Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!cs.utexas.edu!evax!hill
From: hill@evax.arl.utexas.edu (Adam Hill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia
Subject: Re: Multimedia on CNN
Message-ID: <1991Mar20.034149.15840@evax.arl.utexas.edu>
Date: 20 Mar 91 03:41:49 GMT
References: <%YY-8#%@irie.ais.org> <1991Mar19.222832.23744@news.iastate.edu>
Organization: Computer Science Engineering Univ. of Texas at Arlington
Lines: 68

In article <1991Mar19.222832.23744@news.iastate.edu> xgr39@CCVAX.IASTATE.EDU writes:


>   This brings up a nagging question that I've been wanting to ask for
>some time.  What hasn't Commodore produced a true "CD-ROM computer"?
>The CDTV is being marketed more as a fancy appliance than a computer,
>so it doesn't quite fir this description.
>
>   What I mean is that I feel Commodore should develop and market a
>new Amiga model which has a built-in CD-ROM, in addition to the normal
>hardware (floppy drive, keyboard, mouse, etc.).  This would basically
>be a CDTV with a computer-style case (instead of a CD-player-style
>case) and an attached keyboard, floppy drive and mouse.  It would 
>also be minus the front cartridge-style port, as it would not be
>needed.

    There is a FINE file system out there for CD_ROM players. It is
produced by Hypermedia Concepts in Canada. All you need is $40.00 (For
the CDROM Filesystem) and a 2091 SCSI controller. Plug in the CDROM
drive (I played with a Toshiba drive.) and "mount CDROM-FS:"!!

    It worked flawlessly with the FF Disk CDROM, and it is ISO/High
Sierra compatible so you can pull info off of MSDOS and Mac CD's. (As
long as the files are not "encrypted" in any way). People have
successfully pulled TIFF off of Mac CD and converted them to IFF.
 
>   The reason I bring this up is that I feel that such a computer 
>would actually be more successful than the CDTV itself.  The CDTV will
>have lots of competition from the CD-I backers, and from other 
>companies as well, while there aren't all that many computers on the
>market that have built-in CD-ROM drives.
>   
>   BTW, while I am on this topic, where is that stand-alone CD-ROM 
>drive for all Amigas?  (The one from Commodore which would allow all
>Amigas to run CDTV software)

 The one in Amazing looks A LOT like a 590 with a CDROM! *Most* CDTV
games will work on a 500 with CBM CDROM or a Xetec. You actually have
to try it as I have NO idea what would cause one NOT to work. The
New Hertiage Dictionary boots into a 1.3 CLI, one of the ways to
inhibit CD boot is to attach an external floppy drive. (Who's pinout
is just SLIGHTLY different than a "normal" floppy expansion :-) But
one can build an adapter.. CBM shipped one to developers.)
 
> I should think that such a drive would
>be MUCH easier to design an develop than a computer like the CDTV,
>yet the CDTV is shipping already and the CD-ROM drive hasn't even
>been made available to developers yet.  Either Commodore's marketing
>people have their priorities screwed up, or Commodore's R&D department
>can't work on more than one CD-ROM product at once. (I tend to believe
>both of these explanations)

   
>>
>>-- 
>>    // Joseph Hillenburg/Blackwinter, Secretary, Bloomington Amiga Users Group 
>>  \X/    jph@valnet.UUCP       jph@irie.ais.org      jph@wookumz.ai.mit.edu
>>  "Project: Desert Storm is also known as ``The Mother of All Ass-Kickings.''"
>
>
>                                    -MB-


-- 
 adam hill --  hill@evax.uta.edu        ASOCC - University of Texas at UTA
     I programmed for three days          Make Up Your Own Mind.. AMIGA!
     And heard no human voices.              Amiga... Multimedia NOW!  
     But the hard disk sang. - TZoP              Born To Run SVR4