Tuesday 26 April 2011

Unofficial Amiga CD32 Conversions (Amiga CD32)

Released in 1993, the Commodore Amiga CD32 lacked the necessary marketing power, system specifications and third party support to compete against the hugely successful Sony Playstation and it's commercial life was cut short when Commodore filed for bankruptcy in 1994. However, being Commodore's final foray into the home computer/console market the CD32 still has a loyal retro-gamer fanbase, including our editor, James Monkman.

In all, the CD32 received less than 200 official game conversions during it's brief lifetime - but thanks to the release (or perhaps leak?) of Commodore's CD32 developer kit, dozen's of self-made compilations and conversions are now available from various sources on the net. However, many of these are hosted on illegal ROM sites and others are either non-working conversions or feature embarrassing start-up script errors (such as missing assigns that result in unnecessary 'insert disk B' messages during play). Out of those tried and tested, few feature CD inserts and even fewer specify if the game requires any additional non-standard CD32 hardware such as a keyboard or mouse to play.

This little sub-section of the RGCD site is our alternative solution - tested CD32 conversions available for download in .iso format with 300 DPI CD cover art and additional requirements listed (where necessary). Although starting out with a modest selection of games, we are in the process of converting and testing dozens of others in collaboration with other CD32 enthusiasts, all of which will eventually be listed on this page.



Legal Note

Although the majority of games featured on our discs are widely available over the net via emulation sites, to keep things above board we ask that you do not download any previously commercial games unless you already possess the Amiga original. This might sound a bit extreme, especially when you consider that the original copyright holder may no longer exist as an active company/publisher, but nonetheless, if you do not already own a disk copy of the commercial games listed here then downloading them is against the law.

If this honesty-policy is abused then we'll have to enforce a download request system. This will mean that if you want a copy of one of the discs you'll have to send us an email via the contact page confirming that you already own a physical copy of the game(s) featured. This isn't a particularly nice way of doing things, so please be responsible with your downloads.

As a final note, if you are an IP holder and would like your game removed from this site please let us know and we'll comply immediately.



The Discs

The unofficial CD32 conversions released so far by RGCD are listed below.  Follow the links for full release information, screenshots, jewel-case inserts and downloads for each disc.

Boppin' CD32
Cardiaxx CD32 [Keyboard Required]
Fly Harder CD32 (Special Edition)
Hybris & Battle Squadron CD32 [Keyboard Required]
Phoenix Fighters CD32
Quasar Wars CD32
R-Types CD32
RGCD Arcade (Volume One) [Keyboard Required]
RGCD Arcade (Volume Two)
RGCD Arcade (Volume Three) [Keyboard Required]
RGCD Arcade (Volume Four)
RGCD Racers (Volume One)

Saint Dragon CD32
Silkworm Collection CD32 [Keyboard Required]
Tubular Worlds CD32
Turrican Collection CD32 [Keyboard Required]
Uridium 2 CD32 [Keyboard Required]
Virocop CD32 [Keyboard Required]
Vision Collection CD32 [Keyboard Required]
Watchtower CD32
X-Out / Z-Out CD32 [Keyboard Required]



Credits

The majority of these CD32 conversions would not have been possible without the hard work by the WHDLoad team (http://www.whdload.de/). If you download and enjoy the games featured here, please consider registering for the full version of WHDLoad - your support will reward the coders and result in more hard-disk and CD installable games!

I'd also like to say thanks to everyone who has supported this project, either with submitting conversions, sharing tips and advice or even just giving positive feedback. Extra kudos goes out to hitchhikr and StingRay for their programming assistance and startup-sequence optimising tools.



The above Commodore Amiga CD32 releases are not licensed or endorsed by Commodore Gaming, Amiga Inc. or any of their associates or subsidiaries. This project and these conversions are 100% unofficial. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.