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[lord-denning]

Hi guys. I just joined this site and I am very excited to get into amiga gaming. I am a snes and neo geo AES collector and I love love love retro gaming. As a child I first experienced Amiga games on a trip over to ireland and I fell in love. I am a huge point and click adventure game fan and this is precisely why I want to get into the scene. What I really need though is some advice though before I start making purchases etc. As I said before I am really into point and click adventures games but I also want to be able to hook up whatever system I am playing it on to my NTSC television (I live in vancouver canada). Soooo..... I was thinking that my best bet would be to roll with a CD32 and then get a floppy disk drive add on. I'm not really so into most of the CD titles other than beneath a steel sky and maybe D generation. Basically here are my questions. Firstly, can I plug in one of these analogue or SX floppy drives to a north american CD32? or do they only work on the PAL model. Secondly, I would like to know how difficult it will be if I buy a PAL cd32 to have it modded to output on my NTSC tv? The pal models are significantly cheaper to buy and I can ship it to a good friend of mines place in london and he will forward it to me so the ebay uk route is not a problem(I did a law degree in england). I do have SOME basic soldering experience through removing and swapping chips on a samurai spirits 2 neo geo board.
Thirdly, I'm wondering about the compatability of AMIGA 500/1200 games when they are playing through a CD32 floppy drive? Anyway, I have been doing some reading the last few weeks online and I cannot find any info relating to compatability between NTSC cd32's and floppy drives. Quite frankly I would much prefer to just buy a PAL model and mod it myself as it should be significantly cheaper but I digress. Thank you for all your help and opinions in advance. I just dream of kicking back on my sofa and playing leisure suit larry in my boxers with a nice shelf of AMIGA games in boxes within view.

[bbond007]

Wow...

My advice would be NOT to buy a NTSC CD32.

Converting a PAL CD32 to NTSC is possible, but its an extremely bad idea because you sacrifice compatibility. NTSC C32s were never released, so the software selection is limited.

Your best option is to get a TV that supports PAL, and most do...

If you choose to try and make a NTSC CD32 work with a NTSC TV - and run PAL software, you are heading for trouble, and most stuff is PAL...I'm not going to go into all of the technical details... You'll need an Indivision AGA (which gives you VGA) or a SX module(which gives you RGB), otherwise you won't be happy with the video results, and most likely you will have B/W video. Some TVs may not work at all.

Also the NTSC CD32s are less reliable. Most came with the caps soldered in backwards which effects reliability.

As far as the A500/A1200 games, you'll want to look for these CD ISO's called CD32 - 200, 350, 444 & 888 which will be a compilation of games that can be run on the CD32. Personally, I'd not waste time with floppies....

If you really want the floppy thing, probably the best thing to use with ADFs that are cracked with AGA/ECS fixes. I'm sure it works fine with the NTSC CD32 - never heard anything to the contrary.

You'll need to master a booting workbench 3.x CD32 disc (with UAE & CD32 dev kit) including your ADFs and the utility to write them to the floppy. Or use a real Amiga to write them...

Also, in your quest for CD32 items or service, if you run across a company called Analogic Computers, proceed with extreme caution. At least make sure to use Paypal so you are not at risk...

[ral-clan]

Originally Posted by bbond007

Wow...
NTSC C32s were never released, so the software selection is limited.

Is this statement accurate? I live in Canada and I've seen Amiga CD32's here (NTSC land). They were not common, but they certainly did exist.

[alexh]

Only a handful were ever sold.

The XOR patent injunction meant that shortly after they went on sale CBM was banned from importing them from their manufacture site in Taiwan to USA.

Most stayed in their boxes in a warehouse for 15+ years before finding their way to eBay about 2-3 years ago.

[leirbag28]

@lord-denning

NTSC CD32's are very plentiful. As an American who witnessed and purchased straight from the warehouse Amiga vendor in Miami Florida.... A company owned by Alex Amor back the days when Commodore was being auctioned off, I personally saw nothing but pure NTSC CD32's being sold. I owned about 4 myself and still have one wich will be for sale soon, when i fix the busted capacitor.

And by the way, I was always trying to put together the best Amiga for gaming, and as an owner of an Amiga 1000, 3000, 4000, 2000, 500, 600, and CD32 with 2 SX32 Pro's and 2 SX-1's...... I can personally tell you, that the best possible single Amiga you could own for games, is an NTSC CD32 (NTSC because you will be using it on NTSC equipment and it will also enable you to record screen captures of your games to post on YouTube and project on NYSC Projectors etc.....)..... But here is the catch: you must have an SX32 Pro with a 68030 processor....and this is the best set up..... Here's why:

Will play CDTV games
Will play A500/ECS games
Will play A1200/AGA games
Will play CD32 games of course
And.... Will play PAL games from all these machines
Has official 6 button Joypads
Has 3 video outputs at the same time
Can play CD quality sound when playing CD games (leaving the CPU more power for gfx)
And my personal favorite: its a 100% Karaoke Machine that plays CD+G discs ( so if you never use your CD32 for anything at all, and have not upgraded it at all...you can just order or walk into almost any music store and buy Karaoke CD's.... Really fun when you have guests over.....and contrary to what most people think.... The CD32 plays CD+G discs right out of the box.... Nothing required. You will be amazed how many Karaoke CDs exist.... They sell them at Target even....but buying online at official Karaoke stores is best way to find the songs you want.)

NO Other Amiga can do this because you need extra stuff to play the CDROM versions of the games. The CD32 covers all grounds.

But incase you cant get this.... I will give you a list of which Amigas are best to own in decending order starting from 1 being the best:

1. CD32 with SX32 Pro 68030 @ 50mhz
2. CD32 with SX32 Mk 2
3. CD32 with SX-1
4. CD32 with Pro Module (rare)
5. CD32 bare with a compact flash or hard drive (difficult without and SX-1 or IDE)
6. A1200 with a 68030 @ 50 mhz
7. A1200 with a 68030 @ 40mhz
8. A1200 bare bones with 4mb ram but the 2 mb it already comes with will suffice
9. A600 with 68030 and some ram
10. A500 with a 68020 and a hard drive

All of these of course include coming with hard drive and some RAM so that you could install the games on the hard drive.

Big box Amiga's such as the A2000, A3000, A4000 are usually not as good as the models I listed, they have so many issues because of the internal ad on cards.

Now to summarize this a bit and make it simpler.... I personally would choose these two as my top options:

CD32 with SX32 Pro
Or
A1200 with 68030@50mhz and 4mb RAM

Also remember that a CD32 has S-Video built in.... Makes a Massive difference when using it on a TV.... A CRT TV that is, because it looks almost as clear as a 1084s RGB monitor. nice when using the OS on a TV.

Now also keep in mind... No matter which Amiga you got from the list, they are ALL good for gaming, since Amigas have so many games anyway and there is usually 2 versions of each game.... (16 bit and 32 bit aka ECS and AGA versions). And many times i have discovered the 16 bit/ECS versions to be better...just because they ruin the AGA versions with stupid intros and fixing things that aint broke.

[lord-denning]

If I purchase an NTSC cd32 will I be able to play all the games on the multi game discs? or will there be lots of pal games which will simply not play? also will I be able to save my progress throughout the game? thanks for the responses guys

[wrath of khan]

Asfaik cd32's were sold in canada but not the u.s.

[lord-denning]

ok I appreciate your suggestions re the SX floppy drives but it seems like they are impossible to find or extremely expensive. also I used to see NTSC cd32's for sale on ebay a few years ago but I havent seen any in a while. would any one on here be willing to sell me one for a reasonable price? and do all the floppy drives work with it? and will PAL floppy disk games work on the drives when plugged into a NTSC cd32?

[bbond007]

Originally Posted by lord-denning

If I purchase an NTSC cd32 will I be able to play all the games on the multi game discs? or will there be lots of pal games which will simply not play? also will I be able to save my progress throughout the game? thanks for the responses guys

You'll want to boot in "PAL" mode (2 mouse buttons - early boot menu) before running those discs because most won't run in NTSC mode and at best case the screen will be cut off or timing changed.

I did a hardware mod to my NTSC CD32 to allow it to default to PAL, however this is not really PAL, but a NTSC 50HZ hybrid mode that does not show color on PAL compatible TVs in most cases and no video on NTSC TV. On real amiga this is not an issue because you have the RGB port. On the CD32 you need to add a SX module or an Indivision to get that.

The SX-32 is VERY nice but the last one I saw for sale went for $800. The the SX-1 is more affordable, but its pretty big and ugly.

If you have the floppy thing you could load the NTSC versions of A1200/A500 games and probably that would be your best bet.

One idea would be to make your own compilation CD with whdload NTSC games, but I don't know how well it would work with just 2MB RAM...

[bbond007]

Originally Posted by leirbag28

@lord-denning


Now to summarize this a bit and make it simpler.... I personally would choose these two as my top options:

CD32 with SX32 Pro
Or
A1200 with 68030@50mhz and 4mb RAM

I'd agree with that... But the A1200 system is going cost a fraction of the price.

[lassie]

Hi i have 2 Amiga CD32 console, and 3 of those cd with 200, 444 and 888 games. And them 3 combined there are over 1000 games and i am playing them from a stock CD32 and they work great, sure there are some loading times but it is nothing compared to diskettes. So you can have a lot of fun without having to upgrade etc.

[kedawa]

If you're going to play the multi-discs, keep in mind that many of the games require you to do the PAL mode switch that bbond007 mentioned again after selecting the game, and not just when launching the disc. It seems that WHDload can reset that option before starting the game.

[lord-denning]

ok so what if I buy one of these PAL amiga 1200 keyboard/computer things from ebay.uk. will I be able to plug it into my NTSC tv without video problems etc? or will I run into the same problems that I would find if I went with a PAL cd32?

[bbond007]

Originally Posted by lord-denning

ok so what if I buy one of these PAL amiga 1200 keyboard/computer things from ebay.uk. will I be able to plug it into my NTSC tv without video problems etc? or will I run into the same problems that I would find if I went with a PAL cd32?

I don't think you would have any problem with a PAL CD32 - Unless your TV is one of those old wooden console TVs with a record player built into the top, its probably going to support PAL video. its the NTSC CD32 I suspect you would disappointed with.

The A1200 and CD32 are essentially the same thing, except that the A1200 has an 23 pin RGB port and the CD32 has an SVIDEO port.

You'll run into the exact same sort of issues with an Amiga 1200 that you would with the CD32 if you use the composite video signal instead of the RGB port.

Most people use the RGB port connected to a scandoubler or Amigamaniac's SVIDEO adapter or a 15hz compatible monitor (such as 1084) or some other multisync. RGB also provides far superior picture than SVIDEO which is only slightly better than composite.

Both SVIDEO and composite mix signals together in order to use fewer wires, so the color signal is encoded. The RGB port leaves these signals separated.

NTSC video is 425 lines at 60 frames per second and the color signal is encoded at 3.6 mhz.

PAL video is 525 lines at 50 frames per second and the color signal is encoded at 4.4 mhz.

Both the A1200 and the CD32 can change refresh rate via software (which also changes the # of lines) but the color frequency the color signal is encoded at cannot be changed via software.

It does not matter if you are using a CD32 (with SVIDEO or composite) or A1200 (with composite), if you are running PAL unit in NTSC mode or a NTSC unit in PAL mode, you are going to have non-standard video signal.

I really don't know a better way to explain it. Good luck with whatever you decide....

[lord-denning]

ok guys....I'm just going to buy a PAL cd32 and see what happens....I have friends in england I can get it shipped to who will then forward it to me in canada. I have a 2 year old TV. lets see if it will work. should I buy an amiga mouse? or should I buy a mouse adaptor?