Akiko and the 16-bit PCMCIA interface.  Not that Akiko was particularly useful anyway.

The Squirrel SCSI adapter was the solution all along.

Actually the Archos PCMCIA IDE adapters seemed to be the solution.  Commodore rebranded the hard drive units and later Amiga Technologies rebranded the CD ROM units.

[Rob]

Just realised that Beth Richard should be able to shed some more light on the CD1200.  Her name is on the silkscreen and she was heavily involved in the CD32 and FMV projects at Commodore.

[Rob]

Did you not read the whole of the thread?

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=816409&postcount=25

I hadn't been sleeping well when I typed that.  Worst thing is that last month I'd have read the post you linked but had since forgotten.