--- title: Commodore CDTV categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1990' cpus: - Motorola MC 68000 params: name: CDTV image: /media/museum/photos/commodore_cdtv_complete.jpg company: /companies/commodore company_name: Commodore specs: - label: NAME value: CDTV - label: MANUFACTURER value: Commodore - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: '1990' - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1995' - label: KEYBOARD value: optional full-stroke professional keyboard - label: CPU value: Motorola MC 68000 - label: SPEED value: 7.14 MHz - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: Denise (8373 SuperDenise), Paula, Agnus, Gary - label: RAM value: 512 KB (later expanded to 1Mb Chip RAM) - label: ROM value: 192 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 60 x 32 / 80 x 32 - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: 'several graphic modes, most used : 320 x 240 (32 colors) / 640 x 240 (16 colors)' - label: COLORS value: '4096' - label: SOUND value: four 8 bit PCM voices - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 430mm W x 330mm D x 95mm H - label: I/O PORTS value: One credit card type slot (to save games scores) , 1 video slot, 1 DMA extension, Mouse & infrared joystick, Parallel, Serial, 15Khz RGB video, External floppy, Stereo RCA Audio jacks (16 bit), Colour composite Video output, MIDI In/Out, Headphone Jack - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: Internal single speed CDROM (with caddy) - label: OS value: 'AMIGA DOS, Kickstart: 1.3 (+ additional CD support)' - label: PRICE value: 699£ (1990, UK) tabs: - hardware - emulators - links - videos hardware: - title: EXTERNAL 3.5'' DISK DRIVE subtitle: Model 1411 text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_cdtv_extern-fdd_1.jpg - title: MIDI GOLD 500 subtitle: by Golden Hawk Technology text: |- This is a MIDI interface for the Amiga 500, 2000, or 3000... It features :\ \- one MIDI In\ \- two MIDI Out\ \- one switchable Out/Thru\ \- one MIDI/Serial Switch\ \- one Out/Thru Switch image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga_golden-hawk-midi-interface.jpg - title: AMIGA 1300 subtitle: Genlock text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1000_1300-genlock.jpg - title: MEMORY EXPANSION BOARD subtitle: '' text: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 MB expansion card here fitted with 2 MB. image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_memboard_1.jpg - title: VIDEO BOARD subtitle: '' text: This board featured 2 MB of RAM and allowed the Amiga to be connected to a standard VGA monitor. All the video modes could be displayed, including the interlace one. image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_videoboard_1.jpg - title: A570 CD-ROM subtitle: '' text: Thanks to David Griffith for this picture image: /media/museum/hardware/amiga_cdrom_a570_1.jpg - title: HARD DISK CARD subtitle: '' text: |- 40 MB SCSI card from SUPRA CORP. Additional SCSI devices could be connected in chain trough the back connector image: /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_hdboard_1.jpg emulators: - title: Amiga Forever url: http://www.amigaforever.com/ platform: Windows text: Complete but commercial Amiga emulator - title: AMIthlon & AmigaXL url: http://amigaosxl.haage-partner.de/index-e.html platform: Windows text: Powerful commercial emulators - title: WinFellow url: HTTP://FELLOW.SOURCEFORGE.NET platform: Windows text: Probably better at some games than UAE, but not as versatile. - title: WinUAE url: http://www.winuae.net/ platform: Windows text: The best Amiga emulator ? :-) - title: Max UAE url: http://maxuae.de/ platform: Apple text: UAE for Mac OS X - title: AmigaSYS url: http://amigasys.fw.hu/ platform: Unix / Linux text: AmigaSYS is a pre-installed full Amiga OS for WinUAE - title: Pocket UAE url: http://pocketinsanity.sourceforge.net/ platform: Other platform text: Amiga Emulator for Pocket PC - title: Experimental UAE url: http://www.rcdrummond.net/uae/ platform: Multiplatform text: Standard UAE enhanced with features from WinUAE. - title: MESS url: http://www.mess.org platform: Multiplatform text: MESS now emulates the Commodore Amiga - title: UAE url: http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~uae/ platform: Multiplatform text: '(Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator) for BeOS, Mac OS, Linux, NextStep, MSDOS, OS/2 and Win95/NT : Homepage.' links: - title: Amiga animations url: http://www.randelshofer.ch/animations/ text: A collection of Amiga Animations. This is the only site where you can see them online! - title: Amiga Interactive Guide url: http://amiga.emugaming.com/ text: Excellent site ! A lot of very interesting infos there. - title: Amiga Island url: http://www.virtualpast.de/ text: Excellent site with ROMs to download! - title: Amiga Web Directory url: http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html text: '' - title: AMIGART.COM url: http://www.amigart.com text: Nice site with Amiga news - title: AmiTrix Development Main Page url: http://www.networkx.com/amitrix/ text: '' - title: Back to the Roots url: HTTP://WWW.BACK2ROOTS.ORG/ text: Amiga culture, guides, huge collection of legally downloadable software, and much more. - title: Lex Site - Amiga Hardware Database url: http://amiga.multigraph.com/ text: The website title says it all! - title: NetBSD-Amiga url: http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/amiga/index.html text: '' - title: Old Computer Mags url: http://www.old-computer-mags.com/ text: Scans of old computer and videogames magazine - title: Recorded Amiga Games url: http://www.recordedamigagames.org text: Speedrun, longplay and misc videos of Amiga games and more. - title: RetroPack url: http://www.retropack.co.uk/ text: Website dedicated to selling original Amigas, CD32s and Amiga/CD32 Games. - title: The Amiga Monitor url: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MikeWebb/amhome.html text: '' - title: The Big Book of Amiga Hardware url: http://www.amiga-hardware.com/ text: Pics & info (pinouts, jumpers etc.) for just about every piece of Amiga related hardware there is - title: The English Amiga Board url: http://eab.abime.net/ text: Community site for Amiga fans - title: World-Wide Amiga - Online!! url: http://www.amiga.org/ text: '' - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: Reviews of Amiga software, hardware videos: - title: Commodore Amiga commercial - EXIT url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8721405286052618769&hl=fr text: 'Length: 41 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 500 commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5737538578208665725&hl=fr text: 'Length: 29 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 1000 commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5356507595228759374&hl=fr text: 'Length: 32 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 600 italian commercial url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-768109352967297990&hl=fr text: 'Length: 19 s' - title: Commodore Amiga packs commercial url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdaMq8JLyHA text: 'Length: 21 s' - title: Commodore Amiga TV Ad - Celebrities url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEFoj6sbDjU text: 'Length: 29 s' - title: Commodore Amiga 500 promotional video url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=9038863557655975739&hl=fr text: 'Length: 15 min 06 s' - title: 'Computer Chronicles: Amiga & Atari (1985)' url: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8978343825632445107&hl=fr text: 'Length: 29 min 18 s' comments: - author: Rougeaux date: Monday 2nd July 2018 text: |- I actually did dare to look it up, and discovered that the first public demonstration of the CDTV was on 2 June 1990, at CES. At the time, it had been under development for around 18 months, or since late 1988. https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.amiga/KsZfxQCglNg/L5HBrQhJULEJ In fact, development was still going on even after that demonstration.\ In a letter from Commodore posted to the CompuServe Amiga forum in August 1990, the CDTV was described as still being "currently in development." The letter went on to clarify that, in spite of speculation regarding the as-yet-unreleased platform, Commodore was as committed as ever to entertainment software as well as education. https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.sys.amiga/btfLfeVcPbM/DkUuE9UvSQIJ - author: amigaman date: Monday 25th July 2016 text: |- wait you know i am amigaman ,and are jealous wish it where someone else.So you lie about everything. TS!!! . you guys bs dont know the real date you gust screw up here now you say 1990 for the cdtv ..wait wiki and the others say 1991 ..dav even says 1990 .wrong idiots is 1986 really aga was out in 1990 Mass Brothers sold cdtv in 1988.Look it up if you dare -all version where out by commodore in 1987., Oh I have a screen grab of all you morons making fooltards of yourselves.\ w - author: Frederic (France) date: Wednesday 27th June 2012 text: |- My first Amiga, and probably the most beautiful. The CD firmware was on 2 separate chips, and you needed to remove them if you wanted to use the 2.x ROM (so no more beautiful CD interface with those ROMs, but you could put them back in place when going back to 1.3), and doing so try not to break a "leg" of a chip... - author: Lobmo (STL, MO/USA) date: Saturday 3rd September 2011 text: LOL, I remember those CD-I infomercials that used to run all night. And it still failed! - author: phil date: Tuesday 19th October 2010 text: A small correction - the Philips CD-i was released just a few months after the CDTV and was a complete failure, despite Philips pushing it like crazy. - author: Linkman (Slovak republic) date: Tuesday 19th October 2004 text: I think is the most beautiful of commodores - author: Viral (Rochester, NY) date: Tuesday 25th March 2003 text: I love my CD TV. My parents got it when I was pretty young, I think they bought it used. They want me to sell it on ebay, and think it is an accident that I keep forgetting my digital camera. Hee hee. - author: pedro (lisbon/portugal) date: Monday 1st July 2002 text: |- can anyone tell me,were i can buy some games or other software to the amiga cdtv?\ thanks for help! - author: Milda (CZ) date: Monday 27th May 2002 text: |- I have got a problems with CDTV. When I turn it on and want to play a game I see only blue window. I can play music CDs, but cannot play any game because of the blue window. Thanks for help. related: - /museum/commodore-amiga-1000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-1200 - /museum/commodore-amiga-1500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-2000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-2500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-3000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-4000 - /museum/commodore-amiga-500 - /museum/commodore-amiga-500-plus - /museum/commodore-amiga-600 - /museum/commodore-amiga-600hd oc_id: 106 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230201132433/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=106 date: '2023-02-01' --- The Commodore Amiga CDTV is, in a way, the ancestor of the Amiga CD32 game console. Basically, it is an [Amiga 500](/museum/commodore-amiga-500/) with a CDROM drive. It was sold without keyboard or mouse, but it was possible to connect them to the CDTV.\ A 3.5" floppy disk drive (800 KB), was developed for this computer. It was designed to be a home entertainment device, but it was too expensive and only very little software was developed for this machine (Psygnosis made almost all the software for the CDTV).\ In fact, a few years later Philips succeeded with its CD-I where Commodore failed. There were two CDTV models : the CDTV-1 used the Amiga 500 hardware and the CDTV-2 used the Amiga 500+ hardware. There even has been a prototype developed in 1992 called "CDTV-CR" (for Cost Reduced). Unlike other Amiga CR revisions, the CDTV CR was completely redesigned, utilizing the updated Amiga 600 technology (for more information, visit the [Amiga Interactive Guide](http://amiga.emugaming.com/prototypes/cdtvcr.html)). The manager of the team promoting the CDTV was Nolan Bushnell, the man who founded Atari. By strange twist of fate, the man in charge of Atari at the time, was Jack Tramiel, the man who founded Commodore.