Article 40960 of comp.sys.amiga.misc: Path: news.csos.orst.edu!flop.ENGR.ORST.EDU!gaia.ucs.orst.edu!umn.edu!news-feed-2.peachnet.edu!emory!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!psinntp!uu0924!tornado From: tornado@ace.com (Tornado) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: cd32news.txt Message-ID: <672.UUL1.3#25274@ace.com> Date: Mon, 25 Oct 93 08:01:05 EST Organization: Argus Computerized Exchange Lines: 187 77777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777777 (TEXT 'OCR'D and edited by JFK '93) ENDING MONTHS OF SPECULATION AS TO WHAT THEIR NEXT MOVE WOULD BE, COMMODORE UNVEILED THEIR PLANS FOR A BRAND NEW 32-BIT CONSOLE CALLED THE CD32. THE CONFERENCE WAS ATTENDED BY SOME OF THE MOST EXPERIENCED JOURNALISTS IN THE INDUSTRY INCLUDING A THREE MAN DELEGATION FROM CU, AND DESPITE A VERITABLE BARRAGE OF PROBING QUESTIONS, THE #299.99 CD32 LOOKED AS SWEET AT THE END OF THE DAY AS IT DID AT THE START. IN AN EXTENDED NEWS FEATURE WE BRING YOU ALL THE DETAILS ON THE NEW MACHINE WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT CAN DO, AND WHAT YOU CAN PLAY ON IT... Let's start by looking at the facts: the CD console has a slightly larger footprint than a sheet of A4 paper and is a couple of inches deep. It has a slight bulge on the top caused by the top loading CD holder. Unlike the CDTV, the CD32 does not require expensive and ungainly caddies to hold the CD's, they just slot straight in as with a standard CD player. GETTING BASIC The machine is based upon the AGA chipset found in both the A1200 and A4000 Amiga's, although its specifications place it closer to an A1200. It is capable of displaying graphics in upto 256,000 colours from a 24-bit palette of 16.7 million at resolutions up to 128Ox512 pixels. Of course, all of those colourful detailed graphics will require a lot of processor power to move them around, which is why Commodore opted for a 14Mhz 68EC020 chip. More than twice as fast as the standard 68000 found in the A500, this is by far the best option in order to keep production prices down. Compare this to the MegaCD's 12Mhz 68000 chip and you start to get an idea just how much more powerfull the CD32 really is. Another important factor when you're talking about moving large amounts of graphic data around is the memory to do it in. There's no point having compact discs capable of storing 600Mb of data if the computer can only accept 128k of that at a time (as is the case with the MegaCD)! Fortunately, Commdore have come up trumps again, providing CD32 with a full 2Mb of RAM. The console naturally has two joystick ports into which can be plugged two 11 buttons controllers, yes that's right, 11 buttons! This means that CD32 will have the highest number of buttons on a console controller, which in turn means that owners have the best chance of getting exact conversions of arcade games, to say nothing of plenty of original CD32 only stuff! In terms of outputs, the machine has an S-Video, a composite video and RF out jacks. It also includes stereo audio jacks for connecting to a hi-fi if you own one. If not, there's also a stereo headphone jack so you can listen through Walkman headphones if you prefer. There's even a seperate volume control for the headphones. On the subject of sound, the machine still uses four channels to provide stereo 8-bit sound. However it's worth remembering that with all that storage capacity, sampling longer, so we should see a dramatic increase in sound quality. Mind you, that's totally overlooking the most important aspect of the console it's a CD player too! This means that programmers can incorporate a full CD soundtrack if they so desire. The CD player uses 256 position 8-bit oversampling. With it's CD playing abilities comes another bonus, the ability to play CD&G disks. CD&G is an acronym for Compact Disc and Graphics, or to put it another way, you can look at pretty pictures, whilst you listen to you favourite star warbling or groaning away. To be fair, CDTV was also capable of playing and displaying CD&G disks, but there is a very, very important difference in CD32, and one that means that this really is world leading technology. With an appropriate add-on, to be released in the not-too-distant future, the CD32 goes from simply being able to show static photographs, to playing animated ones a la television. Called Full Motion Video (FMV) this means that you could soon be buying CD's that not only contain music tracks, but also include an accompanying video, too. There are two important factors that allow the CD32 to handle FMV when Sega's rival MegaCD cannot, the first is the fact that the CD32 is able to transfer data from cd at 300 kilobytes per second, twice the rate that the MegaCD is capable of. Furthermore, with the FMV add-on, the unit gains MPEG capability. MPEG stands for the Motion Picture Experts Group and it refers to a special type of picture compression that yields absolutely amazing rates of reduction. It's only really suitable for 'real world' images (digitised photo's and video), and is only practical when a hardware implementation of the process is used (it's too slow otherwise). However, MPEG is seen as the future in computer/video animation by many. There are two implementations of MPEG. The CD32 useds version 1 which is targeted at home and non-professional users, whilst version 2 is being used for full broadcast video (TV and satelite). AND THE CDTV? When asked whether or not existing CDTV titles will be compatible with the CD32, Commodore's David Pleasance responded that about 60 percent of titles would be compatible. Obviously titles that require a keyboard or floppy disk drive will only work on CD32's which have the necessary upgrades. It would seem then, that the majority of incompatibilities are due to the new AGA chipset which caused problems for many pre-3.0 software titles. Althoug Commodore themselves now admit that CDTV was something of a failure, the technology used did enable them to develop this new console. Althoug it's existence may bring a little hope to CDTV and CD-ROM owners, it's highly likely that most developers will produce software that uses the new console's capabilities. This means that software written for the CD32 is unlikely to be downwardly compatible. The main reason for this is that the specs of the two machines are so different that CD32 developers are unlikely to want to spend time developing two separate sets of code, especially when you consider that the total worldwide CDTV market is less than 50.000 units. Of course developers could write code which simply runs on both machines, but the major problem there is the difference in quality between the two. After all, if you'd just spent a year developing a game, would you want it to lose out simply because it uses 32 colours instead of 256? SAVE IT Because of it's games bias the CD32 includes a 1k flash RAM area. This is non-volatile RAM that can be used to store game positions and the like, even after the power has been turned off. Amazingly, this new technology doesn't even require a battery to work! Now obviously, 1k is not much at all to save games in and to combat this, publishers are being urged to write games that uses password saves or other reduced data methods. Because the CD32 has the nesessary hardware to attach a floppy drive, I don't suppose it'll be long before appropriate drives appear and more complex floppy disk based save start to appear again. NOT JUST GAMES Commodore describe CD32 as a games console, and of course it's set to be not just a games console, but the games console. Nevertheless, there will certainly be serious programs available for it too. At least one sotware developer has educational products planned, and another has what he would only describe as 'a unique and exciting new concept in computer software'. There is no doubt that we will also see the likes of Encyclopaedias and other reference works. These titles will ensure that the CD32 is completely unique among games consoles as being the only one to expand your mind as well as your trigger finger, a great advantage if your trying to convince your parents to buy one for you! A QUESTION OF EXPANSION One fact that Commodore barely mentioned is the machine's expandsion capabilities. These come in the form of a keyboard connector and full expansion bus. With the extra's that are planned for release later this year, it will be possible to upgrade the machine to a full A1200, so it can be used for serious applications as well. Even more impressive is the fact that a CD32 kit will be released for the A1200 which will give it full CD capabilities. Whichever way you upgrade, from A1200 to CD console, or from console to A1200, the total price is likely to be the same, and of course the FMV module will be available under both routes. I strongly suspect that the CD32 upgrade finally explains the tiny expansion port at the back right of the A1200... Incidentally, it's also possible to add an accelerator and RAM to the CD32. Amiga CD32 Versus SEGA MegaCD ----------------------------- =============================================== Commodore CD 32 SEGA MegaCD CPU 68EC020 @ 14 Mhz 68000 @ 12 Mhz Resolution 1280x512 640x320 Colours 256.000 64 Palette 16.8 million 256 Sound 4 channel 8-bit 8 channel FM RAM 2Mb upgradable to 128Mb 128Kb Save ram 1kb none Max data transfer rate 300k per second 150k per second Controller 11 buttons pad 4 button pad Extra's Keyboard,FMV-module, Lightgun accelerator and full range of A1200 add-ons Price #299 #269+#119=#388 =================================================