CompuServe Messages

David: I picked up a CDTV on closeout, too. I'm using it with my VCR as a video titler and to play CDTV-based games. Basically, it's a 1-meg (all chip RAM) A500 with a CD-ROM drive built into it. It'll play CD audio discs, CD+G audio/graphic discs, CD-MIDI discs, CDTV discs (about 100 available including games, an encylcopedia, image discs, MOD discs, interactive storybooks for kids, etc. etc.) and some Mac and PC discs (it won't run their software, but will access data on many such discs). Of course the advantage of CD-ROM is that it holds 600 megabytes on one disc. You can get the entire Fred Fish collection on one CD-ROM for $40 and even boot up Workbench with it. Safe Harbor mail order has a reasonable collection of CDTV discs and CD-ROM discs that'll work with the unit. I suggest "Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective" as an excellent game with some interactive video sequences. Using the shareware Parnet device (and a special cable to hook up the parallel ports), you can network a CDTV to any conventional Amiga, which lets it act as a CD-ROM file server. Parnetting CDTV to your A500, for instance, would let you access files on the CDTV via your A500, using its keyboard and mouse. Cheaper than buying a keyboard and mouse for the CDTV itself. Non-compatibility issues: CDTV at present only runs Workbench 1.3. The CD-ROM driver uses up a bit of RAM so a one meg A500 has a bit more free RAM than a 1 meg CDTV. There is only one accelerator board I'm aware of that works with CDTV (see below). You need to put discs into a CD-ROM "caddy" before inserting into the machine, just as on many CD-ROM drives available for Macs and PCs. Caddies cost about 8 bucks each; you can of course get along with just one caddy. Hook CDTV up to your stereo system and it'll play regular audio CDs very nicely, and if your TV set is on, you'll see an on-screen control menu while the audio CD is playing; you can control the CD via the remote. Otherwise, CDTV is almost identical to a plain vanilla A500. One advantage: It's got color composite output built in, so you can dump stuff directly to videotape or use your TV set as a monitor. If you do any video titling or other video stuff as I do, this is nice. The CDTV remote control device does double duty as a mouse and joystick. If you get a standard Amiga external floppy drive and plug it into the rear drive port, you can run almost any Amigaware that'll run on an equivalent A500. For $99, Commodore will (until end of June, I think — call the Commodore Express 800 number and ask) sell you a keyboard, diskette drive, mouse and Amiga system and application software. The package is tailored for the CDTV (the keyboard and mouse are painted black and use CDTV's special plug-ins; you can use an ordinary Amiga mouse or keyboard only if you buy a third-party adapter; one such adapter is called the Brickette). As for authoring CDTV software, Amigavision Professional has CDTV hooks and will let you develop CDTV applications. However, you'd need to add a hard drive and memory to the CDTV to run AV Pro, which needs about 4 megs RAM. I think Scala and Showmaker also will fairly easily do CDTV type programs. You dump the finished work to a removeable hard drive, ship it to Commodore, and they master the CDTV disc for you. There's also a firm in Texas that does it. The applications can, of course, be interactive. There are a couple of SCSI interfaces for the CDTV expansion port on the rear to let you add a hard drive. Also, the Blizzard board 8 meg RAM expander/accelerator will work in CDTV. There's a CDTV-specific genlock available, too. Any printer or modem will plug right into the CDTV parallel and serial ports. Any MIDI device will plug into the MIDI ports, for making music. Didn't you get a CDTV "Welcome Disc" and manual with your closeout? Call Commodore Express and see if you can get a set without buying a CDTV. — Ron Legro, Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT (the only way to fly)