Ah, the CDTV. Great proof-of-concept, but Commodore were nuts to bring the thing to market when they did. Philips basically spooked CBM into chasing a non-existent market - the technology wasn't mature enough for prime-time in 1991. I wonder if the millions they lost on CDTV would have been enough for Haynie and the engineers to finish the AAA chipset? If it had, computing would look very different today in my opinion.
@turricaned I wouldn't say the problem was that the technology was immature, I remember when this thing came out and even then it was obvious that it was just a rehashed A500 with a CD drive.
@RetroManCave I meant the CD-ROM end of things rather than the Amiga. The drive itself was single-speed, the interface was kludgy and proprietary - as a technology demo it was exciting, but as a product there was no real market for it. It would have made sense use the CDTV to generate interest, but release the A570 in 1991 instead. What actually happened was that CBM couldn't give the CDTVs away, and were embarrassed as a result.
This is not atall animated by the CDTV it's self. If you think it is then it would be like saying you believe that your DVD player is able to animate Toystory in real time just because when you put the disc in, you see the 3d characters on screen.
@pcfaulkner They were eventually bought out by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, before being absorbed into SCEE later on. Sources say that many of those who worked with Psygnosis are still there.
I was the only kid on my block who had a CDTV back in the day. Hell, it was like $800!!! But, for that time period, it rocked compared to anything out on the market. I never got to play this game, only saw a preview from the Lemmings game.
@a1exh The amiga Cdtv was one of the first ever machines to stream media from a cdrom.. as the available bandwith from early cd rom drives (150k p/s) max and the video limitations of the amiga 500 hardware at the time.. commodore developed the CDXL format, which basically streamed interleaved bitmapped .anim files with sound from the disc with little buffer.. so framerates where set low to compensate for the slow data transfer.. until the cd32 that is :-)
The system had allot of potential. It's a shame it never really took off. :(
Iceni77 2 weeks ago
Ah, the CDTV. Great proof-of-concept, but Commodore were nuts to bring the thing to market when they did. Philips basically spooked CBM into chasing a non-existent market - the technology wasn't mature enough for prime-time in 1991. I wonder if the millions they lost on CDTV would have been enough for Haynie and the engineers to finish the AAA chipset? If it had, computing would look very different today in my opinion.
turricaned 3 months ago
@turricaned I wouldn't say the problem was that the technology was immature, I remember when this thing came out and even then it was obvious that it was just a rehashed A500 with a CD drive.
RetroManCave 4 weeks ago
@RetroManCave I meant the CD-ROM end of things rather than the Amiga. The drive itself was single-speed, the interface was kludgy and proprietary - as a technology demo it was exciting, but as a product there was no real market for it. It would have made sense use the CDTV to generate interest, but release the A570 in 1991 instead. What actually happened was that CBM couldn't give the CDTVs away, and were embarrassed as a result.
turricaned 4 weeks ago
This is not atall animated by the CDTV it's self. If you think it is then it would be like saying you believe that your DVD player is able to animate Toystory in real time just because when you put the disc in, you see the 3d characters on screen.
AzumiRM 7 months ago
what happened to psygnosis?
pcfaulkner 8 months ago
@pcfaulkner = Sony
iIIcommunication 8 months ago
@iIIcommunication i thank you for the info, cheers
pcfaulkner 8 months ago
@pcfaulkner They were eventually bought out by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, before being absorbed into SCEE later on. Sources say that many of those who worked with Psygnosis are still there.
ApacheMan2K 6 months ago
@ApacheMan2K thank you for that, i actually hoped they were still involved with gaming they did some great work
pcfaulkner 6 months ago
@pcfaulkner Sure thing. Though I did forget to mention that when Psygnosis was bought by SCEE, they were then known as SCE Studio Liverpool.
ApacheMan2K 6 months ago
Doesn't anyone else think it is amazing we're watching videos on the web about a time when watching videos on computer were something to fuss about?
falkerhard 8 months ago 2
Some great animations.
andersdenkend 1 year ago
I love the CDTV!
Segadude3000 2 years ago
Cool, early Microcosm footage!
porcorosso81 2 years ago 3
I am sure that this video would make a lot PC users shit their pants back in those days!
alex76gr 2 years ago 12
I was the only kid on my block who had a CDTV back in the day. Hell, it was like $800!!! But, for that time period, it rocked compared to anything out on the market. I never got to play this game, only saw a preview from the Lemmings game.
Armyjive 2 years ago
Man, I miss the CDTV. I used to play with it all the time when I was little.
TheNilvarg 2 years ago
@TheNilvarg If you get the WINUAE Emulator. And the CDTV Roms from torrents.
You can re live the Amiga. I have the CD32 Rom emulator.
ACDCISCOOLNESS 1 year ago
The frame rate looks a little low in some of those FMV sequences or is that the conversion to flash?
a1exh 3 years ago
no, it's the actual frame rate.
you need to remember that this is 1991 material so it's not quite up to the par with modern day renders or frame rates.
mk1videos 3 years ago 5
@a1exh The amiga Cdtv was one of the first ever machines to stream media from a cdrom.. as the available bandwith from early cd rom drives (150k p/s) max and the video limitations of the amiga 500 hardware at the time.. commodore developed the CDXL format, which basically streamed interleaved bitmapped .anim files with sound from the disc with little buffer.. so framerates where set low to compensate for the slow data transfer.. until the cd32 that is :-)
GodofLegacy 11 months ago
@a1exh there were still plenty of bleeping computers in 1991 and green and black displays
falkerhard 8 months ago