i think its predecesor the cdtv was released in the usa (the cd32 was basically a1200 hardware with the cd crive, where as the cdtv was based on a500 hardware)
Wherehouse Music sold them in the SF Bay area, CA in 1994 at least. That was the only place I ever saw them.
There were a few ads in VG&CE magazine for the device, so it most definitely was sold in the US. For how long I don't know.
There was a video floating around the net made on the closure day of Commodore USA. IT was commented by one of the then layed-off staff members. On that video you could see different interesting things (C65, Amiga AAA-hardware (working!) and also CD32 Dev stations). So until they closed down they were still experimenting with this stuff. Based on this video I think it is safe to assume that some NTSC-compatible CD32-hardware existed.
It was released... but the only places I ever saw it prior to Commodore's bankruptcy were authorized Commodore dealers. I don't believe any major retail chains ever carried it.
I remember around 1996-1998, the Toronto-Dominion banks in Canada used CD32s as information kiosks, then held a raffle to give the systems away to customers when the bank stopped using them.
The CD32 was released in the US but it was very quick. U.S. Customs blocked all shipments of them into the US as Commodore owed some US company $10 million from a lawsuit for patent infringement. I have one with an SX-32 module on it which basically makes it a full A1200. They are pretty sweet machines if you are into Amiga.
So THAT is probably the reason why a lot of mint-boxed US CD32s have appeared in China. At least they seem to appear on eBay.com quite often. Going by the Chinese sellers that have answered my query for serial-numbers, the CD32s offered, were made between January and March 1994. Commodore went bankrupt in late April 1994. But still: Why China ? :shrug:
CD32 as far as I know, WAS officially released in the United States, but it had far less success than even the 3DO or Jaguar.
Sounds a lot like PC Engine and Neo Geo AES in the UK (or Europe, even) I doubt Amstard's GX4000 made it over to the US!
The only Amstrad products I ever recall seeing for sale in the US were Amstrad PC's in the early 1990's.
Ive also noticed quite a few CD32's (NTSC) being sold from china and also germany beleive it or not. I think it's a great machine, also a nice CD drive for the A1200, not long sold our last one, wish I had kept it, but will keep my eye out for another for myself I think. DJH
Not sure about China... because they were assembled at a factory in the Philippines. The first batch of Ebay ones (started turning up around 4-5 years ago) came from this factory stock. I know because I was good friends with a former Amiga dealer in California who was offerred dibs on several hundred units at I believe $40 each before they went up on Ebay. I'm not sure where the ones in China and Germany came from.
The console was quite well-promoted over here in Germany, they had display units in several electronics chains, quite a few games were advertised and later on older games were ported to it - there was a nice selection of titles to be found where they also sold the console. The gamepad killed it somewhat though, it always got very bad reviews for that. I believe it was also quite popular in England, kingdom of home-computers. I remember that I used to import the diskmags from there because they were far superior in quality and tools included on the discs than what any german magazine offered at that time. anyway, the CD32 is not a rare sight here in Germany, quite a few people upgraded it one way or another, it was also used in some demo kiosks and video game units (mainly simple games like those memory or trivia touchscreen things). It´s not uncommon to pop one open and either find an old 386/486 PC or a CD32 inside. You can also regularly fetch the console on flea markets for 30-40 Euros including a few games.
