CompuServe Messages

Glenn, there are several CD-Rom drives out on the market now, and each has their own advantages/disadvantages. First thing, be sure you get a SCSI CD-Rom drive. Some of those "Bundle" deals, like from DAK, include a Sony CD-Rom drive that is NOT SCSI, so it wouldn't work with the Amiga. Although most of the drives on the market use "Caddys", there are a few appearing that don't use caddys and you can insert the CD-Rom directly, and that is what I would buy now. Caddys are a pain, plus an extra expense that is not needed. There are only a couple of companies producing software drivers for CD-Rom/Amiga. One is Hypermedia Concepts and the other Xetec. Hypermedia's driver will work with certain CD-Rom drives and Amiga controllers, so if you are interested I would suggest you call them to find out what drives/controllers are compatable. Xetec's driver only works with the Chinon CDS-431 CD-Rom drive, but is compatable with several Amiga controllers. But I'm not so sure why you would want a CD-Rom drive if you are not interested in CDTV titles? The only other Amiga CD-Roms available, other than CDTV, is the Fred Fish Public domain collection on CD-Rom. If you want to use some of the IBM and Mac CD's, then you need a BridgeBoard or AMAX Mac emulator. You see, even though you can access the data on a IBM or Mac CD with an Amiga CD-Rom drive, most of these CD's have a special "Search engine" or program that uses this data in a certain way. And those programs are written for an IBM or Mac. Actually, some of the CD's available for the IBM are appearing on CDTV format, and are usually cheaper. I don't have a phone number for Hypermedia Concepts, but I'm sure one of the other AmigaUser members can supply you with that information. John – K7KB (via Whap!)