Commodore Amiga CD32

Unless you were either a) involved in the making of the CD32, b) an owner of an Amiga CD32 or c) lived in the UK or Canada during 1993-1994 you’ve probably never heard of Commodore’s Amiga CD32. In 1993 Commodore used Amiga CD32 in a last ditch effort to stay afloat. It didn’t work and they went bankrupt the next year. The Amiga CD32 did quite well in the UK and was released in Canada but it never officially launched in the United States. Enough units were made ready and waiting to be shipped to the U.S. but Commodore was barred from bringing them in until they paid an overdue patent royalty. (That’s gotta suck.)

It has been speculated that if Commodore could have gotten the Amiga CD32 into the States and been able to keep up production through that year’s holiday season they may have been able to stay afloat. On the flip side, it has been noted that the Amiga CD32 may not have done well in the U.S. due to a lack of original games.

The Amiga CD32 used games that had been around for years and had simply been ported to CD. Unless you were simply without a game console to play there was simply no real reason to make the switch to the Amiga CD32. Even if it was touted as ‘the world’s first 32-bit CD games console’. (This, by the way, isn’t actually true. Fujitsu’s FM-Towns Marty came out 2 years earlier. But, since the Marty was only released in Japan, not too many people were the wiser.)

As far as availability goes you should have no trouble finding a new or used Amiga CD32. You can expect to pay up to $50 for the console or up to $100 for the console complete with the power supply and controllers.

Commodore Amiga CD32 Video

Commodore Amiga CD32 Resources

• Amiga CD32 page on Wikipedia