The Video Game Console Library

	Commodore CDTV
	DW FACTS by Dark Watcher
	Page content, development and design by Marriott_Guy

Developer	Manufacturer	Release Date	Country(s)	Initial Price	Model Number	Game Releases	Overall Rating
Commodore Intl'	Commodore Intl'	Mar-1991	North America, UK	$799 USD	CD-1000	Approx. 155	N\A
Ratings	Reviews	Pictures\Media	Specs\Manuals	Games\Emulation	Models	Clones	Links

Ratings
Consoles are rated based upon the available technology at the time of its release. Ratings based upon a 10 point scale (10 being excellent\very rare).
Console Design (appearance, functionality)	N\A
Console Durability (sturdy or frail and fragile)	N\A
Controllers (design, response, feel, use)	N\A
Graphics (graphical capability and presentation)	N\A
Audio (sound, music, speech, effects)	N\A
Media (game media format, design, durability)	N\A
Packaging (appeal, durability of packaging)	N\A
Game Library (quality, quantity of game library)	N\A
Innovations (technological industrial strides)	N\A
Gamer Value (good investment for the gamer?)	N\A
Collector Value (good collector investment?)	N\A
Games Rarity (general availability of games)	N\A
Console Rarity (general availability of a system)	N\A

Reviews

Commodore CDTV

DW FACTS
- by Dark Watcher

Commodore had garnered a cult following in the 1980's with their brilliant line of home computers and games. In the 1990's however, PC compatibles started making there way into homes, and began pushing out the Commodore / Amiga line of computers. Game consoles also started taking over the game player's dollar. Commodore hustled to make a set-top, CD-ROM based home entertainment device to compete with this growing market. In 1991, Commodore released CDTV (basically an Amiga 500 computer with a CD-ROM drive built in). Needless to say it suffered the similar fates of other similar devices (Bandai Pippin and the Philips CD-i for example).

Check out the following from 1991 detailing the intentions of this device. Click image to enlarge.

$Commodore CDTV Magazine Ad\Article$

Picture credits to The Commodore CDTV Info Center

HANDS ON REVIEW

Coming soon...

Pictures & Media

Various picture\media for this console. Click pictures to enlarge.

I have had the following pictures for it seems like eternity. I believe they are from an eBay listing that I was considering prior to purchasing my CDTV.
If these belong to you, please let me know so that I may properly credit you. Thanks! - Marriott_Guy

Specs & Manuals

For the hardware enthusiasts out there - all the detail you\we love.

Processor Type	Processor Speed	Other Processor Information	RAM \ Video RAM
Motorola MC 68000	7.14 MHz	Agnus 8372 (DMA, RAM), Denise 8362 (video), Paula 8364 (audio) Gary 5719 (disk drives, memory)	512 KB (OCS chipset) 1 MB (ECS Chipset)
Screen Resolution	Color Palette	Polygons \ Sprites	Audio
320 x 200 (32 colors) 640 x 240 (16 colors)	4,096 Colors	Unknown	Four channel (8-bit), 28 kHz max
Media Format	Media Capacity	Games Released	Other Supported Formats
CD-ROM (1x, caddie-style)	128 KB to 2048 KB	Approx. 155 (220+ including compatibles)	Audio CD, Amiga 500 (with optional FDD), Amiga 1000 CDs
Internal Storage	External\Removable Storage	Game Controllers	Other Game \ Peripheral Devices
256 KB (used for firmware\loading)	Memory Card (8KB to 1,024 KB)	Multi-Button gamepad (wireless)	Keyboard, RAM Expansion kits, Disk Drive, etc.
Controller Ports	Network Ports	Other Ports	Audio \ Video
None (wireless gamepad)	None	Keyboard, Mouse, Serial (RS-232), Parallel (DB25F), MIDI In\Out, FDD	RGB (DB-23M), Composite, S-Video (NTSC), SCART (PAL)
Power Supply - Internal	Other Inputs \ Outputs	Expansion Slots
110 V (NTSC) \ 220\240 V (PAL)	Headphone Jack, RF\Cable In\Out	SCSI, Memory Card, Video Module, DMA Extension, AmigaOS 1.3
Manuals
Commodore CDTV Service Manual (PDF) - 1.05 MB

Games & Emulation

Games, media format, emulators and screen shots for titles released on this system.

Software for the Commodore CDTV was distributed in the CD-ROM format. Most games were packaged in standard jewel cases and featured colorful artwork on the CD inlays. The CDTV logo was prominently displayed in the banner portion of the front cover as well as on the CD spine.

Just like the Amiga CD32, Commodore CDTV games tend to be rather expensive, especially for the NTSC versions. Due to the system's short life span (less than two years), many of the titles had limited production runs. In total, there are around 35 unique titles that were released for the CDTV - the rest were ports of existing games from their Amiga line of computers as well as from other platforms.

Commodore CDTV Game Boxes

Commodore CDTV Game Screenshots
Courtesy of Hall of Light

Air Warrior

Battle Chess

Battlestorm

Case of the Cautious Condor

Casino Games

Chaos in Andromeda

Classic Board Games

Curse of Ra

Defender of the Crown

Emerald Mines

E.S.S. Mega

Falcon

Fantastic Voyage

Indians Jones and the Last Crusade

Lemmings

Logical

Murder Makes Strange Deadfellows

North Polar Expedition

Planetstorm

Power Pinball

Prehistorik

Prey: An Alien Encounter

Psycho Killer

Raffles

Sherlock Homes Consulting Detective

Sim City

Space Wars

Team Yankee

Tiebreak

Town With No Name

Trivial Pursuit

Turrican

Turrican 2

Ultimate Basketball

Wrath of the Demon

Xenon 2

Third Party Emulators
Program	Website	Description
WinUAE	http://www.winuae.net/	Great Windows based emulator capable of running CD32 and other Amiga computer games.

Models

Additional authorized releases for this console.

There were two packages released for the Commodore CDTV - the standard and the Pro Pack version. The machines were nearly identical, but the Pro Pack included the optional keyboard, mouse and Floppy Disk Drive. A second release was planned, named the CDTV-CR (Cost Reduced), but with the focus on the Amiga CD32, the CDTV-CR remained only a prototype. The following is a picture of the CDTV-CR:

Commodore CDTV

Picture courtesy of The Amiga History Guide. Check out their site for more info on this proto,

Clones

Non-licensed releases (clones).

No clones were released for this system.

Links

Highly recommended additional sites\resources for this system.

Name	Website	Description
Commodore CDTV Info Center	http://www.cdtv.org.uk	Best place on the net for CDTV info!
Hall of Light	http://hol.abime.net/	Excellent Amiga database of games and reviews

visitors since 01-Apr-2008
Page last updated 06-Jan-2012

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