CDTV, it's future and games.
--
CD technology...basically games on CD and their capabilities. I've also
(like everyone else by now) seen the Sega CD system commercials on TV.
What I've seen, is really Hot Stuff. Digitized sound, interactive soundtracks,
and Digitized video footage! Really great stuff!
Where's CDTV? Is it selling? I think it must be, but people keep mentioning
software companies don't want to make software for obsolete machines or
machines that no one is buying. Commodore boasted several titles would be
on the market for CDTV and yes, there are many titles now, but so far nothing
great enough or advertised enough to reach out and grab me. The Sega CD
commercials work...it's sad that commodore can probably top these games, but
apparently few are doing anything about it. Or are they? It's so hard to
get CDTV information (current titles available, future titles, how sales
are going, revisions in progress?, peripherals on the market or soon to be?).
Has Amigaworld covered any of these topics recently? I've been looking at the
bookstores and don't seem to notice. There was a boom when CDTV first came
out, but now it seems like it's silently fading away. I'd really hate for
that to happen. I just want more information. I think a 'comp.sys.amiga.CDTV'
time has come.
I really hope that by the time Christmas roles around that there will be a few
exceptional CDTV games on the market and that Commodore can really push the
machines with these. That doesn't give much time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zero Z. Batzell | CDTV Owner. "We come in peace...shoot to kill!"
(207)-581-7589 | Iguana Owner. "NCC-42 U.S.S. Heart Of Gold"
University of Maine | Video Hobbyist. "Live long and Don't Panic!!"
student with a | Star Trek TNG Fan.
(Mostly Harmless) | Douglas N. Adams Fan. MAJOR: Life, The Universe,
transfer in mind. | Orson Scott Card Fan. and Everything.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Enterprise is not a ship for freeloading degenerate hitchhikers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lionel Tun
>software companies don't want to make software for obsolete machines or
>machines that no one is buying. Commodore boasted several titles would be
>on the market for CDTV and yes, there are many titles now, but so far nothing
>great enough or advertised enough to reach out and grab me. The Sega CD
>commercials work...it's sad that commodore can probably top these games, but
>apparently few are doing anything about it. Or are they? It's so hard to
>get CDTV information (current titles available, future titles, how sales
>are going, revisions in progress?, peripherals on the market or soon to be?).
>
>Has Amigaworld covered any of these topics recently? I've been looking at the
>bookstores and don't seem to notice. There was a boom when CDTV first came
>out, but now it seems like it's silently fading away. I'd really hate for
>that to happen. I just want more information. I think a 'comp.sys.amiga.CDTV'
>time has come.
>
>I really hope that by the time Christmas roles around that there will be a few
>exceptional CDTV games on the market and that Commodore can really push the
>machines with these. That doesn't give much time.
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Zero Z. Batzell | CDTV Owner. "We come in peace...shoot to kill!"
>(207)-581-7589 | Iguana Owner. "NCC-42 U.S.S. Heart Of Gold"
Sounds like you should get yourself a copy of Amiga Format's Special
Annual issue, out a couple of weeks ago. It speaks a lot about CDTV,
how it going, how many sold, whats available. Plus a number of in-
depth interviews with CBM UK head honcho.
>University of Maine | Video Hobbyist. "Live long and Don't Panic!!"
--
Lionel Tun (lio...@cs.city.ac.uk)
Vision Group, City University, London, EC1V 0HB. 071-477 8000 x 3889
Gregory M. Stelmack
be reasonable, and now ships them with ParNet (letting you use them as CDROM
drives for other Amigas), and this has generated renewed interest in them
around here. Check out the new Sherlock Holmes game for it -- I have floored
many people with it so far. And if Labyrinth ever hits, that should generate
a few sales. Now if only there was a way to network them...
--
-- Greg Stelmack (stel...@eggo.csee.usf.edu)
-- FullTime Grad Student, PartTime Amiga Salesman, PartTime Amiga Developer
-- Author of: Spades, Pro Port Analyzer Plus, more to come...
-- DISCLAIMER: The opinions reflected here are mine and mine alone.
Martin Black
>CDTVs are there, and software is coming. Commodore just dropped the prices to
>be reasonable, and now ships them with ParNet (letting you use them as CDROM
>drives for other Amigas), and this has generated renewed interest in them
>around here. Check out the new Sherlock Holmes game for it -- I have floored
>many people with it so far. And if Labyrinth ever hits, that should generate
>a few sales. Now if only there was a way to network them...
I can't believe the cdtv's are still in production myself, I meen there is so
little support for the darn things it is pitiful. Perhaps if C= sold softare
that would run cdtv titles off of a cd-rom drive on other amigas, including
cdxl support. And not just have xetec software. Maybe it would pick up,
but otherwise give me a break every computer company is trying to jump on the
cd-rom band wagon, yet all is not having a easy time with it. And it is going
to take a lot of support to have good titles on those things, ie 500Meg isn't
easy to fill up with meaningful data.
My father wants to get a cd-rom equiped computer for my little brother,
but he is not going to get an amiga because there is really
no support for them, ie good encyclopedias, note good, and other
learning software is more available on ibm software. As far as games, look at
sega cd with their full motion video, albeit crappy graphics. And the
super nintendo should have their cd player out soon, and since snes has better
graphics their cd's should look real nice. Where does that leave amiga cd or
cdtv, dead in the water. Only decent hope is that C= makes a cd-rom drive
to be connected to the pcmcia port, and have several titles for the aga on
the cd roms.
Martin
Steven Cobb
>CDTVs are there, and software is coming. Commodore just dropped the prices to
>be reasonable, and now ships them with ParNet (letting you use them as CDROM
What FTP site has the latest version of ParNet? I have been unable
to find it. Also, what is the latest version number.
Thanks and regards,
--
\________/\ ______________________ __________________________________
Steven Cobb \ / sc...@ucsd.edu \__/ Graduate School:
\ / It's not a job...
UCSD \/ ision Lab It's an indenture.
George L. Hall-Skank
>stel...@eggo.tmc.edu (Gregory M. Stelmack) writes:
>
>
>My father wants to get a cd-rom equiped computer for my little brother,
>but he is not going to get an amiga because there is really
>no support for them, ie good encyclopedias, note good, and other
>learning software is more available on ibm software. As far as games, look at
>sega cd with their full motion video, albeit crappy graphics. And the
>super nintendo should have their cd player out soon, and since snes has better
The release date on Nintendo's CD-ROM was recently delayed a year.
Nintendo decided it needed some more work. Nintendo's CD-ROM won't be out
now until the later part of '93 now.
>graphics their cd's should look real nice. Where does that leave amiga cd or
>cdtv, dead in the water. Only decent hope is that C= makes a cd-rom drive
>to be connected to the pcmcia port, and have several titles for the aga on
>the cd roms.
>
>Martin
--George
--
George L. Hall-Skank
I heard that when Future Wars came out there was also a CD that
had all the music from the game on it. Has anyone seen this CD? I heard
that it was available in France. Does anyone know where to find this CD?
--George
--
Mattias Myrberg
>Check out the new Sherlock Holmes game for it -- I have floored
>many people with it so far. And if Labyrinth ever hits, that should generate
>a few sales. Now if only there was a way to network them...
Yeah, the CD-ROM will make the Amiga fly, and increase the number of Amiga's sold.
What about the game "Microcosm" that Psygnosis is developing for Commodore,
(it is said to look real awesome) ?
As for CDTV, I don't believe there's a future for that crippled item.
C= would have to put in AGA and FMV if that thing is ever to walk (it never has...).
Mattias
---------- ------------
Mattias Myrberg Univ. of Uppsala
Mattias Myrberg
>As far as games, look at
>sega cd with their full motion video, albeit crappy graphics. And the
>super nintendo should have their cd player out soon, and since snes has better
>graphics their cd's should look real nice.
Would you care to repeat that ? As far as I know the SNES doesn't have 24-bit palette and HAM8,
it's more like 4096 colour-palette and 256 onscreen, and it's got a crappy processor too(wasn't it
3.5 MgHz ?) You're putting that toy against a fully fledged CD-Drive enabled Amiga 1200 !!??
By golly, the Amiga is the only "amateur<->pro" computer around !
Martin Black
>In article 20251 Martin Black writes:
>>As far as games, look at
>>sega cd with their full motion video, albeit crappy graphics. And the
>>super nintendo should have their cd player out soon, and since snes has better
>>graphics their cd's should look real nice.
>Would you care to repeat that ? As far as I know the SNES doesn't have 24-bit palette and HAM8,
>it's more like 4096 colour-palette and 256 onscreen, and it's got a crappy processor too(wasn't it
>3.5 MgHz ?) You're putting that toy against a fully fledged CD-Drive enabled Amiga 1200 !!??
>By golly, the Amiga is the only "amateur<->pro" computer around !
No, no, I think you took that quite a bit out of context. I was referring to
snes having better graphics than sega genesis, and amiga ecs. It has a
pallete of 65k and can display 256 colors on the screen. Nothing of a cd drived
a1200. I look forward to that immensely, slap that cdrom drive onto the
pcmcia slot and you have a hell of a nice set up, when it comes out. Also,
I have heard of a scsi adapter for the pcmcia in the a1200/a600, so you can
get a cd drive connected to it plus able to have other things. But having
a cd drive for the pcmcia slot from C= will give a lot more support to cds.
Martin
Mattias Myrberg
>No, no, I think you took that quite a bit out of context. I was referring to
>snes having better graphics than sega genesis, and amiga ecs. It has a
>pallete of 65k and can display 256 colors on the screen. Nothing of a cd >drived
>a1200. I look forward to that immensely, slap that cdrom drive onto the
>pcmcia slot and you have a hell of a nice set up, when it comes out. Also,
>I have heard of a scsi adapter for the pcmcia in the a1200/a600, so you can
>get a cd drive connected to it plus able to have other things. But having
>a cd drive for the pcmcia slot from C= will give a lot more support to cds.
>Martin
You're absolutely right there, SCSI for the PCMCIA would(and it will) be great.
I really hope that C= will enchance the A570-drive(well, they must if they intend to
make the Amiga a CD-computer), it's a shame that A570 at present cannot be fitted with
extras&expansions (locks up the rest,boo ! :( )
The Amiga Specs. vs The Consoles Specs. doesn't worry me, what really scares
me is that I find it hard to believe that there is room for the Amiga.
For the misled gameplayers there are consoles(crippled people without the brains to buy an Amiga),
then there's the more advanced hobbyist/gamesplayer.This is where the Amiga has been for a while,
but to be honest -it would really take a basic Amiga that's *fast* AND NOT too expensive
(is that A1200 ? Nahh, it's sold with only 2 Meg Chip -that means custom_chips fighting with
the processor over memory-access -> *not_so_fast* computer ) to hold on to this position.
The threath is of course the loathed clones (primitive structure-but fast processor)
and they are *low-priced* (it's such a pain to see a good idea being clubbed to death
while a stupid idea gains supremacy). Amiga may have CD and RTG-standard, but so do Macintosh and
there are some CD-systems for the clones. So what's left ? Only the professional video and music-market,
which leaves the hobbyist with <$2500 out of the game, besides Macintosh's popular with
videofreaks and then there are the highend-platforms.
Tell me that I'm wrong !
/Mattias
-------- ---------
Mattias Myrberg Uppsala Univ.
Martin Black
>>Martin
Well I did see some news on the a1200/a600 pcmcia cdrom drive. In the Format
mag of december 92', they were talking about having the a570 as a christmas
gift, yet in a picture that was to correspond to it was an a690 which was
obviously a cd-rom drive with a volume control and stereo head phone jack.
It didn't show the side which would have the edge slot for the a570, or
a pcmcia plug for the a600. But with that name I think that it was for the
a600, therefore good to run on the a1200, since it is the same pcmcia slot
type.
And I am not worried of the clone, I would buy the clone if it were so great.
But the fact is it isn't. The fact is that there is no standard for blitter,
therefore only wolf 3d uses as far as I know it, and most clones have 16bit
graphics. And there really isn't that many action arcade games for the clones.
And big woop about Macintosh, like there is that many color macs for home
use and as if they actually had high speed graphics.
The consoles is what the amiga is competing against, and it is the clones that
the amiga is competing against. See the amiga a1200 with fast ram is best of
both worlds.
Martin
Steven Hurdle
wrote:
B> stel...@eggo.tmc.edu (Gregory M. Stelmack) writes:
>CDTVs are there, and software is coming. Commodore just dropped the prices
to
>be reasonable, and now ships them with ParNet (letting you use them as
CDROM
>drives for other Amigas), and this has generated renewed interest in them
>around here. Check out the new Sherlock Holmes game for it -- I have
floored
>many people with it so far. And if Labyrinth ever hits, that should
generate
>a few sales. Now if only there was a way to network them...
I agree with you Gregory, which is why I just bought one recently myself.
I'm very happy. Just picked up Sim City, the first game I've bought as up
until now I've been stocking up on reference works I like, and it's
fantastic. So much better than the Amiga version. They COMPLETELY
re-coded it for CD and it shows.
B> I can't believe the cdtv's are still in production myself, I meen
B> there is so
B> little support for the darn things it is pitiful. Perhaps if C= sold
B> softare
B> that would run cdtv titles off of a cd-rom drive on other amigas,
B> including
B> cdxl support. And not just have xetec software. Maybe it would pick
B> up,
B> but otherwise give me a break every computer company is trying to jump
B> on the
B> cd-rom band wagon, yet all is not having a easy time with it. And it
B> is going
B> to take a lot of support to have good titles on those things, ie
B> 500Meg isn't
B> easy to fill up with meaningful data.
There's a lot of software coming now. Maybe you aren't paying attention to
the most recent releases?
B> My father wants to get a cd-rom equiped computer for my little
B> brother,
B> but he is not going to get an amiga because there is really
B> no support for them, ie good encyclopedias, note good, and other
B> learning software is more available on ibm software. As far as games,
B> look at
B> sega cd with their full motion video, albeit crappy graphics. And the
B>
B> super nintendo should have their cd player out soon, and since snes
B> has better
B> graphics their cd's should look real nice. Where does that leave
B> amiga cd or
B> cdtv, dead in the water. Only decent hope is that C= makes a cd-rom
B> drive
B> to be connected to the pcmcia port, and have several titles for the
B> aga on
B> the cd roms.
There will almost definitely be no significant CD-ROM drive for the SNES.
As it looks now, the Sony playstation CD-ROM may come out for it but this
is lacklustre technology in its announced for and making it anything better
will require time and effort, strangely enough! :) As for Nintendo's
offering, don't expect it to come out for the SNES. Expect it to be a
brand new CD-ROM console, not a SNES peripheral. A release date of August
'93 still looks optimistic, however. Not that I care, as I don't plan to
get anything mentioned in this paragraph! :)
-- Via DLG Pro v0.995
Steven Hurdle <==> The Swindler [public replies only please]
Writer of "Virtual Rumours", a rumour/news column in some club newsletters.
Mattias Myrberg
>And I am not worried of the clone, I would buy the clone if it were so great.
>But the fact is it isn't. The fact is that there is no standard for blitter,
>therefore only wolf 3d uses as far as I know it, and most clones have 16bit
>graphics. And there really isn't that many action arcade games for the clones.
>And big woop about Macintosh, like there is that many color macs for home
>use and as if they actually had high speed graphics.
>The consoles is what the amiga is competing against, and it is the clones that
>the amiga is competing against. See the amiga a1200 with fast ram is best of
>both worlds.
>Martin
Right, they have no standard blitter or any standard sound-card.
(it sounds like crap, compared to an Amiga equipped with a SoundEnhancer)
Are you sure they only have 16-bit graphics ? I thought VGA meant 24-bit palette.
A Macintosh will never make a hacker out of anybody, it's the computer for those
who don't want to bother with understanding anything, either because they don't
have the time, or because they don't think it's important.
I can only say one thing to those loosers -go get a brain.
True Macintosh doesn't have highspeed graphics, I played Lemmings on a LC II,
it was sooo SLOOOOW ! But that's because of the OS and because the program has to
go through the RTG-interface. Amiga will have RTG too, real soon I guess, and then
it's the end of fast Amiga-games -if the internal graphics-chip isn't developed further.
But in the end it's not how powerful and flexible a machine is that decides
if it's going to be a smash hit, it's advertising and hype.
I really hate it, this way Apple sells hundreds of computers with a line like:
"Macintosh-you don't have to do what your computer should do", or a stupid comparison like this:
--------------
The Clone User
-I wanted to delete my document "badidea.txt", this is what I did:
cd C:documents/
delete badidea.txt
----------------------
The Mac User
-I wanted to delete my document "badidea", this is what I did:
-I dragged the icon badidea to the trashcan.
----------------
I actually saw an ad where they claimed to be the ones who introduced the mouse,
what fucking crap ! The mouse was invented in the 60:s by a single man, NOT by Apple !
/Mattias
Steven Cobb
>I actually saw an ad where they claimed to be the ones
> who introduced the mouse,
>what fucking crap ! The mouse was invented in the 60's
>by a single man, NOT by Apple !
iNo, I'm afraid you're wrong! He was married. But no kids.
Cheers,
Jeremy Friesner!
>I actually saw an ad where they claimed to be the ones
> who introduced the mouse,
>what fucking crap ! The mouse was invented in the 60's
>by a single man, NOT by Apple !
Well, they were the first major computer to come with
a mouse as a standard item, so perhaps their claim
that they *introduced* it is valid.
After all, before the introduction of the Mac, I
had never heard of a mouse, had you?
Jeremy
--
|~~~~///~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| /// Words fail-Buildings tum-| An Amiga 3000, HP DeskJet 500C,|
\\\/// ble.The ground opens wide!| and thou... 8^) |
|\\X/____________-TMBG___________|________________________________|
Mattias Myrberg
>Cheers,
>--
> \________/\ ______________________ __________________________________
>Steven Cobb \ / sc...@ucsd.edu \__/ Graduate School:
> \ / It's not a job...
> UCSD \/ ision Lab It's an indenture.
Oh Yeah ? ....erhm, well, if you insist.
So what's the correct expression then ?
/Mattias
*Stupid stories about ginger icecream is a thing of the past...whatever that means.*
--------- -----------
Tom R Krotchko
>a mouse as a standard item, so perhaps their claim
>that they *introduced* it is valid.
Now you're really splitting hairs. Xerox had been producing
computers with a mouse a few years before.
And as the gentleman before indicated, the mouse was
demonstrated in the early 60's by some professor (sorrry
for that lack of references).
>After all, before the introduction of the Mac, I
>had never heard of a mouse, had you?
Depends on how old you were. Some of us found the research
material coming out of PARC fascinating.
To...@cup.portal.com
Tom Krotchko
Steven Hurdle
wrote:
MM> but to be honest -it would really take a basic Amiga that's *fast*
MM> AND NOT too expensive
MM> (is that A1200 ? Nahh, it's sold with only 2 Meg Chip -that means
MM> custom_chips fighting with
MM> the processor over memory-access -> *not_so_fast* computer ) to hold
MM> on to this position.
Well, obviously anyone who buys an A1200 should outfit it with some FastRAM
in either the PCMCIA smart-card port or in the Trapdoor (but when I get an
A1200 I'll be leaving the trapdoor free for the inevitable GVP '030 Combo
with ample FastRAM. The trapdoor on the A1200 is IMMENSE! Fitting a board
with a SCSI controller, 8 megs of Fast, and an '030 accelerator in there
would be no problem at all!). Any A1200 buyer who doesn't get FastRAM for
it as soon as their budget allows is, well, being something just a bit more
silly than a rather silly thing.
-- Via DLG Pro v0.995
Steven Hurdle <==> The Swindler [public replies only please]
Writer of "Virtual Rumours", a rumour/news column in some club newsletters.
Coming to you from Victoria B.C., the Bahamas of Canada
Mattias Myrberg
>In article <1992Dec2.0...@tdb.uu.se> m92...@tdb.uu.se (Mattias Myrberg) writes:
>>I actually saw an ad where they claimed to be the ones
>> who introduced the mouse,
>>what fucking crap ! The mouse was invented in the 60's
>>by a single man, NOT by Apple !
^^^^^^^^^^
>No, I'm afraid you're wrong! He was married. But no kids.
>Cheers,
>--
> \________/\ ______________________ >__________________________________
>Steven Cobb \ / sc...@ucsd.edu \__/ Graduate >School:
> \ / It's not a >job...
> UCSD \/ ision Lab It's a
HA HA HA.
Ok, "one single man". Are you satisfied now ?
/Mattias
_________ __________
Mattias Myrberg Uppsala Univ.
"ACME ToothPaste -Get them before they get you!"
"P680 -Makes your life a bit easier"
Martin Hiller
>/Mattias
I have also heard that this single person works at Chalmers University of
Technology.
- Martin.
--
// Martin Hiller (d0...@dtek.chalmers.se)| Currently doing military service
\\ // Chalmers University of Technology | for the King of Sweden at Lv6
\X/ Gothenburg, Sweden, Europe | in Gothenburg.
*******************************************************************************