After about year’s worth of hard work, my good friend Icebreaker has finally launched AmigaCD32.com, a website dedicated to the (get ready) Amiga CD32.
The CD32 was Commodore’s second attempt at a home video game console. Its first, the Commodore GS64 (a Commodore 64 with no keyboard or disk drive) was such an abysmal flop that a few years later, they decided to try it again, this time basing a console on their popular Amiga computer. Released in 1993, the CD32 was essentially an Amiga 1200 computer minus the keyboard, floppy drive, or hard drive (games were loaded via the unit’s CD-Rom drive). The CD32 was never officially sold in the US, which explains why most CD32 units are PAL (the video format primarily used overseas). Most NTSC-compatible units were imported into the US from Canada. Owners can swap between the two video modes using an external mouse, but since my television doesn’t support PAL, and many of the system’s games only run in PAL (or, at least appear distorted in NTSC), being a US CD32 owner can occasionally be frustrating.
AmigaCD32.com has reviews of almost every CD32 title. Each review contains Youtube game footage, along with a game summary, a current estimated price, scans of the packaging, and whether or not the game works in NTSC mode. If nothing else, the site is worth browsing simply for the game play videos!
I personally own an NTSC CD32 and although I don’t play it all that often, I enjoy that era of gaming and I appreciate what Commodore was trying to do (compete with the home console gaming market). Unfortunately for them (and us I suppose), Commodore filed for bankruptcy while desperately trying to introduce the CD32 into the US market. It was unable to save them, and Commodore filed bankruptcy in 1994 with over a thousand CD32s sitting in a warehouse.
Link: AmigaCD32.com