I've spent about two days watching hours and hours of your videos, I can't comment on them all, so this one will have to do. Thank you for all that you do, long may it continue!
Thank you for watching I hope we can get this old girl up and working. What are your CD32 memories, good or bad? Special thanks to GadgetUK164 for providing a laser, be sure to check out his channel for some great content. One correction I say "adapter" instead of "architecture" for AGA. Let's all pretend that didn't happen. Neil - RMC
>Biggest. Mistake. Ever. I left a BlizzardVision (Graphics card for the A1200 + BlizzardPPC) in a pile of junk when I moved out of my parents.. Working one of those is worth a few hundred quid now. :(
Would love to see an additional video (after the restoration) of it getting the expansion treatment turning it into a full-fledged Amiga 1200 clone. ;)
Original and modern upgrades are very much a part of the T2T treatment so we may see that in part 3. I'm trying to obtain a Terrible Fire upgrade for it currently but an original SX expansion would be fun
Thank you! Your videos are very informative and so relaxing to watch! You have gave me a great incentive to get my collection (A500, A500+, A600, A1200... the list goes on..) back from the dark cupboards they sadly sit in and get them up and running to what they were made for!
Whoo-hoo! Another Amiga lives thanks to the awesome RMC! Top notch video, top notch job with this beautiful machine. Now you need Time Gal, Road Avenger, and the entire AmigaJay collection! Long live The Cave!
I remember buying a CD32 and getting one of the Ultra Rare FMV expansions for it, at the time there were very few of them (the FMV addon)that had been shipped into the UK it came with Star Trek 6 I believe at the time.
Always so happy and then sad when the new episode is over I can watch your video's forever. I owned a new one as a kid in 1993 working my ass off in my father's company to earn money and finally, when my vacation was over I got my self a brand new CD32 including an SX32 mk1 turning my CD32 in an A1200. I wish I had a FMV addon too. I saw one running in the shop and it blew my mind. Wish I had never sold it.
A great start to this series. A CD32 and an A600 are still on my must-have list. Enjoyed the custom chips overview -- this will serve as an excellent reference for future Amiga CD32 enthusiasts. I'm off to watch part 2....
Thanks for linking to that Cannon Fodder remix. "What are your CD32 memories, good or bad?" I remember hearing about it quite late, when my Amiga 600 was past its prime... aka post Doom years.
My big brother had the Amiga CDTV, which he sold because he didn't use it much. He then later on decided to buy the CD32 instead and proceeded to not use that one either. Meanwhile, my own Amiga 500 saw plenty of use with all the readily available (mostly pirated) games.
From your panning shot up to the TV, I can only conclude that you have excellent taste in games. Never had a CD32 myself (a stock A600 was all I ever had) but remember the hype vividly.
=D Looks like you've lucked out with that laser! Just caps i think. You can prove that by leaving it powered up for 10 or 15 minutes - the video would probably improve over time. Keep the laser as a spare, or pass it on when someone needs one! I've got 4 more spares still :P Thanks for the shoutout! BTW - that DAC is the video DAC, not the audio DAC! The CD audio DAC is the Sanyo chip which I initially mistook for an op amp in my first CD32 vid.
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods thanks Gadget! Noted! I always say my videos come with 4 checks. 3 by me writing and researching it and 1 in the comments section! I'll update the DAC info when I've completed the series with edited commentary. Thanks as always!
Great warm-up video to get the juices flowing for future episodes. Beware the audio caps that were installed with the wrong polarity at the factory. I can see they have a slight bulge on your board.
They were indeed, I'll be taking plenty of photos of the board before recapping just to be 100% sure, and setting a full day aside to take my time over it. Prepare yourself for montages.
Laser died on my CD32 a while ago as well. Took the opportunity to do a RGB mod since i was opening it up anyway. Btw. love the Video great work !! And thanks for taking the time making it so indepth.
TekTherapy thanks for watching. Lasers seem to be a common failure on these. I'm really looking forwars to getting it working and setting some game time aside for it
I guess if we consider the build date of the CD32´s it seems to be getting a more common issue. I get alot of Saturns in now as well with dead lasers. See an uptrend there. Sidenote you should check out the unofficial CD32 Ports !
Awesome !!! Hope you get alot of enjoyment out of it !! It´s getting harder and harder anyway to grab the CD32´s at an decent price so keep it safe :-)
You missed Gunship 2000 - this used Akiko also, and sped up the 3D graphics to a speed similar to an 030 25MHz + FPU. Considering the poor EC 020 with no FAST RAM on the basic A1200, this was a damned good improvement. Check out the FMV loading screen too, really impressive for the time.
I got one of these for Christmas and was super excited, I had plans to buy all the expansions / games for it... which of course never really happened as Commodore was deceased shortly after. Considering it didn't live long, there was a fair few games available tho (mostly ports, but hey). I do often wonder what could have been achieved if Commodore hadn't run themselves into the ground, and how it would have changed the landscape today. It would be great if you can get the old girl up and running though Neil! :-)
These videos are great. Love them. And just discovered in the credits, the Project Paula BandCamp. That Beast remix is just damn brilliant! Thanks for the tip...
Loving the RMC ! ... another cracking video! ... can’t wait to see it getting played! ... the capture card sounds like a record player with a broken belt or a tape that’s getting chewed up!!
I've said it before and I'll say it again. This channel is pure awesome. I'm not a novice when it comes to TH-cam but I hadn't realised the sheer amount of geeky retro tech videos people were making. Said it before, this is one of the best but there are many superb channels and videos made by talented enthusiasts and I am very grateful for them. It's great to relive technology I used to use (and stupidly got rid of!) from my youth as well as exploring products I had no chance of affording back then. I love the way you combine the technical repair and restore with telling us about the history of the product and individual components. Looking forward to this series as I do all your videos. +1
Spellbound from Siouxsie And The Banshees? Small fun fact: maybe you didn't know, but Spellbound is also a song from AC/DC, contained in the 1981 album "For those about to Rock". Both songs got released in the same year. Great video by the way!
*Superb video* ! I really wanted one of these back in the day, but i remember that they were so ridiculously priced I never did get one. Hope you can get it fully working!
Got my cd32 in 97 from safe harbor and also had sx 1 and sx 32 for it, got a A2000 keyboard and a external disk drive, my subscriptions to CU Amiga and Amiga Format came with CD roms that worked really well on it, with a mouse of course. Never could find much software in the US for it, always checked safe harbor, and software hut weekly in the nineties
You've done it again Neil what a great and informative vid . I know nothing about the CD32 apart from it was great in its time . Thanks for the guided tour round the board.... The picture on screen may be a capacitance issue with a few of the caps. So jog on and bring us episode two please ........😁......Kim
Can't Wait for part 2! I personally am no good at this sort of thing, i once replaced a laser unit on a Sega mega cd 2 (which i'm very proud of! lol ) , thats as far as dare go but your trash to treasure video's do make me want to have a go at resurrecting an old computer or console myself!
Go for it. Find any old broken tech and practice your soldering/de-soldering until you're confident. I make no disguise I'm a hobbyist and if I can do it anyone can
Gotta love the cd32. I do admit I was a bit disappointed at the time having also owned the 1200 but today the cd32 is one of the best ways to enjoy classic Amiga games.
Remember when I was a kid Commodore were everywhere, all my mates had them while I had a good old Spectrum. I threw a world class wobbler cos I didn’t get an Amiga for Christmas not realising how much overtime my dad had to put in just to get me the Speccy but once I stopped being a little $h1t I learned to love my trusty 128k.
Ahh, fantastic! (the amiga version will always have the best sound out of the DOS and Mega Drive ports, no matter how good the MD one sounds :P and not that i've ever managed to get Cannon Fodder running on real DOS hardware anyway lol)
I honestly believe your video capture boards rendition of that power up sequence more or less sums up Commodore during that period, a great shame that the Amiga went the way it did as it deserved better, probably the last home computer system that felt like it had a soul.
i can remember this intro of Liberation like Yesterday, but i couldn't find CD as i pick my amiga few days ago. Anyway, it's time for recaping. Thank for reminding. Maybe that's the reason of audio problems.
3:52 those caps look to be bulging. A basic visual inspection that doesn’t reveal apparent damage must be followed by a closer examination of the board by holding it towards the light and looking for areas that don’t reflect well possibly indicating capacitor leakage, even on the smd caps. Long time fixer of power supplies and logic boards from 20+ years ago...
Love the video. Please note the FM Towns Marty was the world's first 32-bit console. It predated the CD32 but more than half a year, even it only released in Japan. Much like the CD32 only released in Europe and a few other countries.
Its probably better to refer to the FM Towns Marty as the first "5th Generation" console to avoid getting into arguments about "bit-ness". The FM Towns Marty uses a 386SX-16 CPU, so its similar to the way the original Motorola 68000 works (32-bit internally with a 16-bit data bus). In that respect it shares a lot in common with the NeoGeo CD and Super A'can which sort of fall into that awkward overlap between the two generations. If you look at processor architecture, the CD32 would be the first fully 32 bit console, with its 680EC20 and custom support chips having a full 32-bit external bus, with the 3DO with the 32-bit ARM60 following a month later.
Absolutely, but I gather the CPU is considered for all intents and purposes a 32-bit chip. Indeed even a quick google search reveals most consider this (the FM Towns Marty) the world's first 32-bit console. I remember it being mentioned in the UK magazine EDGE at the time in the early-nighties and it was a mythical machine simply because you never saw one in the UK. As an aside I owned the CD32 (my last ever Amiga) but for me was a shadow of the computers simply because it was so limited on games and software you couldn't run - without expanding it. The joypad is worth a mention too, in that it's awful. Like worst controller ever, awful with a sticker for a d-pad. The CD32 deserved better software than it unfortunately got. I remember trading mine in for the 3DO at some point.
Yes, the 386SX is usually considered a 32-bit CPU, but so is the Motorola 68000 even though its mostly used in 4th generation "16-bit" consoles. Bit-ness as a marketing term doesn't always make sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Did you knowingly purchase the best portable CRT TV ever made to use with your retro gear or was it a happy accident? (the grey and black Trinitron there)
OK acquired then :o) I had that television from 1985ish to 1991 for my C64. Used via composite/RF and later RGB SCART for my Amiga 1000 and Atari 520ST. I remember it being the only CRT that ever had 100% convergance over 100% of the screen including the very tips of the corners (I was a TV engineer later as an adult so have seen it all from Grundig to Quintrix Panasonic rivals). Did you try S-Video on that TV using a SCART adaptor? The next model on also supported S-Video via SCART input line but the screen had terrible convergence near the corners so I gave it back to the shop after trying 4 different TVs. Nice to see the CD32 working well at the end of episode 2, only just discovered your channel last night. I just bought an SX-64 this afternoon that needs a little cosmetic work and some parts for the hinge, was going to be a parts donor due to the hinge/handle issue and for fault finding on my other SX-64 with no sound but it's too nice for that. Great channel anyway, keep it up.
Amiga King it is a great little TV so it's interesting to hear your opinion on it as a TV expert. I'm using a scart to svideo adapter to connect it up yes. Thank you I'm glad you enjoy the videos!
if i remember dint they bring out the roms so you could just drop them in the amiga 1200 and it turned into a cd32, the did di a rom switcher so u could run both and i think thats th reason people dint buy it as they wanted both and the cd32 at the time dint do that if i am correct
I think the caps will fix it... It looks like a messed up signal for generating the Composite video output. Composite Video is modulated in the RF Module to give analog Video. So i would suggest the caps for the composite video lines before splitting up to the composite port and the RF Modulator. But its better to change em all :D ...
RetroManCave unfortunately my TV hasn't S Video or scart. I need an s video to some sort of HDMI converter. Has to be way better than composite though.
I was curious about how the Amiga CD32 looked. I read an article online about it, but there was no picture of it in that article. Never would I have known that the Amiga CD32 was a game console rather than a computer.
Imagine if the hot "must have" christmas item this year was a computer, that could be used for work/homework, but that ALSO played awesome games, and played them well, all at the GAMES CONSOLE price point! Those were the rare days of the 8bit - 16bit microcomputer market of the 80's and 90's. I think sliding more toward the "console only" was part of the mistake Commodore made personally. They should have pursued the A1200 evolution, and given the middle finger to what everyone else was doing. These days we "need" a computer, AND a console, ....or 2.....AND a tablet? AND a phone that costs twice the above mentioned? And somehow we're better off?
Me too. Me...too. I actually would have liked to see the CD32 Two years earlier with a cart slot instead of CD. It would have given the competition a run for its money and given Commodore some console market experience before taking on the CD and 3D generation.
If there's any one Amiga platform I would so love to own, it's the CD32. The first time I really got to play with one hands on was at Vintage Computer Fest East 2017, when Bill and Anthony of The Guru Meditation had a bunch of Amiga and Commodore hardware on display, including (of course!) the CD32 itself, hooked up and playing ReImagine Games' excellent port of Time Gal! That was an awesome exhibit and I hope this year they have the old girl back out again! :)
I love the CD32. I've not 2 of them. Such a shame that it didn't do very well. Only 175 games were released for it. The games released could of been so much better. Great Video by the way and a great selection of music. Not heard that Cannon Fodder one before. Original I have.
I remember reading the CD32 announcement in Amiga Format and thinking "Thats just an A1200. In 1993, What the hell are Commodore thinking, there's no way that can compete, it's years behind the competition. They're going bankrupt." Then I sold my Amiga and got a 486 PC. Then Amiga went bankrupt and got sold to Escom, and despite there being a large Escom high street store in Newcastle, where I lived, I never saw a single Amiga for sale there, only PC's. Then Escom went bankrupt and Amiga got sold to Gateway 2000, and by this point I was past caring.
That sounds like a very familiar story. I really didn't care for the cd32 at the time any more than the CDi or CDTV. It's nice to revisit it now. Escom.... I think I only ever bought cheap floppy disks from them before they closed
I'm not certain you're quite right that the CD32 is the first 32 bit console. What about the Panasonic FZ-1? That was available to buy by the general public in the before the CD32 was.
Chunky to bitplane conversion huh. Yeah, my experiences working out how to do advanced graphics on a SNES show how much of a pain bitplanes can be sometimes. To be fair I think I've hit upon a scheme that isn't too bad. But it's telling that the SNES add-on chips that were designed with improved graphics in mind both had dedicated hardware to aid conversions. The SuperFX had a pixel plotting function designed such that it would batch multiple single pixel writes and then transparently convert them to a bitplane equivalent. (the main issue with bitplanes being that one byte contains parts of the data for 8 pixels, and a single pixel's data can be spread across as many as 2 to 8 bytes depending on the bit depth of the graphics) The SuperFX conversion logic is not that flexible; it does presume you're mostly drawing adjacent horizontal rows of pixels. But... If you're doing polygon rasterisation, that is in fact the most common approach; Determine the end points of your triangle on a horizontal line, then draw the horizontal line between those points; The SuperFX conversion function is designed perfectly with this in mind. Then there's the SA-1, which contains a more explicit chunky to bitplane conversion. Write chunky graphics to a buffer in memory, set the conversion parameters, run the conversion, you get bitplanes out the other end. It even has automated DMA into the SNES graphics chip, and some functionality to do the conversion directly out of ROM rather than needing to write it into the buffer first. That's all well and good of course, but you can see that the mere fact that these upgrades include such dedicated functionality points to some of the pitfalls of bitplane graphics hardware. A trait the SNES and Amiga share. And wouldn't you know it? Compared to competitors using chunky graphics based hardware, both are considered notoriously bad at 3d graphics. And That's no joke either. I've seen an Atari 8 bit system seemingly run rings around an Amiga when drawing 3d graphics... And what is an Atari 8 bit? It's basically the system that the Amiga's design borrows the most from. However, for all the similarities, such as both having Display lists and very similar high level architectures, and with the obvious that the Amiga is generally more powerful and capable, why would the Atari do so much better at 3d? Well, it uses chunky pixels to the Amiga's bitplanes. Granted this is misleading of course, since it's also rendering at a lower resolution. In reality I don't actually think the Atari is doing it better, but overall when people see the 8 bit atari doing 3d, after having watched an Amiga struggle with it they do seem quite shocked by the results of this 'weak 8 bit system'.
I've spent about two days watching hours and hours of your videos, I can't comment on them all, so this one will have to do. Thank you for all that you do, long may it continue!
Thank you for watching I hope we can get this old girl up and working. What are your CD32 memories, good or bad? Special thanks to GadgetUK164 for providing a laser, be sure to check out his channel for some great content. One correction I say "adapter" instead of "architecture" for AGA. Let's all pretend that didn't happen. Neil - RMC
RetroManCave My worst memory is leaving my CD32 at the rubbish tip (along with my A1200 with 030 accelerator). Biggest. Mistake. Ever.
Oh good lord that made me cringe
>Biggest. Mistake. Ever.
I left a BlizzardVision (Graphics card for the A1200 + BlizzardPPC) in a pile of junk when I moved out of my parents.. Working one of those is worth a few hundred quid now. :(
Would love to see an additional video (after the restoration) of it getting the expansion treatment turning it into a full-fledged Amiga 1200 clone. ;)
Original and modern upgrades are very much a part of the T2T treatment so we may see that in part 3. I'm trying to obtain a Terrible Fire upgrade for it currently but an original SX expansion would be fun
Can't believe we have not subbed earlier - what a cracking channel!
Keep the Amiga stuff coming! Brilliant to watch and close to my heart.
CompactedEgg part 2 filming wrapped up today so it won't be long 🖒
Thank you! Your videos are very informative and so relaxing to watch! You have gave me a great incentive to get my collection (A500, A500+, A600, A1200... the list goes on..) back from the dark cupboards they sadly sit in and get them up and running to what they were made for!
Your “Trash to Treasure” content is awesome.
Thank you Sir, long may it continue as I have a lot in the queue for the T2T treatment
Your trash to treasure videos are amazing. Every time I go on TH-cam your channel is the first one I look at for content.
Whoo-hoo! Another Amiga lives thanks to the awesome RMC! Top notch video, top notch job with this beautiful machine. Now you need Time Gal, Road Avenger, and the entire AmigaJay collection! Long live The Cave!
5:23 ahhh! so good! love that cheeky little edit!
Thanks I'm glad the little touches are appreciated
RetroManCave wanted to comment and let you know I noticed and liked it! I know small things tend to get overlooked so I like to show appreciation! 😀👍
I remember buying a CD32 and getting one of the Ultra Rare FMV expansions for it, at the time there were very few of them (the FMV addon)that had been shipped into the UK it came with Star Trek 6 I believe at the time.
I did that as well. But i can not remember what i did it with :( . Drank a lot those days, so maybe i sold it?
Still have mine I got black rain with it.
I wanted one so bad. I saw them in the store and was drooling. I still have my old amiga's from back in the day. Even the boxes...
Always so happy and then sad when the new episode is over I can watch your video's forever. I owned a new one as a kid in 1993 working my ass off in my father's company to earn money and finally, when my vacation was over I got my self a brand new CD32 including an SX32 mk1 turning my CD32 in an A1200. I wish I had a FMV addon too. I saw one running in the shop and it blew my mind. Wish I had never sold it.
A great start to this series. A CD32 and an A600 are still on my must-have list. Enjoyed the custom chips overview -- this will serve as an excellent reference for future Amiga CD32 enthusiasts. I'm off to watch part 2....
Thanks for linking to that Cannon Fodder remix.
"What are your CD32 memories, good or bad?" I remember hearing about it quite late, when my Amiga 600 was past its prime... aka post Doom years.
Please note that some capacitors where put in the wrong way around in the factory. I had to reposition some of the caps on my board.
They were and I'll highlight that in pt2. Many photos will be taken
Fantastic work, well researched, well produced.. The background music so appropriate for the era too!
Thank you... all music is in the video description and well worth a listen to. Some great Amiga covers
Very nice video, it's a system I have never seen much of in the past so looking forward to seeing what you can do with it!
Love trash to treasure!! So satisfying! Best thing on TH-cam!! 🤓
Very kind thank you Frank!
Definitely one of the finer channels TH-cam has to offer, as far as fixing consoles and computers go, this channel can not be beat!
Fun fact. One of the voices on the Liberation intro (Trill) was Neil Morrissey from 'Boon' - remember that? - and later 'Men Behaving Badly'.
Oh blimey so it's Bob the Builder then! I did not know that thank you!
Man I love this. One chip for every task needed. Such a different time.
My big brother had the Amiga CDTV, which he sold because he didn't use it much. He then later on decided to buy the CD32 instead and proceeded to not use that one either. Meanwhile, my own Amiga 500 saw plenty of use with all the readily available (mostly pirated) games.
From your panning shot up to the TV, I can only conclude that you have excellent taste in games. Never had a CD32 myself (a stock A600 was all I ever had) but remember the hype vividly.
=D Looks like you've lucked out with that laser! Just caps i think. You can prove that by leaving it powered up for 10 or 15 minutes - the video would probably improve over time. Keep the laser as a spare, or pass it on when someone needs one! I've got 4 more spares still :P Thanks for the shoutout! BTW - that DAC is the video DAC, not the audio DAC! The CD audio DAC is the Sanyo chip which I initially mistook for an op amp in my first CD32 vid.
GadgetUK164 - Retro Gaming Repairs & Mods thanks Gadget! Noted! I always say my videos come with 4 checks. 3 by me writing and researching it and 1 in the comments section! I'll update the DAC info when I've completed the series with edited commentary. Thanks as always!
No worries! Like I said - I made the mistake of thinking the audio DAC was an op amp :o) It's easily done!
Looks like them 2 caps are reversed again, as they seem to be bulging.
Andrew Littleboy indeed there is a known issue here from production which we'll look at in pt2
I love that people donate gems like this to the channel but I'm equally astonished!
Great warm-up video to get the juices flowing for future episodes. Beware the audio caps that were installed with the wrong polarity at the factory. I can see they have a slight bulge on your board.
They were indeed, I'll be taking plenty of photos of the board before recapping just to be 100% sure, and setting a full day aside to take my time over it. Prepare yourself for montages.
Laser died on my CD32 a while ago as well. Took the opportunity to do a RGB mod since i was opening it up anyway. Btw. love the Video great work !! And thanks for taking the time making it so indepth.
TekTherapy thanks for watching. Lasers seem to be a common failure on these. I'm really looking forwars to getting it working and setting some game time aside for it
I guess if we consider the build date of the CD32´s it seems to be getting a more common issue. I get alot of Saturns in now as well with dead lasers. See an uptrend there. Sidenote you should check out the unofficial CD32 Ports !
TekTherapy I have a spindle of blank CD's at the ready :)
Awesome !!! Hope you get alot of enjoyment out of it !! It´s getting harder and harder anyway to grab the CD32´s at an decent price so keep it safe :-)
You may already know this but CD32 was used as the multimedia platform for the London Underground museum tube train experience, some years ago.
You missed Gunship 2000 - this used Akiko also, and sped up the 3D graphics to a speed similar to an 030 25MHz + FPU. Considering the poor EC 020 with no FAST RAM on the basic A1200, this was a damned good improvement.
Check out the FMV loading screen too, really impressive for the time.
Stephen B ooh thank you I wasn't aware Gunship supported Akiko I'll definately give it a try. Great game.
I got one of these for Christmas and was super excited, I had plans to buy all the expansions / games for it... which of course never really happened as Commodore was deceased shortly after. Considering it didn't live long, there was a fair few games available tho (mostly ports, but hey). I do often wonder what could have been achieved if Commodore hadn't run themselves into the ground, and how it would have changed the landscape today. It would be great if you can get the old girl up and running though Neil! :-)
These videos are great. Love them. And just discovered in the credits, the Project Paula BandCamp. That Beast remix is just damn brilliant! Thanks for the tip...
Thanks for the great trash to treasure series! It really motivates me to finish repairs on a motherboard with integrated voodoo graphics :)
You're welcome, thanks for watching it!
Great video as always 🙂
Very nice! looking forward for the next episodes in this series
I was lucky enough to pick up a French CD32 a few years back and haven't played with it yet. This is making me want to break it out now!
Don't think I didn't notice that beautiful Lotus III soundtrack in the background, despite your interesting words!
So many great Amiga tunes to choose from
Without question! So much great mod music from back when!
Loving the RMC ! ... another cracking video! ... can’t wait to see it getting played! ... the capture card sounds like a record player with a broken belt or a tape that’s getting chewed up!!
Hillarious isn't it, I'm tempted to make it my ringtone
Nice work as usual. This part made me chuckle from 9:44 to at 9:57 "Bless you, my CD32!"
I've said it before and I'll say it again. This channel is pure awesome. I'm not a novice when it comes to TH-cam but I hadn't realised the sheer amount of geeky retro tech videos people were making. Said it before, this is one of the best but there are many superb channels and videos made by talented enthusiasts and I am very grateful for them. It's great to relive technology I used to use (and stupidly got rid of!) from my youth as well as exploring products I had no chance of affording back then. I love the way you combine the technical repair and restore with telling us about the history of the product and individual components. Looking forward to this series as I do all your videos. +1
Thanks Dan very kind of you
Ah we love this machine and recently picked one up with a bunch of games for a very reasonable price. Just brilliant! Great vid. ;)
I was one of the few lucky Canadian that got one and I loved it.
Spellbound from Siouxsie And The Banshees?
Small fun fact: maybe you didn't know, but Spellbound is also a song from AC/DC, contained in the 1981 album "For those about to Rock".
Both songs got released in the same year.
Great video by the way!
I still own my cd32 & a bunch of games, its been under the bed gathering dust for years
They should make a mini cd 32 like the mini NES and sell it with the top 10 Amiga games and a virtual store to get the rest of the catalogue.
Pedro Gordinho that would actually work! I like it
That Cannon Fodder music is spot on for the death of Commodore.
That's a pretty awesome cover which you can listen to over here: th-cam.com/video/0QI--UHPM5s/w-d-xo.html
I needed this! Thank you1!!! oneoneoneeleven
edit .. wat? They couldn't keep Jools alive for the vid! nuuuuuu =))
Hecking Pedro.
War so much fun.
The fmv cart had a full motion video intro
My time as a teenager was playing games and thinking of Siouxsie.
That opening music..... NOSTALGIA! My heart 💓
ALICE? ALICE? WHO THE IS ALICE?
Thank you for the music tips, that Shadow of the beast cover is nothing but awesome!
Galactus you're welcome, the whole Project Paula album is a great listen
Great video. Recapping the board will 90% sort the signal, as it's a timing issue.
Thank you! Step into part 2 to reveal the problem 😁
Any reference to Cannon Fodder is an instant like! 😁
Lovely video! Looking forward for part 2! ;)
*Superb video* ! I really wanted one of these back in the day, but i remember that they were so ridiculously priced I never did get one.
Hope you can get it fully working!
Got my cd32 in 97 from safe harbor and also had sx 1 and sx 32 for it, got a A2000 keyboard and a external disk drive, my subscriptions to CU Amiga and Amiga Format came with CD roms that worked really well on it, with a mouse of course. Never could find much software in the US for it, always checked safe harbor, and software hut weekly in the nineties
I'd love an SX32 or a ProModule for the conversion. Very hard to come by.
You've done it again Neil what a great and informative vid . I know nothing about the CD32 apart from it was great in its time . Thanks for the guided tour round the board.... The picture on screen may be a capacitance issue with a few of the caps. So jog on and bring us episode two please ........😁......Kim
Maam yes maam! *jogs on to RS Components....* 😃
You do realise Neil I'm a bloke not a bird don't you?
Can't Wait for part 2! I personally am no good at this sort of thing, i once replaced a laser unit on a Sega mega cd 2 (which i'm very proud of! lol ) , thats as far as dare go but your trash to treasure video's do make me want to have a go at resurrecting an old computer or console myself!
Go for it. Find any old broken tech and practice your soldering/de-soldering until you're confident. I make no disguise I'm a hobbyist and if I can do it anyone can
Cannot wait for part 2, i dont have history with this console, probably because its end so fast so no retailer in my country pick this one.
Gotta love the cd32. I do admit I was a bit disappointed at the time having also owned the 1200 but today the cd32 is one of the best ways to enjoy classic Amiga games.
Remember when I was a kid Commodore were everywhere, all my mates had them while I had a good old Spectrum. I threw a world class wobbler cos I didn’t get an Amiga for Christmas not realising how much overtime my dad had to put in just to get me the Speccy but once I stopped being a little $h1t I learned to love my trusty 128k.
good to see you got it going easy.
New RMC video.
It's about Amiga stuff.
First song played is from Cannon Fodder.
I'm in love
Hehe be sure to check the music links in the description, your ears will thank you
Ahh, fantastic! (the amiga version will always have the best sound out of the DOS and Mega Drive ports, no matter how good the MD one sounds :P
and not that i've ever managed to get Cannon Fodder running on real DOS hardware anyway lol)
I honestly believe your video capture boards rendition of that power up sequence more or less sums up Commodore during that period, a great shame that the Amiga went the way it did as it deserved better, probably the last home computer system that felt like it had a soul.
The CD32 with a copy of Chaos Engine is my golden grail.
I can see one of the caps is not quite still mounted. Neat video.
I would say Caps too, that failure is looking like that. Change every capacitor on it. Beautiful Amiga :)
Love that Stonekeep box!
i can remember this intro of Liberation like Yesterday, but i couldn't find CD as i pick my amiga few days ago. Anyway, it's time for recaping. Thank for reminding. Maybe that's the reason of audio problems.
3:52 those caps look to be bulging.
A basic visual inspection that doesn’t reveal apparent damage must be followed by a closer examination of the board by holding it towards the light and looking for areas that don’t reflect well possibly indicating capacitor leakage, even on the smd caps.
Long time fixer of power supplies and logic boards from 20+ years ago...
We discover why in part two when we take a closer look. Thanks for watching
Love the video. Please note the FM Towns Marty was the world's first 32-bit console. It predated the CD32 but more than half a year, even it only released in Japan. Much like the CD32 only released in Europe and a few other countries.
Hehe my edited reply made no sense to your edited post 😂 but yes... a console I'd like to get hold of one day
Its probably better to refer to the FM Towns Marty as the first "5th Generation" console to avoid getting into arguments about "bit-ness".
The FM Towns Marty uses a 386SX-16 CPU, so its similar to the way the original Motorola 68000 works (32-bit internally with a 16-bit data bus). In that respect it shares a lot in common with the NeoGeo CD and Super A'can which sort of fall into that awkward overlap between the two generations.
If you look at processor architecture, the CD32 would be the first fully 32 bit console, with its 680EC20 and custom support chips having a full 32-bit external bus, with the 3DO with the 32-bit ARM60 following a month later.
Absolutely, but I gather the CPU is considered for all intents and purposes a 32-bit chip. Indeed even a quick google search reveals most consider this (the FM Towns Marty) the world's first 32-bit console. I remember it being mentioned in the UK magazine EDGE at the time in the early-nighties and it was a mythical machine simply because you never saw one in the UK. As an aside I owned the CD32 (my last ever Amiga) but for me was a shadow of the computers simply because it was so limited on games and software you couldn't run - without expanding it. The joypad is worth a mention too, in that it's awful. Like worst controller ever, awful with a sticker for a d-pad. The CD32 deserved better software than it unfortunately got. I remember trading mine in for the 3DO at some point.
Yes, the 386SX is usually considered a 32-bit CPU, but so is the Motorola 68000 even though its mostly used in 4th generation "16-bit" consoles. Bit-ness as a marketing term doesn't always make sense. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Did you knowingly purchase the best portable CRT TV ever made to use with your retro gear or was it a happy accident?
(the grey and black Trinitron there)
Amiga King purchase? I naughtily put it in my car when I was unloading rubbish at the tip and saved it from the crusher
OK acquired then :o) I had that television from 1985ish to 1991 for my C64. Used via composite/RF and later RGB SCART for my Amiga 1000 and Atari 520ST. I remember it being the only CRT that ever had 100% convergance over 100% of the screen including the very tips of the corners (I was a TV engineer later as an adult so have seen it all from Grundig to Quintrix Panasonic rivals). Did you try S-Video on that TV using a SCART adaptor? The next model on also supported S-Video via SCART input line but the screen had terrible convergence near the corners so I gave it back to the shop after trying 4 different TVs. Nice to see the CD32 working well at the end of episode 2, only just discovered your channel last night. I just bought an SX-64 this afternoon that needs a little cosmetic work and some parts for the hinge, was going to be a parts donor due to the hinge/handle issue and for fault finding on my other SX-64 with no sound but it's too nice for that. Great channel anyway, keep it up.
Amiga King it is a great little TV so it's interesting to hear your opinion on it as a TV expert. I'm using a scart to svideo adapter to connect it up yes. Thank you I'm glad you enjoy the videos!
Lots of potential, its a shame there was hardly any support.
if i remember dint they bring out the roms so you could just drop them in the amiga 1200 and it turned into a cd32, the did di a rom switcher so u could run both and i think thats th reason people dint buy it as they wanted both and the cd32 at the time dint do that if i am correct
Love it. Cant wait for second part.
Fun fact about the Akiko - it's significantly slower at C2P than doing it on the CPU on an A1200 with Fast RAM.
I love the CDTV look but want 32 bit power. Some day I’ll build a CDTV lookalike with my Amiga 600 with Furia. Power and class.
I think the caps will fix it... It looks like a messed up signal for generating the Composite video output. Composite Video is modulated in the RF Module to give analog Video. So i would suggest the caps for the composite video lines before splitting up to the composite port and the RF Modulator. But its better to change em all :D ...
Baum Inventions My thoughts as well.
Agreed. It would be nice to work back from there to prove this if possible before doing them all
I always enjoy the music on your videos
Crazy Monkey thanks! Check the video description for music links including the Project Paula album which is great
I really enjoyed this one, thank you! :)
Great video. Looking forward to the follow up ones. My cd32 is a French version. Finally got the 8 pin mini din to s video cable for it.
Excellent I bet that looks nice. A noticeable improvement?
RetroManCave unfortunately my TV hasn't S Video or scart. I need an s video to some sort of HDMI converter. Has to be way better than composite though.
I was curious about how the Amiga CD32 looked. I read an article online about it, but there was no picture of it in that article. Never would I have known that the Amiga CD32 was a game console rather than a computer.
Imagine if the hot "must have" christmas item this year was a computer, that could be used for work/homework, but that ALSO played awesome games, and played them well, all at the GAMES CONSOLE price point! Those were the rare days of the 8bit - 16bit microcomputer market of the 80's and 90's. I think sliding more toward the "console only" was part of the mistake Commodore made personally. They should have pursued the A1200 evolution, and given the middle finger to what everyone else was doing. These days we "need" a computer, AND a console, ....or 2.....AND a tablet? AND a phone that costs twice the above mentioned? And somehow we're better off?
I always wanted to check one of these out. Too bad it never came out in the United States .
My CD32 is still fully working. My SX-1 expansion however is not, one of these days I'll get it going again.
Akiko was exactly what the Amiga needed, with that it would never be able to do the "fake 3d" stuff that was running wild on the PCs
I sure wish that Commodore Business Machines was still back in business. It's possible they would have new innovations even today.
Me too. Me...too. I actually would have liked to see the CD32 Two years earlier with a cart slot instead of CD. It would have given the competition a run for its money and given Commodore some console market experience before taking on the CD and 3D generation.
If there's any one Amiga platform I would so love to own, it's the CD32. The first time I really got to play with one hands on was at Vintage Computer Fest East 2017, when Bill and Anthony of The Guru Meditation had a bunch of Amiga and Commodore hardware on display, including (of course!) the CD32 itself, hooked up and playing ReImagine Games' excellent port of Time Gal! That was an awesome exhibit and I hope this year they have the old girl back out again! :)
I think I'm going to love this series. Will be watching for more.
Can we have an animal fact per episode please?
RetroManCave If you were doing Atari systems, I'd have plenty of animals to work with. But yeah I can do that.
I love the CD32. I've not 2 of them. Such a shame that it didn't do very well. Only 175 games were released for it. The games released could of been so much better.
Great Video by the way and a great selection of music. Not heard that Cannon Fodder one before. Original I have.
I remember reading the CD32 announcement in Amiga Format and thinking "Thats just an A1200. In 1993, What the hell are Commodore thinking, there's no way that can compete, it's years behind the competition. They're going bankrupt." Then I sold my Amiga and got a 486 PC. Then Amiga went bankrupt and got sold to Escom, and despite there being a large Escom high street store in Newcastle, where I lived, I never saw a single Amiga for sale there, only PC's. Then Escom went bankrupt and Amiga got sold to Gateway 2000, and by this point I was past caring.
That sounds like a very familiar story. I really didn't care for the cd32 at the time any more than the CDi or CDTV. It's nice to revisit it now. Escom.... I think I only ever bought cheap floppy disks from them before they closed
Cant wait to see part 2...
Woah! I'd forgotten the CD32... thanks for the memory.
Great review... appreciated and thanx. g
Graham B thanks for watching 👌
It's nice to see someone else talk about the CD32. I'm a US person, but I enjoy the CD32 thanks to Amiga Forever (Fire & Ice is my fave CD32 game)
Great nostalgia rush when cd32 was powered on. And that glitchy video just made it better.
I can't remembering if I've been here before but man does that Cannon Fodder music is feels
Heheh...Hybris theme song remix for the creds. Loved that game.
@11:34 - how do you sleep with an unsolved cube in your possession?
I had pro module add on, with FDD HDD and memory expansion. Shit was great. Alien Breed 3D and Chaos Engine on CD. Greeat.
Until PS1 came out and blew it out of the water soon later....
Found myself getting distracted by the music than watching the video.
Damn you Jon Hare Narcissus!!! What a great song.
It's a great cover, check the video description for music links
I'm not certain you're quite right that the CD32 is the first 32 bit console. What about the Panasonic FZ-1? That was available to buy by the general public in the before the CD32 was.
Or the FM Towns Marty, which was released a good year before the CD32.
The FM Towns Marty is also a contender
I like how the CD32 mainboard looks like an E-ISA expansion board for the PC. Also, doesn't FG16 refer to 16Mhz so why would it be clocked slower?
Chunky to bitplane conversion huh. Yeah, my experiences working out how to do advanced graphics on a SNES show how much of a pain bitplanes can be sometimes. To be fair I think I've hit upon a scheme that isn't too bad.
But it's telling that the SNES add-on chips that were designed with improved graphics in mind both had dedicated hardware to aid conversions. The SuperFX had a pixel plotting function designed such that it would batch multiple single pixel writes and then transparently convert them to a bitplane equivalent. (the main issue with bitplanes being that one byte contains parts of the data for 8 pixels, and a single pixel's data can be spread across as many as 2 to 8 bytes depending on the bit depth of the graphics)
The SuperFX conversion logic is not that flexible; it does presume you're mostly drawing adjacent horizontal rows of pixels.
But... If you're doing polygon rasterisation, that is in fact the most common approach; Determine the end points of your triangle on a horizontal line, then draw the horizontal line between those points;
The SuperFX conversion function is designed perfectly with this in mind.
Then there's the SA-1, which contains a more explicit chunky to bitplane conversion. Write chunky graphics to a buffer in memory, set the conversion parameters, run the conversion, you get bitplanes out the other end.
It even has automated DMA into the SNES graphics chip, and some functionality to do the conversion directly out of ROM rather than needing to write it into the buffer first.
That's all well and good of course, but you can see that the mere fact that these upgrades include such dedicated functionality points to some of the pitfalls of bitplane graphics hardware.
A trait the SNES and Amiga share.
And wouldn't you know it? Compared to competitors using chunky graphics based hardware, both are considered notoriously bad at 3d graphics.
And That's no joke either. I've seen an Atari 8 bit system seemingly run rings around an Amiga when drawing 3d graphics... And what is an Atari 8 bit? It's basically the system that the Amiga's design borrows the most from.
However, for all the similarities, such as both having Display lists and very similar high level architectures, and with the obvious that the Amiga is generally more powerful and capable, why would the Atari do so much better at 3d?
Well, it uses chunky pixels to the Amiga's bitplanes.
Granted this is misleading of course, since it's also rendering at a lower resolution. In reality I don't actually think the Atari is doing it better, but overall when people see the 8 bit atari doing 3d, after having watched an Amiga struggle with it they do seem quite shocked by the results of this 'weak 8 bit system'.
Can't wait for part 2! :D