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website/content/museum/commodore-cdtv.md
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title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params
title categories types origins years cpus params
Commodore CDTV
Computers
Home Computer
U.S.A.
1990
Motorola MC 68000
name image company company_name specs tabs hardware emulators links videos comments related oc_id source
CDTV /media/museum/photos/commodore_cdtv_complete.jpg /companies/commodore Commodore
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NAME CDTV
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MANUFACTURER Commodore
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TYPE Home Computer
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ORIGIN U.S.A.
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YEAR 1990
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END OF PRODUCTION 1995
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KEYBOARD optional full-stroke professional keyboard
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CPU Motorola MC 68000
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SPEED 7.14 MHz
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CO-PROCESSOR Denise (8373 SuperDenise), Paula, Agnus, Gary
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RAM 512 KB (later expanded to 1Mb Chip RAM)
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ROM 192 KB
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TEXT MODES 60 x 32 / 80 x 32
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GRAPHIC MODES several graphic modes, most used : 320 x 240 (32 colors) / 640 x 240 (16 colors)
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COLORS 4096
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SOUND four 8 bit PCM voices
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SIZE / WEIGHT 430mm W x 330mm D x 95mm H
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I/O PORTS 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
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BUILT IN MEDIA Internal single speed CDROM (with caddy)
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OS AMIGA DOS, Kickstart: 1.3 (+ additional CD support)
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PRICE 699£ (1990, UK)
hardware
emulators
links
videos
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EXTERNAL 3.5'' DISK DRIVE Model 1411 /media/museum/hardware/commodore_cdtv_extern-fdd_1.jpg
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MIDI GOLD 500 by Golden Hawk Technology 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 /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga_golden-hawk-midi-interface.jpg
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AMIGA 1300 Genlock /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1000_1300-genlock.jpg
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MEMORY EXPANSION BOARD 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 MB expansion card here fitted with 2 MB. /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_memboard_1.jpg
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VIDEO BOARD 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. /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_videoboard_1.jpg
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A570 CD-ROM Thanks to David Griffith for this picture /media/museum/hardware/amiga_cdrom_a570_1.jpg
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HARD DISK CARD 40 MB SCSI card from SUPRA CORP. Additional SCSI devices could be connected in chain trough the back connector /media/museum/hardware/commodore_amiga1500_hdboard_1.jpg
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Amiga Forever http://www.amigaforever.com/ Windows Complete but commercial Amiga emulator
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AMIthlon & AmigaXL http://amigaosxl.haage-partner.de/index-e.html Windows Powerful commercial emulators
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WinFellow HTTP://FELLOW.SOURCEFORGE.NET Windows Probably better at some games than UAE, but not as versatile.
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WinUAE http://www.winuae.net/ Windows The best Amiga emulator ? :-)
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Max UAE http://maxuae.de/ Apple UAE for Mac OS X
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AmigaSYS http://amigasys.fw.hu/ Unix / Linux AmigaSYS is a pre-installed full Amiga OS for WinUAE
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Pocket UAE http://pocketinsanity.sourceforge.net/ Other platform Amiga Emulator for Pocket PC
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Experimental UAE http://www.rcdrummond.net/uae/ Multiplatform Standard UAE enhanced with features from WinUAE.
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MESS http://www.mess.org Multiplatform MESS now emulates the Commodore Amiga
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UAE http://www.freiburg.linux.de/~uae/ Multiplatform (Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator) for BeOS, Mac OS, Linux, NextStep, MSDOS, OS/2 and Win95/NT : Homepage.
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Amiga animations http://www.randelshofer.ch/animations/ A collection of Amiga Animations. This is the only site where you can see them online!
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Amiga Interactive Guide http://amiga.emugaming.com/ Excellent site ! A lot of very interesting infos there.
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Amiga Island http://www.virtualpast.de/ Excellent site with ROMs to download!
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Amiga Web Directory http://www.cucug.org/amiga.html
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AMIGART.COM http://www.amigart.com Nice site with Amiga news
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AmiTrix Development Main Page http://www.networkx.com/amitrix/
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Back to the Roots HTTP://WWW.BACK2ROOTS.ORG/ Amiga culture, guides, huge collection of legally downloadable software, and much more.
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Lex Site - Amiga Hardware Database http://amiga.multigraph.com/ The website title says it all!
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NetBSD-Amiga http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/amiga/index.html
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Old Computer Mags http://www.old-computer-mags.com/ Scans of old computer and videogames magazine
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Recorded Amiga Games http://www.recordedamigagames.org Speedrun, longplay and misc videos of Amiga games and more.
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RetroPack http://www.retropack.co.uk/ Website dedicated to selling original Amigas, CD32s and Amiga/CD32 Games.
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The Amiga Monitor http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MikeWebb/amhome.html
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The Big Book of Amiga Hardware http://www.amiga-hardware.com/ Pics & info (pinouts, jumpers etc.) for just about every piece of Amiga related hardware there is
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The English Amiga Board http://eab.abime.net/ Community site for Amiga fans
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World-Wide Amiga - Online!! http://www.amiga.org/
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Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com Reviews of Amiga software, hardware
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Commodore Amiga commercial - EXIT http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8721405286052618769&hl=fr Length: 41 s
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Commodore Amiga 500 commercial http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5737538578208665725&hl=fr Length: 29 s
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Commodore Amiga 1000 commercial http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=5356507595228759374&hl=fr Length: 32 s
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Commodore Amiga 600 italian commercial http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-768109352967297990&hl=fr Length: 19 s
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Commodore Amiga packs commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdaMq8JLyHA Length: 21 s
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Commodore Amiga TV Ad - Celebrities https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEFoj6sbDjU Length: 29 s
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Commodore Amiga 500 promotional video http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=9038863557655975739&hl=fr Length: 15 min 06 s
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Computer Chronicles: Amiga & Atari (1985) http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8978343825632445107&hl=fr Length: 29 min 18 s
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Rougeaux Monday 2nd July 2018 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
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amigaman Monday 25th July 2016 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
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Frederic (France) Wednesday 27th June 2012 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...
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Lobmo (STL, MO/USA) Saturday 3rd September 2011 LOL, I remember those CD-I infomercials that used to run all night. And it still failed!
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phil Tuesday 19th October 2010 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.
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Linkman (Slovak republic) Tuesday 19th October 2004 I think is the most beautiful of commodores
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Viral (Rochester, NY) Tuesday 25th March 2003 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.
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pedro (lisbon/portugal) Monday 1st July 2002 can anyone tell me,were i can buy some games or other software to the amiga cdtv?\ thanks for help!
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Milda (CZ) Monday 27th May 2002 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.
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106
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https://web.archive.org/web/20230201132433/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=106 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 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).

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.