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Thread: Does anyone remember when the CD32 was released in the US?

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    Key (Level 9) fishsandwich's Avatar
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    Default Does anyone remember when the CD32 was released in the US?

    After years of ignorance, I recently discovered that the Commodore CD32 console WAS released in the USA, weird controllers and all.

    Did any of you folks ever see one in stores in the US? How about the software? I NEVER saw it, nor have I met anyone who has one.

    Were there really 200 games for it that were released in the US?

    Speaking of software, anyone know of anyplace besides ebay that sells it?

    Will PAL software work on an NTSC console?

    Where can I find more inof on this thing? I am now intrigued...

    Thanks for indulging my gaming habit when I was young, Dad. You were the best. I miss you. ~David Barnes 1926-2007~

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    I was thinking about this myself the other night. Weird.

    But no, never knew until last year when I picked one up after finding out on these boards. I can't fathom how that much software made it out on these shores either without knowing about it. Hate the console though. Truly awful games from what I've played.

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    Alex (Level 15) maxlords's Avatar
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    It was mostly released in Canada with only extremely limited distribution in the US. Even in Canada, the games are almost impossible to find!
    scooterb: "I once shot a man in Catan, just to watch him die."

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    Key (Level 9) fishsandwich's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by maxlords
    It was mostly released in Canada with only extremely limited distribution in the US. Even in Canada, the games are almost impossible to find!
    I have NEVER seen a 32CD game in the wild in my 10+ years of off-and-on collecting. Never at a flea market, a yard sale, a thrift store, or even at multiple "mom and pop" game stores that carry obscure Japanese stuff. I understand they are much more common in Europe, but even then not-so-much?

    Some of the games look pretty cool, although a lot of the games can be found on the Genesis or SNES. Battletoads looks like the NES version.

    Thanks for indulging my gaming habit when I was young, Dad. You were the best. I miss you. ~David Barnes 1926-2007~

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    Pear (Level 6) robotriot's Avatar
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    There were about 220 total titles released for the CD32, about 170 of them are games. As far as I remember, so far there are only *two* confirmed NTSC games, all the other ones in the US were PAL games.

    PAL games will work, although you might have to switch the video mode by connecting a mouse to the CD32 and pressing both mouse buttons while switching it on.

    Imo the best CD32 information ressource is CD32 Allianz, it's German only though. But you can always use Google for more info, or just ask here. ^^
    Wii: 8285 8147 1575 6278

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    ServBot (Level 11) Cauterize's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fishsandwich
    Quote Originally Posted by maxlords
    It was mostly released in Canada with only extremely limited distribution in the US. Even in Canada, the games are almost impossible to find!
    I have NEVER seen a 32CD game in the wild in my 10+ years of off-and-on collecting. Never at a flea market, a yard sale, a thrift store, or even at multiple "mom and pop" game stores that carry obscure Japanese stuff. I understand they are much more common in Europe, but even then not-so-much?

    Some of the games look pretty cool, although a lot of the games can be found on the Genesis or SNES. Battletoads looks like the NES version.

    Youre not the only one... Ive only ever seen 2 units myself in about 5-6 years, 1 was being bought as i came into Gamestation once (which i would have happily bought!)
    The second one was another time in Gamestation, in which i bought it straight away... I caught it at a lucky time as they had about 30 CD32 games in at the time which i managed to get all in one deal... £50 iirc!

    Apart from that you dont see anything at all really, theyre really hard systems to get hold of... Even eBay proves that, as there is never more than 2 pages worth of CD32 stuff on at any one time really...

    At the end of the day i highly recommend one as they house some of the best games ever in my opinion!
    No life is complete unless youve played: Superfrog, Benefactor, Fury Of The Furries, Bump n Burn, Disposable Hero, Naughty Ones, Kid Chaos and Brian The Lion!

    I just wish there was a cd version of 'Woodys World'

    Also, make sure any unit you get comes with a CD32 Control pad! I had a bit of a fiasco as i bought mine controllerless thinkin i could freely use a Megadrive pad... how wrong i was! The CD32 buttons seem to be wired up differently and there were a few games unplayable till i finally got one off eBay a month or so later...

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    Cherry (Level 1) RevQuixo's Avatar
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    Finding NTSC game info for the CD32 is near impossible.

    I own a NTSC model and the whole PAL/NTSC toggle is a joke.

    If you play a PAL game in NTSC mode you lose the bottom third of the screen or teh graphics are totally garbled.

    If you happen to have a TV that accepts PAL signals, you end up playing the games in B&W. This is because (if I remember correctly) the encoding chip for the color doesn't work properly on the NTSC units in PAL mode.

    I own a CD32 with the SX1 module and have never been able to use the system with any enjoyment due to the pain of hooking it up.

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    Great Puma (Level 12)
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    Default CD32 US Release

    The CD32 was released in the US in the months just before Commodore collapsed. The only places that sold it were authorized Amiga dealers. I purchased mine at the Lively Computer in the San Diego area which was the only store in San Diego that actually sold it. It was once believed that the NTSC units were very rare, but this turned out to be wrong. In fact, Commodore had produced thousands of them at a factory in the Philippines, but as the bankruptcy was happening, the creditors convinced the Philippine government to seize the stock. It took 2-3 years for the legal tangle to work itself out and all of a sudden these units started appearing on Ebay and at the remaining Amiga dealers. Most Amiga shops stocked the PAL games, but I believe there were only a few NTSC specific games released.

    I don't agree that the CD32 PAL conversion is poor. I would suggest buying a 1084S monitor which allows all but a handful of PAL games to play well on an NTSC system.

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    Default Games in the wild

    Actually, other than at Amiga dealers and on Ebay, I have never seen games for this system anywhere else. I did, however, find a whole stack of PAL CD32 systems at a swap meet in San Diego once. I bought one because the box was cool, it came with pack-in games and it was only $5. I would have loved to find out where the seller got them, but he didn't speak English and I couldn't pull together enough Spanish to get the question together.

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