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The history of the CDTV. A breif history upto the CDTV Concept. Hi-Torro was formed with little funding but with a goal of making a computer, Firstly they needed to get some money so they made joysticks and joyboards (A skate board like object) which then funded the development of there first computer, It took a while to develop and lots of changes where made (Like a rear expansion slot, The prototype to first have this slot was called Zorro.), The computer was based on the Motorola 68000 CPU and had graphics, sound and memory control chips designed by them. Much latter on they were ready to launch it under there new name Amiga but with no funds they couldnt make any so they went to a show with there prototype to get preorders, They didnt get enough so needed funding, Atari were interesed but then pulled out at the last minute, Commodore were interesed but not enough, After a while Commodore bought most of "Amiga" and payed for the Amiga 1000 to launch (After sticking a C= logo on it). Amiga were on the move, The next Amiga developed was the A500 (The A2000 was developed along side the A500 but took longer), Same CPU and chipset but with part of the OS stored on a chip called a Kickstart and now with 512Kb of ram (Double what the standard A1000 had), The Os was now up to V1.2 (The first was V1.0) and a GUI called Workbench came with it. The A2000 was launched , It was the same as the A500 but with 5 internal "Zorro 2" slots (Amiga couldnt come up with a name so the name of the first prototype with the slot was used), An internal Video port, A CPU upgrage port and 1 free 3.5" & 5.25" spaces, The A2000 was aimed at developers and the A500 at everyone else (But ended up being regarded as a games machine due to its great stereo sound and 32 colours (With upto 4096 colours possiable). The A500 was a big success (After a while, The price was very high to start but after a while it became the normal price) and stayed a success untill very late in 1994 (When the A1200 took over.). The main problem with the A500's and A2000's where that programs were coming on more and more disks, A harddrive was very expensive and over complicated for novice users (With the Amiga you just put the disk in and turn on) so Amiga looked for a better storage method, CD-Roms were in development by mid 1989 and it looked like the best way of going forward so a new machine was needed for this next step, They latter called it the CDTV (Or to be correct: The Commodore Dynamic Total Vision), The A500 and A2000 stayed in production while development took place and the Amiga 500+ was developed to fill there time, It was a standard A500 with 1 Meg of ram and OS 2.04 but wasnt recived well. The A2000 went under a major redesign to, The CPU was changed for Commodores new 68030 and the "Zorro 2" bus was redesigned for 32 Bit access (Called Zorro 3), It also ran OS 2.04 (But early versions shipped with V2.0 or even V1.4) and had 2 Meg of ram (And upto 8 Meg of "32 Bit Fast Ram"), The graphics chip set was redesigned and renamed ECS (Enhanced Chip Set) (The original was called OCS (The Original Chip Set).), There was very little noticable difference but it was better (It let more display modes like Super High Res screens and faster redraws). The CDTV was launched only a few months after the A3000 and was the first computer to have a CD-Rom in the world. The CDTV Story. In early 1989 a group at Commodore called "Special Projects" set to work at incorpertaing a CD-Rom into an Amiga compatiable machine which when launched will be aimed at the normal person, it was to fit next to the VCR and Hi-fi, incorperating the looks of both and to be totally idiot proof, Not an easy job as in 1989 the average person could just about master a TV remote after two months and 90% have not got any sort of computer in there house and 85% dont use a computer at work. Steve Kreckman talks about the development of the CDTV and Special Projects: "The first CDTV was developed by Special Projects group. This was a group of us led by Don Gilbreath that operated as a sort of skunk works. This meant that we were outside of main engineering, had a separate budget, and reported directly to Irving Gould, The CEO. It was a small group of about a dozen folks located at CBM in West Chester. We used outside developers like Carl Sassenrath for the OS work and the hardware engineering was done between us, Commodore Japan and MKEŽ (Matsushite Kotobuki Electronics). The mechanicals (casework) and the guts were manufactured at MKE then shipped to Commodore Hong Kong where they were assembled, tested and packed out for international shipment. We did the whole project from concept to shipped product in 15 months for a budget of a little over US$1 Million. That's considerably lessthan the >$100 Milliion that Philips spent developing CD-I. Not bad eh?"(End of quoting.) The CDTV went through a few designs before the final design and now we will go into them in more detail: The CD-A1, The first prototype to be shown outside of Commodore. This unit already has lots of the trademark looks of the final CDTV and at first glance you could mistake it for the final version but look again, The CD-Rom was an earyer version, It is a standard 5.25" drive with a much smaller Eject button and built in read light, The interface was the same and it would have only taken a few minutes to change the drive for the newer version. The casing is very similer to the final version, It may be a little narrower (As the volume buttons are smaller) and there is no ventalation slots on the top or on the sides but thats about it, The front display is different, The volume controls are under the CD-Rom intead of on the right hand side, The reset button on the bottom right has power/reset marked on it, Could you turn the CDTV off with the reset button? Not the way the final CDTV was made but the prototype may have been able. This prototype was very much a hack, Commodore had used standard, Well tested chips but the motherboard was a new design and with that lots of problems including audio distortions, Major IR controler problems & more. I have no idea who has this prototype or how many of this type were made but chances are its still owned by one of the original developers, As for if there is just one I dont know. The next CDTV shown to the public was very different, infact it was almost the final version, The CD-Rom is replaced with the correct one, The Volume buttons are in the right place (Under the Commodore lable) and the case now has ventalation. This unit was shown to developers and also reviewed in Commodore Format (To read the review please visit the Adverts section), The first thing you will notice about this picture is the remote, Its a TV remote, Well no actually its the first IR controler, It is a CDTV specific one, It has a numeric pad, Audio CD controls and power / Genlock buttons. This is the only time the CDTV was shown with this remote and it isnt known if it works but it wouldnt be hard for them to have made it, The IR interface was still causing trouble and no doubt there were other problems but it was shown working in the Commodore Format review, It played Tetris on a TV. The power / reset lable is still there (You can see it better in this picture) and there are lables on the power and drive read lights and thee is a lable under the C= Commodore lable on the top right hand side, It reads Interactive Graphics Player, Which is nice :). The final design, The external work was finished well before the motherboard design was debuged. The first CDTV to have this design was functional but the sound distorted at anything but the quietest sound, The IR port had a major work around, the socket has a Motorola 8 Bit CPU with small EMProm mounted on top, Infact the signals to connect the CPU to the motherboad remain on all motherboards. A Prom Flash card was fitted to the motherboard which ment that updating the Prom as software bugs were worked out was a simple 15 second job,This card was later available to all developers on the CATS Developers list. (Visit the upgrades section for more info on the Prom Flash card) The CDTV went through some debugs after this but no more major changes occured. The "Interactive Graphics Player", CD read and power lables were all removed which is about the only external change. The CDTV went on to launch around the world, normally at The World Of Commodore shows, In the UK the CDTV was launched at the WOC 1991 in Earls Court, London. In America the CDTV was launched in March 1991 Winter CES in Las Vegas. The CDTV had a big launch but Commodore didnt really advertise it well, 3rd Party companys were left to advertise it but they only advertised it in Amiga magazines, Selling to the sold. This being so it sold more in the first month than the A500 did, Amiga's most popular Amiga but this didnt last and soon people started asking why it didnt have OS2.04 and a PCMCIA slot like the A600 that was just launched and with in a year the CDTV was considered a flop but it was still sold and Commodore secretly developed the CDTV's replacement, The CDTV CR unfortunatly due to the bad name the CDTV got the CR was never launched and the CD32 was launched in early 1993 instead, After the CD32 was launched the CDTV started its drift into the background and by late 1995 the CDTV was not supported. The CDTV's potential was never really realised, It is a very powerfull computer with good quailty sound and excelent video quality.