Robert.Rhodes@f420.n110.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Robert Rhodes) (08/24/90)
AREA:UUCP_HRDWR
Part 1 of a 2 part post!
Brought to you by Kris Wood
Called the "Baby" by those who designed it, Commodore's new
interactive
CD-ROM unit has been officially labelled"CDTV", which stands for
Commodore
Dynamic Total Vision. The unit itself looks, very deliberately, like a
stereo
component; it has a remote control and is just as easy to operate. By
giving
it this look, Commodore hopes to bring Amiga computing to those who are
intimidated by computers in general. CDTV is actually an Amiga in modular
form; a separately available infrared keyboard, mouse, disk drive, and
other
peripherals can be plugged in to make it a full-blown Amiga.
The unit comes with 1Mb of chip RAM, along with a non-volatile 64K
RAM
card that fits into a slot on the front of the machine, which will
permit
games and other data to be saved. The machine has two internal slots,
one
for video (genlocks, etc.) and one DMA (for SCSI, networking, and the
like).
The back of the box has the standard Amiga ports (parallel, serial,
disk
drive) along with what Commodore calls a "hardwired alternative to IR
for
keyboard, mouse, or joystick." However, the strongest selling point is
that
it can be hooked up to a regular TV (though it also has RGB output) and
used
right out of the box.
It's a philosophy that just may work if Commodore takes
the right marketing approach. At the official roll-out party, Commodore's
mewly appointed manager of Interactive Consumer Products division (and
Atari
founder), Nolan Bushnell, had the crowd at a fair level of excitement
until
he started talking about using the educational aspect of CDTV as a
primary
selling point, asserting that it would completely revolutionize education
in this country.
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------Robert.Rhodes@f420.n110.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Robert Rhodes) (08/24/90)
AREA:UUCP_HRDWR
Part 2 of a 2 part post!
Brought to you by Kris Wood
That's probably a bit optimistic. As several attendees later
remarked,
the very word 'educational' is usually the kiss of death for any mass
market
electronic product. While I don't quibble with the machine's profound
edu-
cational value, I agree with many others that touting CDTV as the next
step
in home entertainment systems is the most logical way to push the
machine.
By the time CDTV units hit the shelves in the Fall, Commodore claims
more
than 100 sofrware titles, ranging from encyclopedias to cookbooks to
what are
bound to be extraordinary games, will be available, with 200 available by
Christmas. The machine can also read standard Sony/Philips format CD-ROM
disks and play audio CDs (at 8 times oversampling) and CD+G disks,
another
strong selling point.
Software developers, and game publishers in particular, are excited
by
the fact that CDTV will virtually eliminate software piracy. There just
isn't
any practical way to copy the CDs. While the final price has yet to be
set,
Commodore says it will be under $1000. The general reaction at CES was
that
]if Commodore somehow manages to avoid its customary practice of shooting
itself in its collective foot, CDTV has the potential to become as
widespread
as the C64. Apple pushed the Mac as "the computer for the rest of us",
but I
think CDTV fits the description much better. CDTV could be the computer
for
the rest of the world.
The End
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AFIT Amiga Users BBS/UFGateway |Robert Rhodes - via FidoNet node 1:110/300
1:110/300 Dayton, Ohio |UUCP: afitamy!420!Robert.Rhodes
(513)-252-7681 |ARPA: Robert.Rhodes@f420.n110.z1.FIDONET.ORG
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