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DW FACTS
by Dark Watcher

Commodore had garnered a cult following in the 1980s with their brilliant line of home computers and games. In the 1990s 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 (Amstrad GX4000 for an example).

MODELS Officially licensed releases
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. 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




CLONES Non-licensed hardware releases
No clones were released for this system.

CONSOLE RATINGS
by Marriott_Guy

Consoles are rated based upon the available technology at the time of its release. A 10 point scale is utilized, with 10 being excellent.

CRITERIA	RATING	NOTES & COMMENTS
Console Design	07	The CDTV is a tank. These beasts weigh around 28 lbs (12 kg) with the chassis constructed with heavy gauge steel. The numerous ports and options are well placed. The front display is simple yet elegant. Overall I really appreciate the thought that was put into the design of this machine.
Console Durability	07	I have not had any issues with my system, but with any early CD based system read errors may occur over time.
Controllers	06	The multi-purpose remote is rather large and not particularly comfortable to use. The fact that Commodore was able to squeeze all of the functions into that space keeps this score from being lower.
Graphics	04	The CDTV falls well short in the graphics department. The system had a meager palette of 4,096 colors with a maximum of 32 colors displayed onscreen.
Audio	05	Commodore used the Paula 8364 audio chip for the CDTV, which was effective but lacked the high sampling output of other chips of that era.
Media	05	Load times for the CD-ROM seem much longer compared to other hybrid machines like the Philips CD-i. My guess is that the low amount of RAM (512 KB) is partly to blame for this.
Gamer Value	03	In all honesty, the CDTV offers little that might attract the average gamer. Amiga enthusiasts will like the expandability of the system to enable them to enjoy their exiting Amiga 500 library of games.
Collector Value	07	This console was definitely a flop, but at the time was considered a high-end hybrid device that commanded top dollar. These are still pricey acquisitions, but the expandability and wide breadth of options this system offers makes this a very nice addition for both the console collector and Amiga aficionado.

FORMAT, PACKAGING & GENERAL INFO Interesting facts on software for 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. One of the most expensive titles to acquire is Loom. This title alone can fetch up to $700 USD.	Welcome to CDTV (included tutorial disc)

Commodore CDTV Game Boxes


SCREENSHOTS Captured in-game images
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

EMULATION
First and third party system emulators

WinUAE

Great Windows based emulator capable of running CDTV and other Amiga computer games

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 68000	7.16 MHz (NTSC) / 7.09 MHz (PAL)	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 delivery method)	640 MB	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 (8 KB to 1,024 KB)	Multifunction remote \ gamepad (wireless)	Keyboard, RAM Expansion kits, Disk Drive, etc.
Controller Ports	Network Ports	Other Ports	Audio \ Video
None (wireless gamepad)	None	Keyboard (5 pin mini-DIN), Mouse (4 pin mini-DIN), RS-232 Serial (DB-25M), Parallel (DB-25F), MIDI I\O, FDD (DB-23F)	RF, Composite, S-Video (NTSC), RGB (DB-23M), SCART (PAL)
Power Supply - Internal	Other Outputs	Expansion Slots
110 V (NTSC) or 220\240 V (PAL)	Headphone Jack	Memory Card, Video Module, DMA Extension
Manuals
Commodore CDTV Service Manual (PDF) - 1.05 MB