any info on the never released Amiga "CD64" console featuring the Hombre chipset ?

never really knew about this until I was doing some research on uncompleted Amiga chipsets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hombre_chipset

http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/homcon.html

http://www.magrundke.de/hypertxt/welcome.html?amigacd32.html

http://monroeworld.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-1429.html

if anyone knows anything beyond this I'd love to hear it. the original Amiga chipset created in 1984, launched in the first Amiga in 1985 was quite revolutionary. the AGA chipset used in the CD32 was an improvement but not so revolutionary for the time. the AAA chipset would've been revolutionary had it been released on schedual in 1990. the Hombre chipset was the very last effort by Commodore, would've loved to see if it could've stood up to the PlayStation and Nintendo64. at the very least it sounds like it would've been stronger than the 3DO, Jaguar, Saturn and PC-FX.

I do realize though that the "CD64" is in reality, pure vaporware.

 

Wow, that had the potential to wipe Sony an Sega off of the planet. But, remember Commodore was behind it. The C-64 is their only real success story. The Amiga was close, but failed in the end.

 

I'd say it never saw the light of day.

Commodores demise was in 1994. If there were any prototypes around we would have pictures.
The last thing Commodore was planning on releasing would have been a CD-player addon for the A-2000 which was a CD32 cut in half. The last product officially released was the CD32s VCD-Cartridge.

The only interesting prototypes would be the CDTV-CR (only 6 were made in 08/1992) and early CD32s from before 06/1993. From what I have gathered, nothing else prototype-wise, was made after 06/93.

I have done some researching on the CD64 also, when I was on the hunt for my CDTV-CR (search google for pictures, the large ones are my machine!), but found nothing about it other than some articles in old magazines.

 

x

 

As a CD-player the CDTVs are awesome. The drives themselves are from SONY. At least they were on the CDTV-CR...
The sound is fabulous and with a floppy drive and pad extensions connected, hooked up to your stereo you can enjoy all the Amiga games in the living-room without having the "nerdy" white keyboard around.

 

CDTV ====> CD32 ====> CD64 (unreleased)

Commodore could've had a decent console legacy

 

Nono.
This should have been the legacy:

CDTV --- CDTV-CR --- CD64


The CD32 was only a downsized, and cheaply stuck together CDTV-CR. It even featured it's Full Motion Video Card. Commodore needed money quick and they saw it in the console-business. The set-top boxes like the CDTV were a complete flop and maybe ahead of it's time, so they redesigned the CDTV-CR to what later became the CD32. But using as little money as possible. Just take a look at the housing and the controller....

The CD32 got released July 1993 in London. It saw several changes during it's short life-span and around December/January the Full Motion Video Card originally developed for the CDTV-CR got released for the CD32. Around 1000 got produced until Febuary/March 1994. Also in March 1994 the last CD32s saw the light of day. I still have to see CD32s that were produced during April 1994...

If Commodore had any money, they would never have produced such crap like the CD32. It was the best they could do though to stay alive a little bit longer.
The CDTV-CR is the unknown and last link of the Commodore heritage.

ray: C=

 

Ok, different chipsets. But you must agree that the CD32 was a clumsy and hasty try from Commodores side.

And yes, the "CR" in CDTV-CR means costreduced. But looking at the hardware of both the CDTV and CDTV-CR, do you really think the latter machine would have been cheaper ?
It had full CDi and VCD compatibility, an integrated 3,5" floppy-drive and sports a CD-drawer, eliminating the CD-cartridge on the regular CDTVs. We are talking 1992 here.
;-)

 

The CDTV is a nice machine, if you have the black keyboard, mouse and disc drive it looks a great machine. A simple toggle switch and it becomes an A500 with a CD-ROM unit. It's a nice CD player too and you can use it as a CD player without having to turn any TVs on. The only bad thing is that it uses a caddy pack rather then being a tray load system. Still looks cool.

The CD-32 on the other hand looks like a badly put together pile of plastic with the most awful joypad even made for a machine.