1991 · Commodore · US · computer
Commodore CDTV
An Amiga hidden in a hi-fi, sold to a living room that never asked for it.
Mixed Easy to run Needs a keyboard ▶ Watch on YouTube ↗
Commodore's 1991 bet that the CD-ROM belonged in the living room, not the study — an Amiga 500 hidden inside a black hi-fi component with a remote control and no keyboard. Nobody quite knew what it was for, and it sold accordingly.
Its catalogue was thin and mostly ported, remembered now for curios like the gloriously inept interactive movie Town With No Name.
Under the hood
- CPU
- Motorola 68000 @ 7.16 MHz
- Sound chip
- Paula — 4-channel 8-bit PCM plus CD-DA Red Book audio
- Graphics
- OCS chipset — 32 colours from a palette of 4,096, plus HAM
What it cost
about half a month’s pay in 1991 · about $2,301 today
| US launch list price ($999 with wireless infrared remote) |
$999 (1991)
Commodore’s early living-room multimedia CD-ROM appliance. |
|---|---|
| Typical street price | — No verified mass-market street price recorded yet. |
| Units sold | ≈50,000 estimate Approximately 50,000 units sold. |
Why it mattered
The CDTV is a landmark failure — an early attempt to sell the CD-ROM as a living-room appliance, an idea a decade ahead of its market and executed with almost no software to justify it.
Emulating it today
| Emulators | PUAE (libretro), FS-UAE |
|---|---|
| Setup effort | Easy to run (2 on this site's scale) |
| Controls | This is a computer-like platform: games may use a joystick or pad, but launching and configuring software often needs a keyboard. |
| Runs on a handheld | Yes |
The emulator names above are starting points, not a promise that every title or accessory behaves identically. Computer platforms usually add model selection, disk handling and keyboard setup even when CPU emulation itself is mature.
system firmware or BIOS
Firmware is the startup code copied from chips in the original hardware. The emulator needs it before software can boot.
How many files you need: 1. Start with the firmware for the exact model and region you are emulating; some families need additional revisions for later models.
Where it stands legally: Firmware normally remains copyrighted. The clean route is to extract it from hardware you own unless the rights holder offers a download or licensed package.
Firmware details checked 2026-08. Emulator requirements change — see Libretro documentation for the current list.
Where the software is
TOSEC catalogues computer disks and tapes broadly, including many revisions. It is useful for preservation, while a smaller curated selection is usually easier to play.
Copyright: Commercial software remains copyrighted unless its owner explicitly released or relicensed it. Homebrew, public-domain programs and current reissues should be treated separately from abandoned commercial titles.
This site names preservation projects and explains what they are. It does not link to ROM downloads.
Where to start
- Sim City 1991 city builder
- Lemmings 1991 puzzle
- Psycho Killer 1991 interactive movie
Early CD-ROM shovelware, memorable mainly for existing at all.
- Town With No Name 1992 interactive movie
Routinely voted one of the worst games ever committed to disc.
The verdict
Of interest as a cautionary tale in early multimedia; there is very little here worth playing.
Everything good on it is an Amiga game you can run better elsewhere — approach it as history, not as a games machine.
- Worth it if
- Players curious about commodore amiga family and willing to learn how the original machine worked.
- Not for
- Anyone who wants a large, instantly accessible library and no model, firmware or control decisions.
Scored 3/5 for fun today and 3/5 for historical importance. Those two scores decide the label at the top — a machine can matter enormously and still be no fun.
Read more & watch
This page is 50% complete against the facts we try to record for every system. Gaps are shown as gaps.