The Amiga CD32 - Game Sack - Review

Episode 140 - Commodore released this peculiar system in September of 1993 and it was marketed as 32-bit. It only lasted until April of 1994. Let's take a look at the system and some of its games!
Thanks to Robert "Fight Club" Hubbs for lending us the system! Check out his site at www.gamingvisionnetwork.com
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[@manuelcisneros1174]

I came back to watch this again after that avgn video

[@markurbanowicz6619]

Kinda disappointed that he only focused on the bads then the good games. He should had played superfrog over kang fu.

[@AnthonyFlack]

@@markurbanowicz6619 - I don't think that Superfrog is a particularly good game. If people want to know about the games that are actually worth playing on the Amiga they should read some old copies of Amiga Power.

[@markurbanowicz6619]

@@AnthonyFlack well, yeah, it wasn't the best. When my bro had an Amiga, i enjoyed it. Many people did. But i was more into Jazz Jackrabbit. Those were the times, we just appreciate what we got, but i as times moved on, we can see better games in the past like Mario and Sonic. I got happy to know Turrican and Ruff n' Tumble.

[@AnthonyFlack]

@@markurbanowicz6619 - indeed, we did appreciate what we had back then. I speak as somebody who actually completed Superfrog, and played Ruff n' Tumble enough to know that it gets pretty repetitive after a while (despite looking very nice). Turrican was always a little too mazey for my tastes. But I remember well enough that Superfrog was not universally praised at the time, and Zool was actually pretty heavily panned by critics and gamers. I know that Game Sack only do consoles, but a proper understanding of the Amiga games scene really should start with the A500, and the games that were actually highly regarded in the Amiga world, like for instance Cannon Fodder, SWOS, Syndicate, Stunt Car Racer, IK+, or the Amiga port of Rainbow Islands, to pick a few random examples off the top of my head. Certainly it seems misguided to compare an Amiga-based system to the PS1, or even the SNES and Genesis. We are after all talking about a system that originally launched in North America in the same year as the NES (at least when talking about the OCS chipset that most classic Amiga games are built on).

[@markurbanowicz6619]

@@AnthonyFlack got a good point mister. I agree, those games could be repetitive. Tjey compared consoles and amiga to hard, they are different in their perspectives, comsoles had better platformers while computers had RTS and poimt and click. I just moved on when i got N64. I kinda want to try cannon fodders :). Amigas few best games most be Monkey Island.

[@JasonZakrajsek]

"It has a resolution of like... I don't know... three." "It has a frame rate of negative six." lmao I laughed way too hard

[@SARRIMAVEA]

"Flashback" was one of the best games for the CD32, it had all the cutscenes and speech of the PC-CDROM version and looked fantastic on a big TV.

[@DailyCorvid]

Stardust is and still is today my favourite top down asteroid style shooter. Super Stardust HD on PS4 currently the best version imo. Classic I love that game played it for weeks on end! Flashback was too hard ironically after being so good at Stardust... Great graphics though.

[@cax1175]

@@DailyCorvid Flashback was on everything at the time, even the CD-i

[@tomlee80]

As a true Brit gamer who owned an Amiga 500 (16 bit) computer from 1990-94, I see most of these games as being the top of their league when they were first released in their 16 bit incarnations. Team 17 were champions of the era. Superfrog sold loads of copies and that intro sequence had it's own disk for the Amiga 500 version and was believe it or not mind blowing for it's time. As were Chaos engine, Alien Breed etc. Tower Assault actually came after Alien Breed 2. Alien Breed 1 was infamously challenging. So much so they needed to release a special edition which was a bit easier. I would only take a CD32 with the box enabling to turn it into a A1200. But realistically - buy an A1200 and upgrade the ram and use it with an RGB monitor.

[@SlavomirG]

+Tom Lee I agree on the whole.

[@mspenrice]

Tom Lee One of the first discs I put in my eBay-special A600 (bought it just for the included Philips monitor, lol). Blew a good couple hours trying to get to level 3... hard as nails but totally addictive. Then I tried Apidia or whatever it was called and nearly lost my lunch on the level with the wibbly sinewave effects. Top Copper-abuse. Which weirdly there seems to be very very little of here...

[@tomlee80]

+GameBoyLegacy Amiga 1200 and 4000 were also 32bit.

[@mspenrice]

There were several 32-bit Amigas, same as there were at least a smattering of official 32-bit Ataris (and many more unofficial ones). The lower-end home computers were all 16-bit until the A1200 and CD32 came along, but there were enough more professional "pizza box" (ie desktop PC-like) ones which used higher end processors (020, 030, 040) with buses to match.

[@PeterGyorffyAchJaaa]

Replying 8 years later and all :) IMO most Team17 (and Psygnosys) games on the Amiga were absolutely overrated due to their (for the time) nice graphics. These dudes did not really care about playability or responsive controls, I had the feeling that they remained true to their demo scene roots even when they attempted to write games (I get that the classic 1 button joystick was what it was but still). This became absolutely obvious to me the first time I had the chance to play some SNES and MD games - japanese platformers and SHMUPS are my all-time favourites.

[@Shady00018]

I love these dudes!

[@viddyozebonuses945]

The CD32 had amazing potential for the time. It was let down by a Commodore that was on life support, and developers knew it. This is why you mostly saw nice-looking 16-bit ports with enhanced sound. There were some really good games, but never any that took advantage of the 32-bit processing, or storage capacity.

[@Jon867]

The CD32 was just a consolized Amiga 1200 with a CD-ROM. Yes, it was technically a 32-bit machine and the console marketing of the time weighed heavily on that sort of thing, but it was still based on a 9-year-old microprocessor and an 8-year-old sound chip. The CD32 was technically better - on paper - than its only rival at the time of launch in summer 1993, the Sega Mega CD. But the 3DO and Playstation were just around the corner and 3D games like X-Wing and Doom were being released on PC. By the start of 1994, it was clear the Amiga architecture was hopelessly out of date and Commodore, which had totally failed to keep investing in and improving the Amiga, had run out of money. A sad end.

[@TetrisMaster512]

I don't know why people think a 32-bit CPU is inherently going to massively increase the capabilities of a system. Yeah, it is beneficial to have a 32-bit CPU, especially if you're doing 32-bit math, and you can also load/store values to memory in fewer operations, but if the graphics hardware of a machine is on par with the contemporary "16-bit" consoles (technically, the Genesis has a 68000 CPU which is like a 32-/16-bit hybrid), it's mostly going to feel like a 16-bit console. An example of the exact inverse of this is the TurboGrafx-16, which has an 8-bit CPU, based on the 6502 which both the NES and C64 were based off of, the graphics hardware is what made that console competitive in its era.

[@RichardTroupe]

It's worth noting the background to this machine... Commodore were wasteful of their phenomenal technology and acquisition of Amiga in the 1980s (which produced the first pre-emptive multi-tasking multimedia computer). The release of the Amiga 1000, and consequent affordable Amiga 500, saw truly excellent 16-bit graphics, colours and sound in an age of pure 8-bit consoles. It dominated in Europe, and Commodore unfortunately rested on their laurels by simply repackaging the Amiga 500 and producing poorly marketed products. The management at Commodore USA (the over-arching business) was wasteful and tended to pocket the money for themselves (see the Mehdi Ali ownership fiasco). The Amiga CD32 was a repackaged Amiga 1200 and had RAM expansion slots for a truly phenomenal 32 bit gaming experience, however the writing was on the wall for Commodore. With poor management decisions, the company filed for bankruptcy at the same time as trying to market and release the CD32. Software houses weren't keen to develop for a system that was facing an end before it had even truly started, and as a result, lots of Amiga 500 games were just simply ported over to the Amiga CD32 without any enhancements whatsoever. It spelled the end for a truly amazing company, and the consumers never got to see what the Amiga CD32 was truly capable of as a result. It's unfair to compare it to the 3DO et al when it was completely hamstrung by bad management. On a side note, Commodore UK was still a profitable arm of the company owing to the European presence of the Amiga, and its CEO David Pleasance was keen to take over Commodore and the Amiga following its fall; he had planned to truly expand upon the gaming library and make it a competitive and cutting edge home console, however he was trumped in an eventual takeover by the German company Escom who ended up going bust themselves shortly afterwards. It makes you wonder what Commodore could have truly done if they weren't so wasteful, and if Commodore UK had managed to takeover the running of the company. A total shame.

[@thepoliticalstartrek]

It never made it to US due to not paying Royalties on a previous product. The courts blocked it's importing.

[@beezle1976]

It's perfectly fair and reasonable to compare it to 3do, etc. The mismanagement of commodore doesn't change what the machine is/was. It's unfortunate sure, but that doesn't stop it being, technologically, somewhere between the megadrive/snes and the 3do and jaguar.

[@sprocket-YT]

The irony is the 3DO has Amiga DNA from Dave Needle and R. J. Mical

[@willeysingleton3057]

They should of Kept old Jack Tramiel , i know he failed at Atari but Commodore was his baby, i think once they lost him it was curtains for the C Rainbow C=

[@sprocket-YT]

@@willeysingleton3057 by all accounts he was nuts but then 100% of the USA management was! the only UK guys knew what they were doing!

[@typicaledc]

I love my CD32, it took me forever to find a NTSC version but it was worth it. Unlike most people I really love this console and have a blast playing it.

[@mr.horseshoe2301]

Just wanted to comment on how well-produced this show is. You guys deserve way more recognition for your work!

[@EyezOnMe]

I've never really noticed until now, just how bad ass those stop motion sequences actually are that show the consoles being stripped down. How much work actually goes into those particular parts? However long they take, it's definitely worth it! Keep up the good work guys!

[@SwiftyZeAvenger]

Man, I love that you guys do this weekly now -- you've been my favourite gaming-related KZbinrs for awhile.

[@AmigaCammy]

The CD32 was my first home console and also my first Amiga! I have most of the games that came out and there are a few more that are better than the games shown here, but nothing really ever pushed the system to its limits or showed its potential. I eventually installed the SX32 expansion with 8MB extra RAM (that's four times more than the system comes with) and an internal hard drive, so it was a full computer system that I could even go online with, browse the web and download more games. I can even run Doom on it now, and it's smoother than the crappy native FPS games that were released for the system! It was a very solid machine with so much unrealised potential, and I'd love to help develop some new homebrew games for the system since it's the easiest console in the world to develop for with so many programming languages and game making tools available on the Amiga and the console reads CD-Rs.

[@spavatch]

Why none of the reviewers ever mention that? You know that, I know that as I had mine expanded with the ProModule add-on, but most of over 300k viewers will never know and will develop an biased opinion based on playing a mixed bag of games.

[@ReviewUSA-ri5dv]

@@spavatch ...And it still has 4 channels of audio.

[@spavatch]

@@ReviewUSA-ri5dv and still does better than your beloved NES with its 5 channels of plinky plonky shit ;)

[@meWASHER]

spavatch I think the point of this video was to show off a system a chunk of the world barely knows exists, with what games they had available to them. I wouldn’t put it past Joe to be aware of how upgradable this thing is, but he lives in a country where it was never released. I think this video was pretty fair, especially when you compare it to just about anything similar in KZbin.

[@spavatch]

@@meWASHER It's true to some degree, these guys did a much much better job than AVGN. However, if you want to make a truly fair introduction to people who didn't know it before I think you should take the trouble of preparing all the stuff needed including importing some more software from Europe, and only then present all its features as well as flaws. Otherwise it would end up being a bit like this: muscle cars were never imported to Europe so I review one of them, ida know, a base model Dodge Charger for instance. I mention its huge 3,7 liter 150 hp engine and complain how low powered and thirsty it was for its cubic capacity compared to European cars of similar class (we pushed that kind of power from 2 liter four bangers back then and still managed to offer twice the mpg), how unrefined the suspension was, making it unusable on twisting roads, how impractical it was with its huge body not fitting any parking space and how it rusted just after leaving the showroom while totally glancing over its imposing looks, stunning sound and the ability to order it with much more powerful engines that made it drive and sound even better, and ducking the issue of its context, the circumstances it was conceived in, the overall difference between the two worlds these cars come from - wide roads, vast distances versus ultra-narrow streets of medieval Italian cities. Doesn't give you the whole picture, does it? Now that's some piece of shit, the viewers would think. Nobody would throw a second glance at muscle cars after such introduction. And predictably the muscle car fans in the US would be furious after such unfair presentation ;)

[@Phoenix2312]

+Game Sack Just a quick note, Alien Breed Tower Assault was actually the THIRD instalment of the franchise, There was Bog Standard "Alien Breed" before that on the Amiga - Which was a simple top down Run and Gun without the "traveling to bases and shooting rats" bonanza. Back in its day (Hell, even now!) Alien Breed stood its ground and has seen successful re-releases in its old format and has even since had a serious upgrade to a Full 3D... I have played teh new one and its cool... But the nostalgic in me still prefers the original.

[@Phoenix2312]

And you hit on the BIGGEST problem with all the 32 Bit Systems... All that extra power and no one really knew what to do with it... AMIGA in my view did the worst (Atari tried too but its not even worth mentioning as the Computer was so Expensive and unpopular that NO developers I know of actually bothered releasing any games for it... It became a poor selling Business PC). AMIGA Failed very badly as almost all these games were just 16 Bit conversions... But the European Platformers? Guys!!! Yes many were rushed but lets be honest, We had some GREAT European Platformers... In fact, I think its time you guys tried to have a look back at the Home Computer Era and review among others NEBULUS across the multiple platforms... A European Platformer that Totally CHANGED THE GAME!

[@jodijohnson3488]

Warren Marris Beat me to it! (A1200 owner here)

[@Phoenix2312]

Jodi Johnson You are lucky! LOL! I got the Atari 520ST... It was a damn fine computer, but everything went to Amiga first and the ports to Atari were always sub standard - Case in point - James Pond 2: ROBOCOD... Great game, and more or less perfect between ST and AMIGA but the ST Version had all the backgrounds cut out! WHY???

[@tonycrew2012]

Warren Marris And Donkey Kong Country by Rare was a British Company..

[@Phoenix2312]

Antony Reynolds Well spotted! When Game Sack talk about Rare, its one of the few times they do compliment EU developers.. LOL! But they miss so many... Mainly as the biggest hits they had were on Home Computer and NOT CONSOLE! +Game Sack You got to branch out guys... OK! You may have to go the Emulator route but we can forgive that... Where are the Home Computer Reviews???

[@trevorbozeman]

Dave’s surprised face in the skits cracks me up every time.

[@paranoidgenius9164]

Did you know? Jk Rowling had an Amiga 1200 computer, mainly for word processing, she loved playing Simon the Sorcerer. Which inspired her Harry Potter books😊

[@etr6629]

Bubble and Squeak is awesome...what you're "missing" is that you can kick the blue dude when he's in "wait" mode, and he rolls around like a ball...notice the ramps on the right side of that tall platform you couldn't get him up on....kick him toward them and he will do a 180 and get up on it.

[@KlyeKlyeKlye]

Something that I really enjoy about Game Sack is the stop motion visuals and disassembly, such a small detail but it adds so much charm to the videos! And of course every Game Sack episode ever is pure perfection, I never even knew this console existed! Plus that controller looks like a real shit sucker! Amazing video guys!

[@SkylerB]

Perfect timing! thanks for working on these videos! =D

[@GOKUNYC1]

Great video, Thank you guys, being able to watch this every week revives in me the memory of saturday mornings. Every sunday I wake up, get myself a big bowl of ceral and watch Game Sack.

[@pontiumGR]

Thank you guys,you made my wish and request for a CD32 review come true.Keep up the good work,you rock!!

[@Born2Rune]

Thanks Gamesack for making my childhood/early teens look like it was utter rubbish in a great video. I wanted one of these back in the day over my A500+. As many stated below, all it had was the most popular A500/1200 games ported over, so it didnt get a chance to shine. A lot of devs out of Europe would not touch the Amiga, more than likely due to its rampant piracy, so we missed out on a lot of good console games. They always gave the excuse of "limitations of the system". We got our own games, we thought they was good...maybe we just didn't know any better. And Joe, you missed the opportunity to play Yo Joe.

[@JoshuaJacobs83]

I like these old videos because it reminds me that you used to be a duo show. Joe is doing amazing but I do wonder how Dave is these days. I hope he is doing well. Thanks for keeping the Sack alive though Joe.

[@joeymaster1]

Game Sack going weekly is a beautiful thing. You guys are the best! Keep up the awesome work!

[@Ziiro406]

Yes! I love getting off work and seeing a new video in my subbox.

[@DarenPage]

Just a few things to point out: The CD32 was essentialy a console A1200 with a CD drive built in, so a lot of the games you played on it were 16bit re-hashes. A handful were actually new to the 32bit generation, but the CD32 had something the A1200 didn't have: Chunky to planar, which was used for a lot of advanced 3D games on it, which I really don't think you played any of the games that actually utilized it. So you ended up playing a lot of random Amiga titles with a crappy controller. I can kinda understand the bias comments, but play the games in this review on an A500 or A1200 and your opinions may change slightly. Audio was run though 4 channels, and the stereo audio from the CD would occupy two of them, so it was a balance of music and little SFX or lots of good SFX and no music. This is why audio would only come from one channel as the audio constraints were so very tight.

[@fightclubhubbs]

+Daren Page besides guardian, there are no other 3d games that took advantage of the chunky to planar. the only other 3d games were horrible fps games that could barely function let alone run on the system.

[@fightclubhubbs]

+GameBoyLegacy if you set the resolution really low and made the screen size small then it would run smoothly but if you want to see anything the game would run choppy as hell.

[@kenseigerj2659]

Firstly I'm glad game sack is weekly now.

[@nuness1988]

My favorite type of Game Sack episode! Thanks for your great content as always! I love that the show is weekly too.

[@painter194]

I love weekly episodes! I look forward to it every Sunday. Please keep up the great work.

[@Candle_Calmness]

Pliskin194 oh wait i thumbs you up twice on two different comments XD

[@MrZarewna]

Man, I remember playing Superfrog on my dad's computer. I was 4-5 around that time. It was a game that blew my mind away.

[@remisclassiccomputers341]

A 32 bit system means there is a 32 bit data-bus-mainboard architecture. CPU (M68020EC) + co-processors, RAM etc. It doesn't mean 32 bit colors. This system got a 24 bit color palette by the way (16,8 million colors), which is the maximum even in modern systems (if you select 32 bit on a modern PC; 8 bit is used for alpha masks/transparency, not colors).. CD32 is capable of maximum "8 -bit" 256 colors on screen at once, or 256 000 colors in a special mode (HAM-8). If the controller feels bad, you can use a normal Atari interface joystick (Amiga, C64, Atari ST etc.) on it as well.

[@bboyjive2003]

this was a really fun episode. obscure or lesser known consoles are always fun to look at. thanks guys!

[@Menleah]

Well done guys - just nice production and delivery all around - look forward to more vids!

[@robotwo]

Ohgod. The "Now this is more like it" ending sketches is my favorite :')

[@tonygilbert5256]

In all my years of watching Game Sack, this was the only console review without a game I would want to play.

[@cnk9822]

¿Not even with the Philips CD-I?

[@aceproductions5734]

you wouldnt even wanna try out the arabian nights game? it looks pretty fun tbh

[@ajsingh4545]

They should cover Amiga 500 because it has lot of good games.

[@LordArikado]

@@ajsingh4545 Only problem with that is that the best Amiga games were only released in Europe. It didn't really catch on in the US outside of its video and music production utility. Blame IBM and their stranglehold on the US market with the PC and IBM-compatible clones.

[@warlockentertainment1192]

Disposable Hero is a masterpiece and its clear that you have not understood how to play, the large glass domes are shops where you can buy additional weapons

[@gozinta82]

Great Episode, Game Sack! Thanks for making it extra lengthy. Never knew much about this console, just remember seeing ads for it in old EGM and Gamepro magazines back in the day. Interesting to see how big the span of cd technology has advanced from that to something like the psx.

[@andyw1023]

Congrats for the show! I wanna share some games that I like, and Game Sack didn’t cover them yet. Maybe in the future…Here we go: Genesis: Chiki chiki boys, Rainbow islands extra, Sonic 3D blast, The Lion King, The Hyperstone heist, Tiny Toon ACME all stars & Buster’s hidden treasure, Wani Wani World(please check it out this great crocodile game made in Japan…2 players mode). SNES: Marvel war of the gems, Maui Mallard in cold shadow, Tiny Toon Buster busts loose & wild wacky sports, Top Gear 2 & 3000, X-men mutant apocalypse. Neo Geo: Aero fighters 2 & 3. GBC: Zelda oracle of Seasons/Ages. Long live weekly Game Sack! Cheers:)

[@graemebuchan9997]

Love Dave's skit reactions. Comedy gold.

[@looshkin66]

you guys upped the production value a lot with this vid!!!! nice!

[@GamerGuy131000]

That ending skit was hilarious. Great video by the way. Keep up the amazing job guys :)

[@WatchMeDieOFFICIAL]

Bubble and Squeak: You were meant to have Bubble kick Squeak towards the curved things, he will roll up them.

[@tetrisdave]

Watch Me Die Thanks! I didn't know you could kick him and I felt like I tried everything.

[@TG5455]

Game Sack Dave 3:46-4:05 It's Resident Evil 5 all over again. LOL

[@Wykesidefruitmachine]

Game Sack Dave Joe/Dave, British fan here. This episode has made me think, you guys would be an awesome collaboration with British KZbinr Guru Larry Bundy Jr. Your styles would compliment each-other's perfectly, and he really knows his stuff when it comes to obscure retro games: /watch?v=S5uC0ymZK3s

[@mspenrice]

Game Sack Dave Guys... have you tried GameFAQs? :D (Can't guarantee that it'll be any help, but always worth a look)

[@pferreira1983]

+Game Sack Dave Don't mean to be rude but if you played the game for more than five minutes you could figure that one out. I'm terrible at playing games I figured that out quickly.

[@PassiveSmoking]

Simon the sorcerer was voiced by Chris Barrie, by the way. Aka rimmer from red dwarf.

[@matthewhauxwell9716]

He was also in the tomb raider movies.

[@chrisleydajr1005]

Wow, you guys really stepped up your game! The production level on this video is great. Really enjoyed the stop motion animation.

[@DannyBoy32289]

Love the show! Good job on this episode, as always! (Thumbs up!)

[@pinmike8666]

I have no experience with the Amiga, but I think the ability to make it into an actual Amiga is pretty cool; kinda like the Atari 7800 being compatible with Atari 2600 games. Despite not having much experience with the platform, I would say the best games, IMO, are the following: Slam Tilt - Awesome pinball game with awesome presentation and my favorite of the 21st Century Entertainment games! Ruff N Tumble - Action-Platformer that could possibly make an Amiga believer out of inexperienced gamers. Virocop - Considered to be the best top-down action game on the Amiga. Wiz N Liz - Fast-paced collectathon platformer with impressive graphics and nice difficulty. Turrican series - Yes, it has the dreaded "Up-to-Jump" but I can't deny the awesome music and incredible graphics of the first two entries. Lemmings - An Amiga essential that ended up being one of the only Amiga games to get ported on every platform. Even featured on the Japanese show Game Center CX.

[@pinmike8666]

Delphine Studios games - Ditto. IMO, even though the Amiga will most likely never grab gamers who lived outside of PAL regions, it's still a legend of a computer series that helped kickstart interest in home gaming for PAL regions.

[@AmigaCammy]

PinMike It's a shame most of those games weren't even released on the CD32, although it's easy to burn the Amiga versions to a CD-R to play on one.

[@AmigaWolf]

+PinMike8666 You forgot Worms, was first also a Amiga only game, and has been now on almost all computers and game consoles.

[@AnthonyFlack]

Plus: Cannon Fodder. Mega Lo Mania. Syndicate. Stunt Car Racer. IK+. Speedball 2. And, a bit of a left-field choice and a simple freeware game, but still the best Breakout-style game ever... Poing.

[@RK-zf1jm]

The Zool level shown off with all the sweets was because it was heavily tied to Chubba Chubba which was a sweet brand here in the UK and they backed the game as a promo item.

[@Hellwyck]

*Chupa Chups.

[@JaredConnell]

The candy is called chupa chups, they are from Spain but they sell them around the world

[@Chn0rpel]

hey guys i love your videos and your editing is almost perfect. every video makes me happy :)

[@MrEandc4life]

I have learned so much from your channel! I love these console crunchs

[@Kim_Justice]

Yes, been waiting for this! The CD32...yeeah. As a bunch of comments have mentioned, it was basically a slightly souped up A1200. Much like the A1200 and its AGA chipset, the true potential of it was never fully realized - Commodore went out of business too soon after thanks to their catastrophic mismanagement (this console is basically their last throw of the dice - they were bankrupt a few months later, and the Amiga started its magical tour around various European computer companies). It is unquestionably a bad system, although it is a way to potentially play more Amiga games on a console w/ WHDLoad and the like, although an A1200 would probably be better - and yeah, you can't even really call a lot of these games ports, they're exactly the same as they were on the Amiga. Even Banshee, the best game in this episode that never made it out of the Amiga, uses absolutely nothing that the CD32 had - you can play the exact same game on the A1200 (and everyone should - fantastic game. It'd be damn near flawless if it had music) The only game I can think of that you "missed" as such was Dangerous Streets, which served as a pack-in title for the system at a point. It's also quite possibly the worst pack-in title for any console ever, so it's not like you've missed a classic. Like, it's MUCH worse than the fighting game you featured here...would have been fun to see! Amiga Power gave the game a grand total of 3% (still, they did have someone else give a 2nd, more balanced opinion on the game. They gave it 7%). Commodore using titles like this to show off the system's capability?...yeah, no wonder it was such a failure. A few commenters will probably say that you weren't right about Superfrog, but you were. It, Zool and James Pond 2 are filled with advertising for Lucozade energy drinks, Chupa Chups lollipops and Penguin chocolate bars respectively, which is kind of amusing (Zool in particular is front-loaded with this advertising, hence why virtually all the screenshots of the game are of that 1st level). James Pond 2 is really good, the others not so much. Can't wait for you guys to cover the CDTV! The same thing, only with A500 games and even more irrelevant!

[@dodoubledragon]

Kimble Justice Please can you do an episode on the Amiga32 & your thoughts!!!

[@redpillcounselling227]

Kimble Justice Yes I agree with you that an A1200 with WHDLoad probably is the way to go, an option that becomes nicer still if you get a CD drive for it so you can still play the CD32 games anyway.

[@Artsificial]

Kimble Justice When Commodore started to noticeably pack up and go the way of the Dodo, we were still developing our own tools to then either sell to local TV stations or do pretty much all their AV work with. I continued to use a souped up Workbench for most of my pastime, then work, before I eventually started emulating MacOS on my main work Amiga, which opened up a whole other world on the same hardware. It was a pretty magical time.

[@Kim_Justice]

Artsificial I hear you. I think it wasn't until about 1998 when I finally switched from my Amiga once I realised that pretty much nothing else was going to come out for it. Such a great system. And chances are there's still probably the odd little station out there using a Miggy for their vision mixing and the like.

[@Kim_Justice]

***** Ah, the CD1200. Commodore learned well from their mistake by releasing a CD drive for the A500 (thus rendering the CDTV obsolete), and were all set to repeat it exactly, if only they hadn't totally run out of money. Third party CD drives eventually came out for the A1200/A4000, but I don't know if they were capable of playing CD32 games. The CD1200 was going to have the CD32's Akiko chip, after all.

[@Lordkazekage1987]

actually there were planned to release the system in the us. but because amiga did not pay a patent royalty to cad track for a piece of tech they created so a federal judge blocked the sale of the system till the royalty was paid. the never paid the patent so as a result it was never officially released as a result.

[@BarbieOnWeed]

Great episode!. Please, don't stop making a episode every week. :)

[@DiGiTyDarKMaN]

Another great episode. You guys rock. Always look forward to these.

[@JimLeonard]

very happy to see this console get some coverage, but I felt like you left out a great deal more games that are better than the ones you reviewed. Your sketches at the end are getting better. I laughed out loud, twice!

[@RetroCore]

Being a British you'd expect me to enjoy the games on the Cd32 but in reality euro computer games do not appeal to me at all. Japanese all the way in the 8bit,16 bit and 32 bit days.

[@TheDumontShow]

yeah i always noticed that when you do Battle of the Ports. you never really give the euro ports of certain games high praise. if you do, it's mostly something for the Commodore 64 as you can tell, i am a huge fan of your content. especially Battle of the Ports. Always been impressed you have put one out every week for the last three years.

[@chano7053]

You need to play the original games to get the full vibe of the euro computers. The ports are 95% pure crap. European computers have been the ideal platform for dozens of wonderful point and click adventures. if you wanted the action you'd go for the Japanese consoles, if you wanted depth and brain work you'd go for the European computers. Well, you could find your share of action in European computers too, but the Japanese consoles were generally much better at it.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

Yup

[@AnthonyFlack]

I think what many American reviewers fail to understand about the European scene is that it was based around COMPUTERS, not consoles, and many of the games were written by independent small companies or, in many cases, bedroom coders. It was much closer to the indie games scene of today than the big American and Japanese console publishers. Anybody could write their own games and many people did. A lot of people who went on to have major careers in the games industry got their start in the European computer games scene. It's certainly nothing to be sniffed at.

[@ZANTYACS]

i love when you guys make me discover stuff i didnt even know existed!! keep it up :-)

[@jennyholiday88]

i love how european video games looked so vibrant but also dim. it's a sort of dulled smoothness that has such a neat aesthetic that seems largely unique to this area of world at this time in the late 80s early 90s

[@MrFixer1983]

Nice,video guys. To bad that the CD32 is a mixed bag. Most of the games are ports from the A500 (ocs), and some from the A1200 (aga). It is really a shame that they never port Turrican 2 to the CD32.

[@FerrariKangaroo]

MrFixer1983 If you do a Google search for *"Unofficial CD32 Ports"* you'll get a blog that has a massive list of high quality custom Amiga game compilations for the CD32. One of those listed is a *Turrican compilation*. It's one of the best ways to play the Turrican titles on real Amiga hardware. These compilations also come complete with nice load screens, video intros, custom control mapping (no more up for jump) and HQ game covers too. The Amiga CD32 might have been a commercial failure but it ended up being a nice parting gift to the Amiga fan thanks to the contributions by the hardcore Amiga community :) Edit: These also work great through emulation via WinUAE.

[@FerrariKangaroo]

Turrican4D Psh. What do you know Turric... Oh. Jokes aside, as a child of the 80s and a huge Turrican fan, I respectfully disagree with your opinion. There's a very good reason why no popular platformers in the last 20 years have used 'up' for jump and it has nothing to do with level design.

[@MrFixer1983]

Yes but those are the OCS versions,there are no special AGA versions made of those Turrcian games.

[@spavatch]

@@FerrariKangaroo - there's also a very good reason for Amiga games using up as jump - there's no jump button on a standard joystick ;)

[@ReviewUSA-ri5dv]

@@spavatch Just shows how the Euro scene was light-years behind everyone else. No jump button? LOL

[@adambrown1837]

Loved your ending skit.

[@boromir0062]

Man it's to bad that Dave never does episodes anymore. Seems like he could be a guest once and a while

[@MannyCakes1984]

Agreed.

[@gamesackfan9893]

a 37 minute new episode in the span of a week?? my diminutive human brain cannot handle so much gamesackness! thanks! :D by the way, I love these ending skits you do at the end of your console-focused episodes, where Dave plays the hip, smart "Dude" ridiculing the poor clueless Joe! especially the CDi one! console manufacturers should have (and would have) hired you back in the day, had youtube existed back then! :D

[@Obesepope]

The rounded parts mean you have to kick squeak. Kick him and he rolls around the edges like sonic

[@NanaKyoto]

Before I watch even a second of your videos, I just mash that like button, as it's always a good show.

[@MrSloaneRanger]

Another great episode, guys! You missed pointing out the fact that Pinball Illusions was made by Digital Illusions...better known today as DICE (Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment). Thought it was worth pointing out!

[@JamesSkemp]

That closing bit was laugh out loud funny, especially the speed talking at the end. Nicely done.

[@Buster_Flex]

In fact most games for Amiga CD32 were just ports of A500 Games..like arabian nights is exactely the same game on my old A500..same grafx and same music

[@Fred_PJ]

Pirates! Gold on the CD32 was pretty sweet though. It's similar to the Sega Genesis version but with superior sound and music.

[@Malrynn]

Oh, gotta tell you, you really have stepped up in terms of editing skills since I first started watching. Looks real professional.

[@eakintunde84]

Another great episode guys! I laughed and learned about the Amiga 32 while chowing down on some pizza. It's great to see you guys going weekly. Thanks for all the hard work you put into each episodes. Cheers guys!

[@TechniqueSan]

Want one so bad! I have a 3DO and a CDi, but this one seems to be the rarest of the 3.

[@heniekgoab8746]

32 bit only from the name. The same as Atari Jaguar was 64 bit. Milking marketing, Commodore without spending money on technological development, which stopped in 1985, thought the world was standing still. Consoles equipped with the cheapest possible 32 bit processor, which had to be backwards compatible and it was Motorola 68020EC clocked only 14MHz from 1984. For 3D games you need at least 68030 / 25MHz processor and additional memory with full 32-bit access, the memory used in the cd-32 is only 2MB shared with other components, even 14Mhz processor could not reach full speed because he had to wait until he had access to it. The Amiga 1200 had the same problem and it was enough to add only 1MB of memory only for the CPU to get a rate increase of 80-90%. Another thing needed for fast 3D graphics was the chunky pixel mode, the graphics processor would continue to write graphics in the form of bitplanes, which further slowed down all operations, mounted a special converter but its performance was tragic and not much improved. So cd-32 is more or less 1988/89 technology with cd-rom. 1993 way to late no wonder it was relised only in Europe/Canada and Brazil I belive.

[@spavatch]

On the other hand CDTV was just that, 88/89 technology with a CD-ROM, and it was way too early for anyone to understand it even in 1991. Is it a computer? Is it a video game system? Is it a fancy CD player? No-one could really tell. Coming back to CD32, the hardware wasn't too powerful for the time I admit, but on the other hand no other console was as upgradeable. The guys mentioned the back slot for FMV module but it also acted as a slot for turbo boards up to 030/50 MHz and 64 MB of 'Fast' RAM and some games, Gunship 2000 for instance, IIRC, actually made use of extra memory and 68882 math coprocessor I had in mine. With those expansions it absolutely flew (Gunship 2000 pun not intended). It had a hard disk with AmigaOS installed and from that it's just a step away of going to teh internetz and chatting on gg via 28.8k modem attached to the parallel port. I know that probably tripled the price and was more of an exercise rather than something I'd want to use daily for a prolonged period of time (I had an A4000 for that), but it was possible and I doubt a Sega CD or SNES could match that ;)

[@ReviewUSA-ri5dv]

@@spavatch Which is why today the CDTV is renowned worldwide for its fantastic library of games compared to the SNES and Sega CD LOL

[@FastTquick]

Here's a fun fact: The Amiga CD32 was NOT the first CD-based 32-bit system. It was actually the Fujitsu FM Towns Marty released only in Japan. That system isn't as well known, but it is notable for having the best port of Splatterhouse on the market.

[@viddyozebonuses945]

Not exactly. The FM Towns Marty had a 32-bit processor, but a 16-bit bus. The CD-32 was a full 32-bit system

[@DokesConspiracyNetwork]

gamesack you helped me find Out for Lunch on this. One of the last games ive been trying to figure out what it was from my childhood.

[@Norrbottning]

Now I got something to eat breakfast to. Thanks guys

[@dirtface5923]

The screaming noise from gloom came from Aliens when the Alien jumps on Dietrichs back.

[@mkmot530]

its when the queen tears the android in half

[@protocetid]

glad we get a video every week now

[@RichardTroupe]

Excellent! I was always wondering when you would cover this system!

[@stufaman]

After the game crash of 1983. The UK and the EU region sustained itself with our own computers and video games. The crash really wasn't that bad for us. We had Commodore with C16, 64 and eventually Amiga. We had Spectrum, our own developers. We were doing alright. The NES didn't really make much of an impact here at first. It was actually the Master System that re-introduced the console here. But things really swung back to the consoles with Sonic on the Megadrive. Then Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. The Amiga really was struggling at this time. Commodore clearly didn't understand the then modern gamer. They simply turned their computers into consoles, thinking that would win the players back.

[@AtariBorn]

Yeah. A bad habit of thinking "We already have a ton of last generation games that we could port over". I never understood that.

[@Wykesidefruitmachine]

The ZX Spectrum 128k was my first system. I bloody loved it.

[@mspenrice]

Turrican4D Similar with the ST, but the rot set in a bit sooner as it didn't have quite as much power. Software houses started dropping it around 92 and by 94 there were hardly any left. Amiga managed 1 or 2 extra years but even at the time the CD32 came out they were definitely struggling and trying to whitewash the wall that the writing was on... both companies tried to do too many things in too many areas without enough money and ended up making multiple pieces of trash that wouldn't sell instead of one standout system that recaptured the public's attention.

[@stufaman]

Turrican4D Amiga had a very good run at that time. I remember hoarding most of those games myself. But it also began to lose it's appeal as 'top dog' around that time. I think thanks in part to games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Street Fighter 2. When Amiga was playing on it's strengths, it was awesome. But when it tried to be like the 16 bit consoles, that's when it went sour. I mean, Amiga could run video footage, it's digitised sound was much better than the consoles and it's 3D games like StarGlider 2 were way out of the console's league. Wykesidefruitmachine Spectrum had it's own comfortable spot. A legendary machine. Have you seen that new console version of it? mspenrice Alas the poor ST. Do you remember the banter ST and Amiga users used to have? Strangely I remember both companies having a laugh about it.

[@mspenrice]

stufaman Yeah, it was a fairly friendly rivalry really. Both had their own strengths. In fact when it came to the 3D games, the Atari had the slight edge (stronger CPU / bus) even though it was rather outclassed for traditional 2D titles. Thanks to eBay, I now have both and the best quick summary I could give is that the Amiga is more impressive in terms of what it can do but the ST seems to be more thoughtfully and usefully engineered in general, which is odd given their development histories...

[@KaskelotenZebbe]

Great episode! I have a CD32. I like it, but it has its flaws. A good thing is you can play with a Genesis controller, which is SO much better, but it only fits games which uses 1 or 2 buttons. Simon the Sorcerer is the best game IMO. You can burn a compilation disc of hundreds of Amiga 500 games, that's neat!

[@AmigaCammy]

Zebbe Nice hat!

[@Bunnellius]

Neat. I really enjoy your profiles of these lesser-owned systems.

[@darrnellnott07]

Love this channel! Glad to see you guys are back to weekly and extremely pleased no sacrificed quality and length....of video times. Nothing else. Please keep up the great work!!! I do have one silly question: are you guys going to be able to do system videos for the 8/16 bit Nintendo consoles? I'm still kinda confused on the whole Nintendo approved product list and stuff. Thank you very much Joe, Dave, and Jen!! (amongst others I'd imagine)

[@Nekkx]

You can upgrade your weapons in Disposable Hero. The little spinning things you can pick up are basically blueprints for new weapons and ship upgrades. It will take a bit of time for them to be developed, though, but that happens just as you play. You have to land (read: touch) the stations with the green bubble on top. That will take you to the upgrade screen. While it's true that Disposable Hero is sometimes really hard, I don't think it's fair to dismiss it as "disposable". It has a good amount of weapons and possible combinations - later in the game you even get another ship that you can select. :) There's a lot of variety in levels. The second one will take you to an alien-like organic place (best description ever) and another level will even take you underwater. :D

[@juiceala]

Anyone noticed in the Arabian Night game the sound effects come from one speaker and the music comes from the other?

[@GameSack]

juice hedgehog The large majority of games on the system are this way. The only ones that aren't are the ones with CD-based soundtracks.

[@petestowne]

+Game Sack thats the way the amiga sound chipset worked, sounds were panned to left or right to create stereo imaging. Very noticable when using headphones.

[@GameSack]

petestowne Yep. I always hated it. Flawed design.

[@petestowne]

+Game Sack not that its an excuse, but the sound hardware dates back to the original amiga from 1985. Anyway, loved the video as always. I think you clearly showed that some games stand the test of time, and some dont.. I also dont need to get a cd32 now :)

[@enigma776]

petestowne The Amiga 1200 had the most advanced audio chip at the time, it was capable of so much even today it is still used in the music industry.

[@brydon10]

That end bit was too funny. Great one guys

[@SuperHns]

I got nothing but love for Commodore, because of growing up with a C64 and C128 in the 80 and 90s

[@JanuszKrysztofiak]

CD32 = milking to death aging Amiga hardware.

[@pferreira1983]

It was aging at the time, remember the tech was based off the Amiga 1200.

[@RayTheVideoGuy]

Thats completely incorrect. The CD32 was based one the 1200 and AGA hardware, which was from less than a year earlier. Now much of the ported software was 16-bit leftovers, but not the hardware

[@shifty2755]

Like nintendo.

[@iestynthomas2065]

I had an amiga cd32 back in the day and i can assure you it was a steaming pile of dog poo, though not as bad as the cdtv that they released. The reason commodore never released it in america was because a judge placed a restriction order on them untill they paid off they're bad debts, and of course they folded before they could. Best game on it was banshee which is in the review and a shareware galaga clone where you picked up coins and letters dropped by the baddies. American's may not realise, but commodore were huge in europe back in the 80's and 90's especially in the uk and germany. However this was the straw that broke the camel's back, one thing commodore shared with sega (sorry joe) was a ridiculously bad management running the show

[@ajsingh4545]

It was my 💩

[@Jsnow552]

Great to see an amiga review! Nice one guys :) I had an Amiga 500 back in the day. At least half (if not more) of the games you showed were available on the amiga 500, which used a 7mhz processor. I'm surprised the CD32 used so many of the same games as it had a double speed processor and 2-4x the RAM. Maybe they did it to give it a decent games library at launch? Also, you can use the good ol Sega Megadrive controller on the amiga if you hate their supplied one. Muuuuch better. Loved hearing some of that amiga music again. Nothing sounded quite like it!

[@belacyelirvid]

Wow! Flawless Victory! Your episodes are always top-notch, but certain ones have a certain quality that makes them better than the rest. This last video had that certain value. Certain.

[@fireaza]

Wow, I've genuinely never heard of this console!

[@Bubba__Sawyer]

You missed nothing. The early 32 bit machines were massive flops with hardly any good games.

[@SpockIOM]

The system had a few games I really liked. If you can get hold of Diggers, Sensible Soccer, Lost Vikings and the Ultimate Dizzy Collection they're worth a look. Mostly ports of Amiga games, but the CD32 was always meant to be a part of a larger system, which a lot of people don't realise. Definitely play through Simon the Sorcerer though, on whatever platform you can find it on. It's sequel is very good too, but I'm not sure if it made it to CD32.

[@GazzJ82]

SpockIOM Nope Simon2 never made it to the CD32, it arrived on standard amiga many years after the PC version. There is also Simon 3d which while funny, looks and controls awful. Simon 4 and 5 are not made by Adventuresoft but do go back to the original point and click style.

[@harley1605kmk]

You guys never disapoint me with knowledge of gaming systems.

[@royalguard56]

Greetings and salutations once again, GameSack friends! I am overcome with joy at the rapid deployment of fun and informative videos as of late, although each new video does in fact result in yet another soiled adult diaper on my end. My replenishment of said diapers had become accustomed to your two week schedule, so with this surprise upload I have run my allotment dry ahead of schedule...however I can't think of a better reason to ruin my coworkers' day tomorrow with the unpleasant stench of rotting bodily filth than another one of your award-winning internet KZbin programs! Keep up the grand work, in the name of friendship!

[@Disthron]

So, you keep mentioning that all these games look like they belong on a 16bit system. I think that's because the hardware of the system was pretty old when it came out. The computer it was based on came out in 1987 and with a 7 MHz CPU was actually *slower* than the Genesis CPU. The systems known for 32 bit games had processors running at 20 -> 30 MHz. Waaaay faster than this machine.

[@valenrn8657]

Amiga 500's CPU 7Mhz clock speed is based on custom chipset's 28 Mhz clock speed crystal. Higher clocked CPU is nearly pointless with stock A500/A1200/CD32's shared memory bus architecture. Amiga 1200/CD32 should have 32bit bus 1.5MB RAM for IGP while 32bit bus 512 KB for CPU. Amiga 1200/CD32's 14Mhz CPU is based is based on custom chipset's 28 Mhz clock speed crystal. Intel 386DX CPU would have 32bit memory bus itself while SVGA has it's own VRAM bus.

[@videogamegenius]

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAAA 36:05 Hit him with the Sega CD Box LMAO

[@CptKennyLoggins]

The Amiga CD32 and Phillips CD-i are the only two systems I've sold from my collection and don't miss...and R-Zoooooonnnee!!!

[@chrismills8251]

Great video and you guys killed the outro on this one.

[@Strikedarkness]

INVENT ME THE MICROWAVE OVEN SO I CAN ENJOY MY HOTPOCKETS AND PIZZA ROLLS!!!

[@preston9668]

Gamesack is awesome

[@RayTheVideoGuy]

The hieroglyphs on the buttons matched the controls of a CD player at the time, so when you played Audio CDs, you could press the corresponding button for shuffle, etc.

[@RayTheVideoGuy]

That made sense in 1992 :)

[@KrealTube]

Love chilling with my Sack out on a Sunday morning.