{ta{M{6        C D - R O M   1 2 0 0 . .   A   R E A L I T Y   A T   L A S T ? 
{C{8
                           BY ATOM/DUAL 4MAT
{A{7
Many thought that the 1200 would never
see  the elusive CD32 compatible drive
appear, due to Commodore's excuse that
the  trapdoor  or card slot were not a
viable   option   of   connecting  the
drive!,  and  because of this everyone
who  wanted  to  move  over  to CD-ROM
either brought a CD32 or a PC!  (tough
choice  huh?)  but in spite of rumours
at  the  CeBIT  '94  show  in  Germany
Commodore unveiled none other than the
CD1200!!   Speculation had turned into
reality!

After  the glitzy unveiling the CD1200
is  to  be  expected  to go on sale in
German  shops at the end of May priced
at  around  DM 500 (about 199 quid our


money!)

Looks   wise,   the   CD1200  is  near
identical to the left hand drive (eh?)
side of the CD32 but colour matched to
the   1200.    The   Drive  itself  is
connected   to   the   trapdoor   slot
underneth   the   1200   via  a  small
interfacing unit to the CD1200 itself,
which  in  practise looks fairly crap!
But  hey  we're talking about good 'ol
Commodore  here.   Power  to  the unit
comes  from a separate power supply as
in  the  A570  CD  unit!  This has the
advantage   of   not  overloading  the
1200's  power unit, so hard drives and
stuff can still be used.

{ta{A{7The  one  big  disadvantage  though is
that  as  you may have already guessed
the  trapdoor slot is now fully booked
so to speak, and memory cards or other
expansions  can  no  longer be plugged
in!   But  to  overcome  this  problem
(slightly)  The  CD1200  has provision
for  extra  memory  in  the  form of a
single   SIMM   socket.    This   will
probably  amount to a 4MB card for the
machine,  things  aren't  so bad after
all.

Another feature that the CD1200 has to
ensure  CD32  compatibility is that of
the elusive AIKIKO chip for converting
PC  chunky  to  AMIGA planar gfx, more
points for CBM.

NOW  comes  the  major  flaw  with the
CD1200   and   a  problem  that  could
prevent  us Brits from ever seeing the
unit  and that is one of compatibility
with  FULL MOTION VIDEO or FMV titles,
being  as  FMV  is  currently  the 'in
thing'  at  the moment, everyone wants
to  muscle  in on it!  But the fact is
the  CD1200  has  no provision for the
FMV  cartridge and unless CBM can work
miracles  there's  no way they're ever
gonna  get  one inside it!  So this is
where  problems start arising.  CBM UK
are  big  advocates of FMV and without
this compatibility are not prepared to
market a unit without it!  And at this
point  it's  unclear whether or not we
will  see  the  CD1200 in the UK until
much  later  this  year!  Will this be
too late?  We shall see.
{A{:
                                  End. 