Amiga 500 vs Amiga CD32: The Ultimate Retro Showdown!

[@rtid7538]

Superfrog was an OCS title on both machines so the graphics are the same, and ran very similarly on both of them, too.

[@Scopie33]

There were a lot of straight ports to the cd32. Super frog and alien breed look and sound basically identical.

[@wuuduu609]

CD32 come in 1993 and youre comparing it to Amiga A500 from year 1987? You must compare it to Amiga A1200, as its based at that model

[@AdiSneakerFreak]

Yes agree very odd comparison. A1200 is the computer version linked generationally to the CD32, not the 500. If comparing the 500 to a CD ‘console’ it should have been the CDTV.

[@RetroGamesRediscovered]

Thanks for your comment, I've compared the two in another video kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3fLZa2rg7qsg8k

[@Zontar82]

or between amiga 1000 as they were almost the same thing

[@detalite]

​@@Zontar82 A500 is a compacted A1000 with minor uprgades.

[@AdiSneakerFreak]

@@detalite yer 1200. Not 1000. 500 vs CDTV games would be interesting for those on both systems (not a lot).

[@feralstorm]

CD-32 had the double-edged sword of getting quite a lot of games despite its very short shelf life, but most were also available on standard Amiga 500 or 1200, with the CD32 version only adding some mild enhancements, like a new intro sequence or CD music tracks, if they were improved at all. The number of games that truly took advantage of the CD32 hardware or CD storage capacity could be counted on one hand.

[@rayf2145]

exactly my thoughts. The CD drive had so much potential if the A500 1,2MB dual-floppy games weren´t ported 1:1. What´s missing was the killer 600MB CD-game full of audio, FMV (or half-FMV) and game. On the other hand, I get the software companies who preferred one game for both machines, not limiting their range to only the CD32.

[@glenndoiron9317]

I must be blind and deaf. Half of these games I didn't see or hear the improvements that the narrator talked about.

[@dataterminal]

I always saw the Amiga CD32 as a upgrade of the Amiga CDTV. The former built up on the A1200 and the latter the A500.

[@freddiejohnson6137]

While the Amiga CD32 is 32-bit though it's biggest problem is that it was based on a very early 32-bit computer that still lacked a lot of the graphical features of 16-bit consoles that came out after it. Also Commodore was pretty much only directly comparing it to the Mega CD in their promotional ads which while on paper it seemed better what it didn't take into account was many games on it were just the Amiga 1200 games stuck on a CD and their controls mapped to a controller some of which used up to jump still. These games were either designed for joysticks or mouse controls and very few used the extra akikio chip because they were just quick ports. So it's pretty easy that the Amiga 500 is the better of the two since the games were designed for that hardware.

[@mr.y.mysterious.video1]

wouldn't say the cd32 was advanced. a big problem was it's abilities paled in comparison to the other 32 bit consoles

[@jssonstevens59]

Other 32 bits consoles were released well after the CD32

[@Jon867]

​@jssonstevens59 The 3DO was released in North America in October 1993, so it was a contemporary of the CD32 - notwithstanding of course that the latter didn't make it to the US before Commodore's bankruptcy.

[@ritchwaghorn6541]

I still have a CD32 and it’s the pride of my retro collection. It’s story is one of missed opportunity due mainly to the demise of Commodore and the lack of support from games developers. A lot of the CD32 games were nothing more than direct ports of A500 games, some had a few enhancement’s but some (IK Plus for instance) were the same game. Another mistake Commodore made with the CD32 was the lack of save space. I love Frontier but to play it on a CD32 takes the entire save space which can be a bit frustrating ! Having said this I still love it and am slowly collecting the entire CD32 library (much to my bank managers dismay) 😂

[@RetroGamesRediscovered]

Thanks for your comment, it was always the machine I longed for when it first came out and I never had the opportunity to own one. Now, like you, it's definitely the pride of my retro collection. I know what you mean about the games, I think if more specific games had been developed it may have been more successful, obviously if Commodore hadn't screwed everything up!

[@JesterEric]

The Amiga 500 was definately not an affordable machine for gamers on a budget in 1987. It cost £499 + £26 for a TV modulator. Thats the equivalent of £1850 today

[@Jon867]

The Amiga 500 only really took off in the UK with the Xmas 1989 Batman Pack. I think by that stage it was down to £399.99.

[@DavePoo2]

​@@Jon867Yeah, I remember the £399 price tag. I desperately wanted one but couldn't afford one for some time. I remember my friend working for months pushing trollies in Tesco to earn the money to get one.

[@federicocatelli8785]

It was very much affordable compared to A1000 😉

[@roscoe500]

Interesting comparison, but 6 years separates these two machines. Personally I think the A1200 was the real competition with A500 owners looking to upgrade leaning towards the A1200. I think you do highlight the CD32's big flaw though, games like Alien Breed and Wing Commander had come out years earlier on the A500. They weren't new games, just old with some enhancements, which can be tricky to spot even in a side by side. Also, the extra colours of the AGA weren't always a plus, to my eyes the original version of Chaos Engine looks better with its more muted colour palette. Would be interesting to see a video about games that used Akiko, I suspect not many as it wasn't in the A1200.

[@RetroGamesRediscovered]

Thank you for your comment and thoughts. I agree with the game differences, it's a shame more CD32 only games weren't developed at the time. I'm planning on putting out a 1200 Vs CD32 video soon. That's a good idea on the Akiko games video too, I'll do some research on that.

[@DavePoo2]

Yeah, did anyone use that chip at all?

[@Jon867]

​@@DavePoo2there's some discussion of this topic on old forums, and people usually bring up Gloom and Wing Commander. The consensus seems to be that Akiko doesn't improve performance very much. The Amiga really needed a chunky graphics mode by 1992, which was promised in the never-released AAA chipset. Speaking of lacking improvement, it's unbelievable that the AGA Amigas retained the ancient Paula sound chip. The CD32 could play Redbook audio from CD though, partially offsetting that.

[@DavePoo2]

@@Jon867 All the Amigas had the same sound capabilities. In 1985 it was ahead of its time, in 1994, not so much.

[@Jon867]

​@DavePoo2 Brian Bagnall's book talks about Glen Keller working on "Super Paula" for AGA, but for whatever reason that project failed or didn't meet the deadline. Another of the many examples of Commodore not getting its act together.

[@CaseTheCorvetteMan]

Amiga 500 was also used in a fair few laserdisc arcade machines with a genlock

[@Rumms-Bumms69]

The CD32 came out MUCH too late. Imagine this machine in '92, around the same time the SNES arrived on PAL territory.

[@robertmoss556]

The Amiga 68000 CPU ran at 7.16 MHz, this was a deliberate choice (to be sub 8 MHz) related to genlock capabilities

[@u4ria.]

Amiga 500 vs the CD32, its obviously the Amiga 500. The CD32 comes last compared to the rest, Even commodore didn't take it serious. It was a last gasp effort of a failing company to use what hardware they had on the shelf and make as much as possible from before the inevitable.

[@niklasohman5021]

I had both. And I preffered the A500 because most of the games released on CD32 was just ports of games from A500, some was enhanced but still the same games. As an old Amiga 500 user I was looking forward to new games with the CD32. With that said I loved both my A500 and CD32

[@willrobinson7599]

Pretty sure superfrog graphics near identical on both systems based on the video . like alot of the games just lazy a500 ports with silly intro and better sound The cd32 was a massive disappointment due to the lack 3d support for games like doom and lack of games that really showed what it could do. Yes things like beneath the steel sky , darkseed had big improvements but too many didn't Asking people to pay 30 quid for a bare bone cd re hash version just wasn't gonna cut it I was and still am a huge amiga fan .

[@doctorsocrates4413]

I think if commodore had been able to supply and sell a further 100,000 cd-32s then it might have saved them as a company..However gould and mehdi ali neglected to upgrade the hardware and dismantling the commodore R&D department was a lethal mistake...commodore engineers saw the end coming long before the blind management did......

[@glenndoiron9317]

People like to hate on Mehdi, but they were being sued by patent trolls as well (IBM), which was likely the straw that broke the camel's back.

[@lurkerrekrul]

Commodore barely advertised the Amiga in North America at all. I think I saw a grand total of three Amiga commercials on TV. Not three different commercials, three total. And of those, at least one was an abstract video that didn't tell you anything about the machine or why you would want it. Commodore didn't bother advertising in mainstream computer magazines either. Outside of existing Commodore users, barely anyone even knew it existed. When games came out for both DOS and Amiga, game magazines would often only list them as being available for DOS. Arthur C. Clarke was reportedly an Amiga user, and a big fan of the landscape generation program Vista. I once saw an ad for the DOS version, which referenced Clarke, but made no mention of the Amiga whatsoever. Compute! magazine used to put out computer specific editions of their magazine, with Compute! itself being for all systems. They decided to do away with the specific magazines, and just print small inserts for Compute! which was otherwise 100% devoted to DOS (I refuse to call them PCs). To add insult to injury, these inserts were NOT included in the news stand edition of the magazine, nor the normal DOS edition. If you hadn't subscribed to one of the other editions, you'd never know they existed. At that point, I was grasping at straws. Compute! had the same ad for the game Links on the back cover for several months straight. An Amiga version was in development, and I figured that at least when it was released, Amiga would be listed in the ad. Finally it came out, and I eagerly awaited the next issue of Compute! It finally arrived, I turned it over and what did I see? A brand new ad for Links 386 Pro! And of course no mention of Amiga because that was a new DOS exclusive game. ARGH!!!

[@sulrich70]

Not sure if it was easy to see the difference between the two as there was no sync of the games between each machine. Wing commander it crawled on the a500. The other games, I couldn’t see much difference apart from the cd audio. Perhaps in future if you can sync the gameplay it will make it easier to see the differences

[@RetroGamesRediscovered]

Thanks for your comment, and yes I was in two minds about doing that but I wanted to show the load time differences between the two. I guess it was either one or the other.

[@dusanpiscevic6213]

A500 did apear in 1987 but it was compact all-in-one form factor repack from desktop Amiga 1000 from 1985! Commodore did not knew how to market revolutionary Amiga technology in 1985 since it's initial target users were professionals who presumably would pay extra money for powerful computer. Amiga 500 only found success in 1987 when Commodore copied sleek design from it's rival Atari ST, which was compact "all-in-one" form factor with RF modulator for TV plug and play thus denied the need for extra cost of monitor, and basicaly it was marketed as game console onward with bundeled games! CD32 is just repacked A1200 (from 1992) with CD-ROM, a computer touted as A500's succesor but in reality laging behind contemporary PCs and even SNES when apeared in 1992. A500 was revolutionary for the time, carved strong niche which A1200 (CD32) never did. Therefore, A500 market stayed strong into A1200's life and practicaly developers targeted almost all games for A500 market and A1200 (CD32) games were just upgraded versions of A500 titles! In fact, more A500s were sold AFTER introduction of A1200 until end of it's life cycle then up to that point!

[@Zontar82]

does the board has a b-52 song etched as well?

[@RetroGamesRediscovered]

It's shown in the video towards the end. It doesn't have a B52s song but one by another artist

[@me_fault]

it shared its name with a goth club night or two

[@rustymixer2886]

The 32 in cd32 is like the 64 in jag advertising lol

[@DavePoo2]

It had a 32bit data bus, so not quite on the same lines as the Jag. The screen DMA could be set to 32bit transfer, but the blitter remained stuck with 16bit memory transfers.

[@rustymixer2886]

@DavePoo2 ah ok, was fm town marty actually 32bit or 16 too

[@amigaouk]

Well i think cdtv was and better Built then the cd 32