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Path: cs.tu-berlin.de!math.fu-berlin.de!ira.uka.de!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!usenet From: barrett@cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: SURVEY: CD-ROM on the Amiga, 1993 [long] Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Date: 6 May 1993 13:28:31 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 1218 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Approved: barrett@math.uh.edu Distribution: world Message-ID: <1sb3pv$332@menudo.uh.edu> Reply-To: barrett@cs.umass.edu (Daniel Barrett) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: CD-ROM, hardware, commercial INTRODUCTION Here are the results of a USENET survey of Amiga CD-ROM that I conducted during Spring, 1993. This article contains information about hardware setups, CD-ROM filesystem software, popular CD-ROM discs, and reported solutions to common problems. I am very pleased about how many people responded to the survey, and this article has turned out much longer than I had expected! I conducted a similar survey in early 1992; however, the new one received 4 times as many responses (44 versus 11), and the results are over 3 times as long (1200 versus 370 lines). The 1992 survey is available by ftp from math.uh.edu in the comp.sys.amiga.reviews archives, or by electronic mail from amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu. Below, you will find many tables of data as well as quotes from individual users about their setups. As you read this survey, PLEASE keep in mind that there are many variables in a CD-ROM setup: o Amiga model o AmigaDOS version o SCSI controller o CD-ROM drive o CD-ROM filesystem software ("driver") o Particular CD-ROM discs As a result, when someone reports a problem, it is not easy to know the true cause. So read all complaints with this in mind: what failed on one person's setup may work on yours, or vice-versa. Any opinions that appear inside quotes belong to the respondent who said them, not me. (Any opinions not enclosed in quotes are mine.) I have kept the quotes anonymous; however, I will make the full text of all responses available if people are interested. (On the survey form, I explained that the finished product would contain quotes, and anybody who wanted to remain anonymous should say so in advance. None of the respondents requested anonymity.) If you notice any errors in this survey, please report them to me at e-mail address barrett@cs.umass.edu. I will fix them and post an update. COMMON PROBLEMS REPORTED AND SOLVED Several common CD-ROM problems were reported and solved by the survey respondents, and the solutions are in this article. They include: o Amiga won't boot when no disc is in the drive. (See the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS, question (5).) o WShell/FComp and AsimCDFS problem with filename completion. (See "About AsimCDFS" in the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS, question (6).) o Accents/foreign characters in filenames are mishandled. (See "About AsimCDFS" in the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS, question (6).) o How to read/display PhotoCD's. (See "PhotoCD" in the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS, question (11).) o Making the GVP Series II controller work properly with a CD-ROM drive but no hard disk. (See "Hardware Compatibility and Tips" in the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS, question (11).) THE STATE OF AMIGA CD-ROM Despite the words of some "doom-sayers" on the Net, CD-ROM is easy to add to any Amiga with a SCSI interface and getting cheaper all the time. All three of the major CD-ROM filesystems (AsimCDFS, CDROM-FS, and Xetec) work properly, and many different drives are supported by them. In general, users are very happy with their CD-ROM setups. To connect a CD-ROM to your Amiga, you need a SCSI controller and CD-ROM filesystem software. Assuming you already have a SCSI controller, you should next read the "compatibility lists" supplied by the filesystem software vendors to see which SCSI controllers and CD-ROM drives are supported. (A limited compatibility table is given below, in the section SURVEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, question (6), but THIS TABLE IS NOT COMPLETE.) Next, you should compare CD-ROM drive specifications to find which of the compatible drives is best for you and within your price range. Finally, buy the drive and the filesystem software, hook things up, and you're done! As you will see below, there are many CD-ROM discs available for the Amiga; not as many as for the Macintosh and IBM PC, but still quite a few. Approximately 100 different titles were listed by the survey respondents, though some of them were not Amiga-specific. A number of respondents complained about Commodore's lack of commitment to CD-ROM, as it is more widespread on the Mac and PC. An important issue for Amiga CD-ROM owners is CDTV compatibility. The CDTV has some features (notably CDXL) that may not work on a SCSI CD-ROM equipped Amiga. In addition, CDTV currently runs AmigaDOS 1.3, so some incorrectly-written software appearing on CD-ROM may not run properly under AmigaDOS 2.0 or higher. SURVEY ISSUES This year, I remembered to pay attention to which SCSI controller was used on each Amiga. (In 1992, I ignored this issue.) However, I forgot to ask people for the version number of the CD-ROM filesystem software they are running. As a result, some people's complaints about the software possibly have already been solved in later versions. THE ELEVEN SURVEY QUESTIONS, AND RESULTS This section contains all of the survey questions and their answers. Rather than show all the text of all the responses, I have tried to present the information in a readable and helpful format. However, this approach loses a little information. If there is interest, as I said above, I can make the full text of all responses available. Let me know. (1) Tell us about your Amiga The following table summarizes how many respondents use each Amiga model, SCSI controller, and AmigaDOS version. AMIGA SCSI USERS WITH AMIGADOS VERSION | USER MODEL CONTROLLER 1.3 2.04 2.1 3.0 | TOTAL ============================================================================= A500 GVP Series II 1 1 | 2 A500 & AdSpeed Dataflyer 500 1 | 1 A500 IVS GrandSlam 500 1 1 1 | 3 A500+ ? 1 | 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------+------- A2000 ? 1 | 1 A2000 GVP Series I 1 | 1 A2000 GVP Combo 1 1 | 2 A2000 GVP Series II 1 1 | 2 A2000 GVP G-Force 2 1 1 | 4 A2000 & A30001 A2091 1 | 1 A2000 & Mega-MR A2091 2 | 2 A2000 & A2630 A2091 1 | 1 A2500 A2091 1 1 1 | 3 A2500 IVS Trumpcard Pro 1 | 1 A2500/030 A2091 1 | 1 A2500/030 Microbotics Hardframe 1 | 1 A2500/030 CMI Multiport Board 1 | 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------+------- A3000 internal 4 5 1 | 10 A3000 & 68040 internal 1 | 1 A3000T internal 1 3 | 4 A3000UX internal 1 2 | 3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------+------- A4000/040 GVP Series II 2 | 2 A4000/040 A2091 2 | 2 ============================================================================= TOTAL - 2 21 17 10 | 50 Summarizing by Amiga model: A500 series: 7 A2000 series: 21 A3000 series: 18 A4000 series: 4 ============================================ TOTAL 50 Summarizing by SCSI controller: CMI Multiport Board: 1 Commodore A2091: 10 Commodore A3000/A3000T internal: 18 Dataflyer 500: 1 GVP Combo: 2 GVP G-Force: 4 GVP Series I: 1 GVP Series II: 6 IVS GrandSlam 500: 3 IVS Trumpcard Pro: 1 Microbotics Hardframe: 1 unknown: 2 ============================================ TOTAL 50 NOTES: There were only 44 respondents. Some users had several Amigas, several AmigaDOS versions, or several SCSI controllers. Some respondents were developers, which is why you see AmigaDOS 3.0 on non-AGA Amigas. (2) Tell us about your CD-ROM drive. BRAND MODEL ACCESS (ms) DATA (KB/s) INT EXT TOTAL ============================================================================= Apple CD-150 380 150 - 1 1 Apple CD-300 360/295 300 - 1 1 Chinon/Xetec CDX-431 350 150 1 5 6 Chinon CDX-435 350-380 125-150 2 1 3 Commodore A690 ? ? - 1 1 Hitachi CDR-1750S 340 ? - 1 1 Hitachi CDR-3750 300 150 1 - 1 NEC CDR-102 500 150 - 1 1 NEC CDR-25 600 150 - 2 2 NEC CDR-74 280 270-300 - 1 1 NEC CDR-80 500 150 - 1 1 Panasonic CDR-501 ? 150 1 2 3 Pioneer DRM-604x < 300 612 - 1 1 Sony CD-300 280 300 1 - 1 Sony CDU-541 300 150 - 1 1 Toshiba XM-3201 330-350 150 4 1 5 Toshiba XM-3301 320 150 4 3 7 Toshiba XM-3401 200 330 - 5 5 ============================================================================= TOTALS - - - 14 28 42 NOTES: ACCESS is the average access time in milliseconds. DATA is the average data rate in kilobytes per second. INT and EXT refer to internal and external CD-ROM drives. 2 access times separated by a slash ("/") indicates a "double speed" drive, with normal/double speeds listed. A range of speeds (e.g., 350-380) means that different respondents reported different speeds. The Chinon 431 is the drive in the Xetec package. I have lumped together the internal and external versions of drives. For example, the NEC CDR-74 is simply an external CDR-84. Matshusita and Panasonic are the same company; I used the name Panasonic. Summarizing the above chart, here are the CD-ROM drives in order of popularity: DRIVE NUMBER OF OWNERS ============================================ Toshiba XM-3301 7 Chinon CDX-431 6 Toshiba XM-3201 5 Toshiba XM-3401 5 Chinon CDX-435 3 Panasonic/Matshusita CDU-501 3 Sony 2 NEC CDR-25 2 (11 other drives) (1 each) In the 1992 survey, the most popular drives were the Chinon CDX-431 (offered by Xetec as a package) and the NEC CDR-80. (The CDR-80 was offered at a cheap price by DAK, a mailorder company, and many Amigans grabbed it.) (3) Why did you choose this particular drive? The most common reasons were: RESPONSES REASON =============================================================== 23 Price 7 Offered as part of a bundle/package 6 Speed 6 Supported by particular CD-ROM filesystem 5 Reputation of drive manufacturer 4 Magazine reviews, dealer/friend recommendation 4 Refurbished drive (therefore cheap) 4 Support for standards (CD-XA, PhotoCD, SCSI II, etc.) 2 Compatibility with existing setup 2 Other features 1 Already had one in my PC 1 Availability 1 Multi-disc changer 1 Portable (4) Is your drive installed horizontally or vertically? Can your drive be installed vertically, according to the documentation? Most modern CD-ROM drives can be used vertically. Many of respondents did not know if vertical installation works since the documentation did not mention it. However, some drives definitely do not work vertically, such as: Chinon CDX-431 (used by Xetec in their bundle) If you are in doubt, contact the CD-ROM drive manufacturer. (5) Does your Amiga boot properly if there is no disc in the CD-ROM drive? Many respondents had problems with proper booting. Stefan Becker (stefanb@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de) offers the following solution to the problem: a) Set the CD-ROM SCSI ID to something high, such as 6. (Note that many Amigas come with their hard drives set as unit 6, so you'll have to change the dipswitches.) b) Power off the CD-ROM drive. (I don't know how this is done with an internal drive. - Dan) c) Configure your SCSI hard drive with HDToolBox. d) "The SCSI HD with the highest SCSI ID will get a bit set in the RDB (LastDrive), which tells the SCSI controller on boot-up not to look for additional drives after this one." This method was also reported by Eric Lavitsky (eric@remus.rutgers.edu), who says he "set the 'last drive' on my hard disk to make sure that the CD wasn't searched, especially since each SCSI LUN would be searched (I enabled LUN's in the battmem)." Several other respondents had similar solutions. In general, I have heard that if you set your CD-ROM's SCSI ID to a higher number than your boot drive, then the problem disappears. (6) What software driver do you use? COMPANY PRODUCT NUMBER OF USERS ======================================================================= Asimware AsimCDFS 18 Xetec CDX 17 Canadian Prototype Replicas CDROM-FS 12 Ralph Babel BabelCDROMFS 1 (none) ordinary Amiga filesystem 1 ======================================================================= TOTAL 47 In the 1992 survey, there were 7 people using CDROM-FS and 4 people using the Xetec software. AsimCDFS had not yet been released, and BabelCDROMFS was (and still is, I think) relatively unknown. Eight respondents (and two non-respondents that I know personally) reported using more than one filesystem, and some people said they preferred one over the other. These results include: AsimCDFS vs. Xetec: Preferred AsimCDFS: 1 Preferred Xetec: 5 No preference: 1 AsimCDFS vs. CDROM-FS: Preferred AsimCDFS: 1 Preferred CDROM-FS: 1 No preference: 1 CDROM-FS vs. Xetec: Preferred CDROM-FS: 0 Preferred Xetec: 1 No preference: 0 The following are comments that various respondents had about their filesystem software. Please NOTE that many people did not say what VERSION NUMBER of the software they are using. Therefore, some of the problems reported may have been fixed already. It is very possible that a user, when encountering a problem, switched to a different filesystem and never tried the later versions of the first filesystem. Contact the vendor if you have questions about compatibility and problems. About AsimCDFS: SUMMARY: Most AsimCDFS users were happy with the software, but many of them were not using the most recent version. "The latest version (1.1b) works fine. I've been told by several people that the Xetec and CDROM-FS drivers are both faster than AsimCDFS. I've had excellent support from Asimware: reported a bunch of bugs, they were all fixed fairly quickly, and Asimware sent me the bugfixed versions for free (presumably because I reported the bugs... normally upgrades cost a few dollars). AsimCDFS 2.0 is supposed to have some really cool features, including more CDTV compatibility, when it comes out." "The software is pretty decent. I would like better compatibility with the CDTV via software and I'd also like to be able to run the CDXL disks, such as the NASA 25th Year disk. Also, the CD music player program could use some tweaking. I'd like to be able to program in which tracks are played on a given CD, as well as be able to loop certain tracks and skip others." "Filename completion with WShell's 'FComp' program doesn't always work...." This problem was due to a bug in AsimCDFS which has been FIXED in the latest version of AsimCDFS. (Technical note: it was treating a NULL return value from ParentDir() as an error rather than a "root directory" indication.) "Filenames with 'accents' or foreign characters in them aren't recognized...." This problem is due to faulty CD-ROM disc mastering with an old "beta" version of the mastering software. For example, it showed up in Hypermedia Concepts' "Fred Fish Collection" version 1.5. It is fixed in version 1.6 of this particular disc; contact your CD-ROM disc vendor if you experience it elsewhere. I have had reports that some filesystems (Xetec and BabelCDROMFS) were robust enough to handle the bugs, while other software (AsimCDFS) could not. "Asim software locked up the SCSI bus during large transfers to hard disk which Xetec has no problem with." If you use a GVP controller, gvpscsi.library version 4.4 or later is required. Contact GVP if you need an update. About CDROM-FS SUMMARY: Most respondents were happy with CDROM-FS, but there were some common complaints, below. "No complaints." "...there was NO opportunity to register for upgrades, so if/when Mac and CDTV ability occurs, how will I know about it and/or not have to pay for it?" "I am least happy with CDROM-FS. It came with no manual and no warranty/registration card. Where do you get updates?" "Works fine, though I can't seem to reach CPR for any info on updates. Hypermedia (the Fish folks) say that the latest version handles PhotoCD. I can't verify this, because I haven't heard about how to upgrade. I might buy the Xetec or Asim versions, since I hear they offer decent support." "I am not happy with CDROM-FS by Canadian Prototype. If I try to back up a CD onto 8mm Exabyte tape, the device driver crashes after about 4-5 hours of use. This also happens if I use it for 4-5 hours without using the backup program. (using both Ami-Back or TAR)" About Xetec SUMMARY: Xetec was overwhelmingly praised by its users. It appears to be a solid, reliable product. "Xetec's software thinks CD-ROM's with long volume names (like the CD-ROM's from Profit Press) is a file and won't let me access them (in the version I use)." "I am happiest with the Xetec software because they have periodic updates that I can download from their BBS." "I'm stunned what you get for $50 from Xetec: 2 discs, a bunch of programs, ARexx scripts, and even code to roll your own programs to control the disc. Pretty nice." "Getting my own copy was not so easy, as it seems that only way to get Xetec's software is to order it straight from them." "Very happy, no complaints. Installation was a breeze. Documentation very clear and concise. Active BBS support which I appreciate." "The Xetec CDFS works great whether using Audio or Data CD's. Directory Opus sometimes will not list all directories on the disc so I usually have to get a directory listing from the Shell to verify DirOpus' output. I've only used one CDTV disc and it works fine. ImageMaster v9.50 from Black Belt Systems seems to have a problem loading GIFs from the CD-ROM drive. It crashes or hangs my system and generates numerous Enforcer hits when attempting to load from the CD. Imagemaster loads from the hard drive(s) fine (most times)." "Works like a charm. And Xetec nicely answered my fax asking if their package supported [my system]. No major flaws apart from some minor display problems in the install program and a tendency to not fully play a track on audio CD's..." "I heartily recommend the Xetec CD-ROM Filesystem. It works like a charm and v1.63 is rewritten to be 2.1/3.0 aware..." About BabelCDROMFS SUMMARY: Few people know about this filesystem. It is *not* freeware, though a copy was illegally posted on USENET in early 1993. "Works like a charm. The only little problem is with the diskchange, as it is not always detected. This is a problem of Commodore's scsi.device." About Commodore's A690 No third-party filesystem is necessary; it appears as a normal AmigaDOS device. "When booting on the CD-ROM drive, computer resets when CD is removed. Sad, since [the disc] contains Workbench and all DOS commands." "When playing CD+G music CD's, can't get my machine to STOP, REW, FF, or even return to main menu. The manual doesn't say very much about CD+G's. Anyone know how this works?" Here is a table SCSI/CD-ROM/filesystem combinations that were reported to work by the respondents. THIS TABLE IS NOT COMPLETE -- there are many more combinations that work. Check the documentation for the different filesystems, which generally lists the drives and controllers that it works with. When in doubt, before spending your money, contact the company that makes the filesystem and ask about your particular setup. SCSI Controller CD-ROM Drive Filesystem Comments ============================================================================ CBM A2091 Chinon CDX-431 A, X 10 Chinon CDX-435 X NEC CDR-25 X Panasonic CR-501 A, C, X 9 Sony CDU-541 X Toshiba XM-3201 A, C, X 7 Toshiba XM-3301 A, X ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CBM A3000 internal Apple CD-300 A, B Chinon CDX-431 C Chinon CDX-435 X Hitachi CDR-3750 A, C, X NEC CDR-102 C 1 NEC CDR-25 A 5, 6 NEC CDR-80 C Pioneer CRM-604x C 2, 3 Toshiba XM-3201 A Toshiba XM-3301 A, C Toshiba XM-3401 X ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CMI Multiport board Panasonic CR-501 A, X 9 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dataflyer 500 Toshiba XM-3201 A 4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GVP Series I Toshiba XM-3401 X ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GVP Series II Chinon CDX-431 A Hitachi CDR-1750S C NEC CDR-74 A Panasonic CR-501 C, X Toshiba XM-3301 A, C, X Toshiba XM-3401 A, X ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GVP Combo Chinon CDX-431 X Chinon CDX-435 C, X ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GVP G-Force Apple CD-150 X 8, 5 Toshiba XM-3201 A* Toshiba XM-3401 A ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- IVS Grandslam 500 Toshiba XM-3401 A, C ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- IVS Trumpcard Pro Toshiba XM-3301 A ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microbotics Hardframe Chinon CDX-431 X ============================================================================ Keys for the above table: Key to Filesystems A=AsimCDFS, B=BabelCDROMFS, C=CDROM-FS, X=Xetec CDX Key to Comments 1 Sometimes locks up while reading large files. 2 "I have played CDXL animations from my drive, with full 'CDTV' frame rates." 3 This is a multi-disc drive. 4 This combination reportedly does not work properly on the Workbench. The CD-ROM disk icon opens but is empty. Works properly on the A2091 though, so it may be a Dataflyer or AsimCDFS problem. 5 Some problems with audio discs in this configuration. 6 Does not work properly with AMAX II+. 7 One respondent reported that if a disc is left in the drive for a long time, it gets too dusty to read. 8 "I ... have to use GVPScsiCtrl command to turn off disconnect/reconnect for the CD-ROM drive on startup before mounting it." 9 Reselection must be turned off. 10 One user reports that the SCSI system sometimes hangs during heavy disk activity. Cause is unknown. Contact information for the CD-ROM filesystem vendors may be found at the end of this survey, in the section "VENDOR CONTACT INFORMATION." (7) Which CD-ROM discs do you own? Amiga CD-ROM users own a variety of discs. Here is a list of all disc titles reported, along with the number of people using each one. An asterisk ("*") means that at least one person reported a problem with this disc -- see question (8) below for more details. OWNERS TITLE AUTHOR ============================================================================= 27 * AB20 Amiga CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 Acorn Replay Disc (video clips) ? 1 Advanced Military Systems Dominion 2 * American Heritage Encyclopedia Xiphias 1 Apple CD sampler Apple 1 Astronomical Catalogs ADC 1 * Barney Bear series ? 3 C User's Group CD-ROM Walnut Creek 3 Case of the Cautious Condor ? 6 CATS Developer CD-ROM Commodore 3 CDPD Amalthea 1 CDPD 2 Amalthea 1 CDTV Welcome Disc Commodore 4 CICA Microsoft Windows CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 Cinderella ? 3 ClipArt Goliath ? 1 Connoisseur of Fine Art ? 2 Danger Hot Stuff Screen Artists 1 DEC Freeware Digital Equipment Corporation 2 * Defender Of the Crown Cinemaware 1 Demo CD Almathera Systems Ltd 9 Desktop Library/Desktop Bookshop Walnut Creek 1 Dinosaurs For Hire Wright Works 2 Extreme XXX Extreme Software 1 * For Adults Only Profit Press 14 Fish & More, volumes 1 & 2 Xetec 11 FishMarket Asimware Innovations 23 Fred Fish Collection Hypermedia Concepts 4 Fred Fish Online Hypermedia Concepts 1 The Future Is Now IBM/Mac sampler EOA 1 Fuzzy Logic 1993 Proceedings ? 1 Galileo CD-ROM's 1-6 ? 4 Garbo MSDOS/Mac CD-ROM Walnut Creek 16 GIFs Galore Walnut Creek 1 Gridded NMC Data (weather data 1946-89) ? 4 * Grolier's Encyclopedia Grolier Incorporated 1 * Guinness World Records CD (MS-DOS) ? 1 Hall of Fame (MS-DOS shareware) Ellis Enterprises 1 Ham Radio Chestnut CD-ROM 6 * Heroic Age of Spaceflight, NASA 25 Year CDTV Publishing 3 Hobbes OS/2 Archive CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 * Hoeren und Sehen CDTV Commodore 1 HP Laserpro Collection ? 1 * Illustrated Shakespeare Animated Pixels 2 INFO-MAC CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 Jets & Props (PC/Mac format files) Aris Entertainment 2 Knowledge Media Audio 1 Knowledge Media 2 Knowledge Media Graphics 1 Knowledge Media 1 * Kodak Photo-CD Image Sampler Kodak 5 Lemmings Psygnosis 3 Libris Britannia Walnut Creek 1 Linux Operating System CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 Magellan CD-ROM's (7) ? 1 MediaClips Business Backgrounds Aris Entertainment 1 * MegaDemo Profit Press 1 Microsoft Bookshelf (MS-DOS) Microsoft 1 MSDOS/Macintosh Collection SelectWare System 1 NASA Space Sampler Volume 1 Reference Technology Inc. 2 NASA Space Sampler Volume 2 Reference Technology Inc. 2 Nautilus multimedia CD-ROM Nautilus 1 Neural Network Conference Proceedings ? 1 * New Basics Electronic CookBook Xiphias 1 Nova NeXT CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 OS/2 2.1 IBM 2 Our Solar System Chestnut Software 1 Panoramix (Macintosh) ? 1 photo CD's (miscellaneous) - 1 Prime Time Software CD-ROM Prime Time Software 1 * Psygnosis DEMO CD 1992 Psygnosis 1 Scary Poems for Rotten Kids ? 1 Shareware Gold II Sherbourne Knowledge Systems 1 Shareware Overload (MS-DOS) Chestnut Software 2 Sim City Maxis 8 Simtel-20 MSDOS CD-ROM Walnut Creek 2 SIGGRAPH 1992 SIGGRAPH 1 Software Store Volume 1 for Ultrix Highland Software 1 Solar Variability Affecting Earth National Geophysical Data Ctr 12 Source Code CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 Space Wars Odyssey Software 1 Sprite Operating System CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 Storm II Giflited GIFs ? 2 Sun User's Group CD-ROM Walnut Creek 2 Supercomputing 93 Proceedings various authors 1 * Timetable of Business, Politics & Media Xiphias 2 * Timetable of History, Science & Innov. Xiphias 3 Too Many Typefonts Chestnut CD-ROM 1 Ultimod (MODS) Sunset Productions 1 * US Atlas ? 1 VGA Spectrum S&S Enterprises 1 Volcano ? 2 Voyagers to the Outer Planets V. 1-12 NASA 1 * Windows NT Microsoft 3 * World Vista Atlas ? 1 Worldview (PC/Mac format files) Aris Entertainment 1 X11R4 and GNU Young Minds, Inc. 1 X11R5 and GNU Young Minds, Inc. 6 X11R5/GNU CD-ROM Walnut Creek 1 Young Minds Demo Disc Young Minds, Inc. =========================================================================== 98 TOTAL TITLES 273 TOTAL DISCS OWNED Several respondents reported owning "many" discs but did not list them. In the 1992 survey, only 26 titles (37 discs) were mentioned. (8) What discs have you tried, but DO NOT WORK CORRECTLY, in your CD-ROM drive? (See above for author names.) Once again, remember that these problems may be related to each respondent's particular CD-ROM setup. AB20 Amiga CD-ROM Does not work on CDTV. American Heritage Encyclopedia "It asks for the CDTV bookmark..., which I don't think the [Canadian Prototype Replicas] CDROM-FS implements." Reportedly works using SetCPU to boot AmigaDOS 1.3. Barney Bear series Reportedly fails to boot under AmigaDOS 3.0 with 68040. Defender of the Crown The audio does not work during the game, using Toshiba 3301 and AsimCDFS. Grolier's Encyclopedia Several people reported that it "does not work" but did not describe the problem. Reportedly fails to boot under AmigaDOS 3.0 with 68040. Reportedly works using SetCPU to boot AmigaDOS 1.3. Guinness World Records CD (MS-DOS) Unable to read the data files. GIFs don't display properly. Heroic Age of Space Flight, Nasa 25th Year "Will not play CDXL animations properly. They crash after a few minutes." "...hangs up in the middle of playing the movie. I guess its due to the fact that I'm using Mercury 040 accelerator. Switching back to 030 didn't help though." Reportedly fails to boot under AmigaDOS 3.0 with 68040. Reportedly works using SetCPU to boot AmigaDOS 1.3. Hoeren und Sehen CDTV "Not compatible" (GVP Series II, Toshiba 3301, CDROM-FS) Illustrated Shakespeare "[Both discs] ask for the CDTV bookmark..., which I don't think the [Canadian Prototype Replicas] CDROM-FS implements." American Heritage works using SetCPU to boot AmigaDOS 1.3. Kodak Photo-CD Image Sampler "Amiga does not recognize disc at all." Profit Press discs: The long volume names cause problems with at least some versions of Xetec's filesystem. Psygnosis Demo CD Requires a CDTV. Timetable of History Reportedly works using SetCPU to boot AmigaDOS 1.3. US Atlas "The drive reads the disk just fine, so you can scan directories and look for interesting data files. [But the] keyboard/mouse work strangely." Windows NT "Postscript files get data stripped from the front." World Vista Atlas Reportedly fails to boot under AmigaDOS 3.0 with 68040. Sometimes runs out of Chip RAM when viewing city map. All Xiphias discs "[These] need to have assignments made so they appear as the SYS: drive and then execute their startup-sequence." "Nothing by Xiphas can handle AmigaDOS 2.0+." (9) What is your favorite CD-ROM disc? Some people voted for multiple discs. So what? This is all for fun. Here are the results: VOTES TITLE AUTHOR ============================================================================= 12 Fred Fish Collection Hypermedia Concepts 4 Source Code CD-ROM Walnut Creek 3 AB20 Amiga CD-ROM Walnut Creek 3 Fish & More Xetec 3 FishMarket Asimware Innovations 3 GIFs Galore Walnut Creek 3 X11R5 and GNU Young Minds, Inc. 2 <no favorite> - 2 CDPD Amalthea 2 Desktop Library Walnut Creek 1 Advanced Weapons Systems Dominion 1 CATS Developer CD-ROM Commodore 1 The Complete Bookshop Chestnut CD-ROM 1 Danger Hot Stuff Screen Artists 1 Galileo discs ? 1 Grolier's Encyclopedia CDTV Publishing 1 Voyager discs ? In the 1992 survey, the favorite disc was the Fred Fish Collection, with the AB20 disc in second place. (10) Are you satisfied with your CD-ROM setup? Any complaints? Almost everyone was generally satisfied with their setup. See question (11) for comments. (11) Any other comments? This section contains interesting, general comments. They are all direct quotes, complete with spelling errors. :-) I have separated the comments into categories. General Praise "...it is faster to look at an ISO 9660 CD-ROM on my Amiga than on any other platform. I own a Quadra 950, a NeXTstation, and an A3000, and the 3000 can browse faster, transfer faster, and read more disks than any of the other machines. The Mac is absolutely horrid, taking over 20 minutes to get a directory on the Walnut creek Gifs Galore CD-ROM." "An image processing package such as ADPRO by ASDG is invaluable for exploring MS-DOS CD's." Particular CD-ROM discs "The quality and quantity of the Walnut Creek CD-ROM's is much better than the Chestnut CD-ROM's." "Eagerly awaiting the AmiNet CD from Walnut Creek :-)" "Fred Fish is ready to go under, because he has less subscribers than ever, and [Hypermedia, with their 'Fred Fish Collection' CD-ROM] is making a mint off of Fred's efforts. What [Hypermedia] has accomplished is taking a 800+ disk collection of great software and packaged it in a manner that does absolutely nothing to endorse the shareware concept, does nothing in the way of supporting the original compiler of the library (Fred Fish), and in no way pays back the tens of thousands of hours of work that went into the original programs. [...their profit] for the CD [is] about $23.00 on a $30.00 CD. Pretty good. I have nothing against someone making a buck, but the contributors are getting absolutely nothing for the work they did and placed into the public domain.... That's not right!" Criticisms of Commodore CD-ROM Policy "I think Commodore needs to take CD-ROM technology more seriously, and work on using CD-ROM as a platform for the personal computer, instead of focusing everything on CDTV (which seems lagging, if not already dead. in the water, as this point). Taking a peek into other computer fields reveals much: the PC world has their MPC (another buzzword); the Macs their Performas; even in Japan, the FM-Towns (by Fujitsu) centers their computer around CD-ROM's. My god, even Sega is starting to use CD-ROM's! I think with the nearly unlimited amount of storage available in CD-ROM's, Commodore (and its third-party software vendors) needs to take a look and start producing more quality software taking advantage of the Amiga's inherently advanced graphics. (I would have liked to added "sound," but unless they start using 12-bit/16-bit sound technology as a base, they're going to be left behind...)" "CBM needs to be MUCH more interested in Amiga + CD-ROM and LESS interested in their idiotic CDTV, IMHO. CDTV has not sold very well and probably never will. There are already 4 million Amigas out there and every one of them *could* be a CD-ROM drive customer. Few who already have an Amiga will buy a CDTV and fewer still who don't own an Amiga will buy a CDTV. CDTV will not survive without a thriving software base... which will not be developed for the small number of CDTVs that are being sold. If a lot of Amigas had CD-ROM drives on them that could run CDTV disks, developers would be MUCH more interested in developing for *BOTH* types of machine." General Criticisms "I wish there were more Amiga CD-ROM's. But looking at some of the trash available on PC's, Mac's and CDTV, I'd rather have quality rather than quantity. By quality, I mean CD-ROM's with archives of tested software, or, better yet, archives of ready-to-run software. Maybe even games that make use of that space, not to store graphics and sound, but actual gameplay data, like maps of a world to explore, or tables that drive AI opponents in strategy games." "I am very satisfied with my CD-ROM system. The only complaint I have is that there are not enough Amiga specific CD-ROM's." "...most CDTV disks do not run with either OS 3 or a 68040 or both. This is the fault of the makers of the disks, not the hardware or driver software." "I wish more Amiga software was published on CD-ROM specifically, good indexing/retrieval software." "I'd be a lot happier if I could run CDTV stuff without going through a special boot process (OS 1.3)." "CD-ROM's for the Amiga seem to be following the same path as hard drives did a few years ago... they are hard to get and over-priced (all my PC friends can get CD-ROM's for under $200 with all driver software). Since CD-ROM's really haven't penetrated into the Amiga world, none of the hundreds of CD-ROM's with large databases ---requiring specialized access software--- are going to be available for the Amiga... only PCs and Macs. The CD-ROM should be standard equipment on new Amigas... and Commodore should work to get Amiga access software put onto the many new titles coming out. I don't care about games and lo-res geography quizzes... I do care about the mountains of new data (such as world-wide weather archives, dictionaries, phone/zip code directories... and many others) that my friends can buy for their machines but are not usable from the Amiga." "Too bad there are not more Amiga specific CD titles." "I think the only real advantage to having a CD drive in the Amiga is to access software collections, like the GNU, Fish or AB20 archive CD's. CDTV titles, frankly speaking, do not live up to the promise of 'multimedia' at all and one is much better off using things like 'Microsoft Bookshelf' for Windows if one wants reference material, or just about any of the CD-I titles for games, reference or recreation. The very very best of the current CDTV titles are no better than the very worst of the CD-I titles I have! (Bitter? Oh, a little - I have two CDTVs)." "...no dealer I've asked will guarantee compatibility of CDTV disks in an Amiga/CD-ROM drive system... not even on an exchange basis. They normally do not know which CD's will work on my system and are not interested in finding out. :-( This is the #1 reason for reduced CD-ROM drive/disk sales, IMHO." Requests For Information "Would LOVE to know about text-based PC CD-ROM's which could be useful -- e.g., encyclopedias, etc.. There are tons of PC-world CD-ROM's which I would love to have, and this might eventually force me to break down and purchase a PC (sad!)." PhotoCD "I ported hpcdtoppm, a Photo CD to PPM converter. With this I'm able to use Photo CD's on my Amiga!" "I'm really happy to finally get PhotoCD on the system with the aid of a program called OpalPCD... using the Opal.library from Centaur, any Amiga can extract and convert PhotoCD images to the Amiga's IFF!" "Can't wait for a good PhotoCD reader...." [Similar comments from many people.... Maybe the above 2 answers will help?] Hardware Compatibility and Tips "The [Toshiba XM-3201 on Commodore A2091] cannot be accessed by my Vortex 486SLC board. I'll probably have to get a SCSI controller and switch the CD-ROM between systems. Until then I'll continue copying files to a shared Amiga/MS-DOS partition using CrossDos." "...some useful info on making the GVP Series II controller work properly without having a hard disk connected as well as the CD-ROM drive. I found that when I removed my hard disk from the GVP Series II controller card (I bought a 4000, so had no use for the hard disk and sold it), with only the CD-ROM connected, the Amiga took about 30-40 seconds to boot up (with or without a CD in the drive). What was happening was that the controller was looking for each and every possible SCSI device. Normally when you have a hard disk connected, you set the Last Unit flag in the RDB and the controller virtually boots up straight away. With the CD-ROM however, there is no RDB. The solution was to disable autobooting on the controller. However this means that the ROM based driver is never loaded. And trying to force a ROM to configure after boot up is beyond me. What I did was copy the device driver from the GVP install disk to the expansion drawer and used 'binddrivers' to load the driver. The is actually better than using the ROM based version because: 1) You can always user the latest version of the driver software. 2) You don't have to boot the driver if you need the memory. You just drag it out of the Expansion drawer. 3) The driver is always loaded into 32bit RAM." "Chinon *should* have included a *standard* SCSI interface with the drive instead of their proprietary interface that "may or may not work with SCSI devices other than the Chinon CDS-431". Their interface also has a D-37F plug on the end for "external" installations. How about a D-25F plug? That would certainly make connecting to standard SCSI devices a LOT simpler/easier/faster/ cheaper. :-(" Software Suggestions "[I have some] suggestions [for CD-ROM filesystems, AsimCDFS in particular]. It would be nice to have the option to display files in lower case (soothing to the eyes) plus show/hide version numbers and have better support for unnamed volumes. Currently if you CD to an unnamed disk, the returned path does not work properly. [Possibly fixed in later versions of AsimCDFS. - Dan] Although the MAC support works fine, it's messy switching Data/Resource forks. Support for High Sierra/Rockridge would be great. Last but not least, CDTV support so I can try out the software if it finally appears and is worth it." "I wish that the program JukeBox would support the Chinon CD-ROM drive and/or I could register with someone in Australia. Sending bank cheques is a major hassle (despite what everyone says). Even if I could use my VISA card there would be no problems." CONCLUSIONS Nowadays, anybody with a SCSI-capable Amiga can connect a CD-ROM drive without too much trouble, and most of the respondents are very happy with their systems. All of the available filesystems work sufficiently well, although the Xetec filesystem was the most highly praised by respondents. There are at least 100 diverse CD-ROM discs available and being used by Amigans, though a good percentage of these discs are not Amiga-specific. This is both good and bad, since it means that Amigas are capable of using CD-ROM discs from other platforms, but they don't take full advantage of these discs. In case anyone is interested, my own CD-ROM setup is very typical: the most common drive (Toshiba XM-3301) and filesystem (AsimCDFS) on an A3000T, with the most common discs (AB20, Fred Fish Collection, etc.). I feel so... so... average!! :-) VENDOR CONTACT INFORMATION Some of this information comes from the Winter 1993 "AC's Guide to the Commodore Amiga" (pages 112, 253, 262, 149), as quoted in the alt.cdrom FAQ, maintained by Robert Bruce (rab@cdrom.com). See the section "FOR FURTHER INFORMATION" below. AsimCDFS This CD_ROM FileSystem allows an Amiga/CDTV to access any ISO9660, HighSierra, or Mac HFS formatted disc. CDTV discs also accessible. Comes with FishMarket, a disc containing Fred Fish disks 1-637, and AsimTunes, an Intuition-based AudioCD controller program with ARexx capability. Includes a manual and a painless install procedure. Supports a number of CD-ROM drives. Requires SCSI controller compatible with Commodore SCSI-Direct Standard. For 68000,010,020,030,040 processors. Minimum 512K, more recommended for buffering. AmigaDOS 1.3/2.0 compatible. $79.00 (US) Asimware Innovations 101 Country Club Dr Hamilton, Ontario L8K 5W4, Canada Phone: (416) 578-4916 FAX: (416) 578-3966 BabelCDROMFS Supports ISO-9660 (e.g., as used by Commodore's CDTV) and High Sierra format. Does not depend on HD_SCSICMD ("SCSI Direct") and is thus compatible with any compliant trackdisk.device-like driver (e.g., GVP's SCSI driver) and any CD-ROM drive the underlying device driver can handle. Block caching makes accesses fast and efficient. Runs on any Amiga with Amiga OS 1.2 or later. Implements all new 2.0 DOS filesystem packets. [No pricing information available.] Wallasch & Witte GmbH Postfach 1025 D-W-8000 Muenchen 81 Federal Republic of Germany Voice: +49 (0)171 4201583 Fax: +49 (0)89 9303377 E-mail: rbabel@babylon.rmt.sub.org (Ralph Babel) CDROM-FS CDROM-FS version 702 enables Amiga owners to connect most SCSI CD ROM drives to an Amiga with a SCSI interface. This software provides support for industry standard ISO 9660/High Sierra format CD ROM discs. It comes with clear concise instructions, making it easy to install and use. Requires A590, A2091, A3000, Microbotics Hardframe or GVP. $49.95 (US). Canadian Prototype Replicas P.O. Box 8 Breslau, Ontario Canada N0B 1M0 Phone: (519) 884-4412 Xetec CDx Disk Set All software needed to attach a SCSI CD-ROM drive to most popular SCSI controllers, plus a printed manual and two CD-ROM discs (Fish & More Vols. I and II). Software consists of: CDxFileSystem for access to ISO 9660, High Sierra, and Mac HFS discs, CDTV emulation software to run most CDTV titles (1MB chip RAM recommended), audio CD player software, an assembly/C/ARexx-compatible device for developers, and more. NTSC/PAL compatible, Requires SCSI controller, SCSI CD-ROM drive. AmigaDOS 2.0 compatible. $50.00 (US). Xetec, Inc. 2804 Arnold Road, Salina, KS 67401 USA Phone: (913) 827-0685 FAX: (913) 827-6023 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION The USENET newsgroup alt.cd-rom contains much information about CD-ROM's for all platforms, though mainly PC and Mac. The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) article for this group is VERY informative. You can see it posted monthly in alt.cd-rom, or ftp it from cdrom.com (192.153.46.254). The ftp site cdrom.com is maintained by Walnut Creek CD-ROM, a company that makes many of the discs listed by the respondents. It has a wealth of information online, available by anonymous ftp. SPECIAL THANKS A GREAT BIG "thank you" to everyone who responded to the survey!! Jun Akiyama akiy@cs.titech.ac.jp Jacek Artymiak jartymiak@cix.compulink.co.uk D. Scott Baeder baeder@cadence.com Daniel Barrett barrett@cs.umass.edu Stefan Becker stefanb@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de Dave Beckett djb1@ukc.ac.uk Per Bojsen bojsen@moria.home.id.dth.dk Thomas Magle Brodersen dreamer@diku.dk Ryan K. Brooks 2575brooksr@vms.csd.mu.edu Ed Brown eeb@pro-freedom.cts.com Tom Brunetti tom.brunetti@satalink.com Mark Davis davis@zso.dec.com Richard L. Dyson dyson@sunfish.physics.uiowa.edu Brick Eksten beksten@ucqais.cba.uc.edu Darren Enns dmenns@muug.mb.ca William L. Gorder billg@wlgami.cmhnet.org George Harvey george@logitek.co.uk Joe Headrick headrick@atlantis.ssd.harris.com Sebastian Hill sah@calmasd.prime.com Jordan K. Hubbard jkh@whisker.lotus.ie Paul Huxham paulh@wavefrm.dialix.oz.au Guy Klose milo@mvuts.att.com Paul Kolenbrander boinger@myamy.hacktic.nl Joseph Korczynski korczyns@oasys.dt.navy.mil David L...? David-L@cup.portal.com Eric Lavitsky eric@remus.rutgers.edu Mark J. Lednor mlednor@tower.demon.co.uk Dave K. Martin dkm@cs.itc.hp.com Steve Masters stevem@osiris.css.gov Dylan McNamee dylan@cs.washington.edu Thorsten Meyer thomey@redeye.gold.sub.org Urban Dominik Mueller umueller@iiic.ethz.ch Jim Perkowski kentcomm!jperkski@uhura.neoucom.edu Stephen Pietrowicz srp@travis.csd.harris.com Vitas Povilaitis vitas@sunsrvr3.cci.com Heiko Rath hr@brewhr.swb.de Richard Rogers rrogers@cs.washington.edu Jay Rymal jay.rymal@canrem.com Mike Stark stark@wam.umd.edu Magnus Thelander d87mt@efd.lth.se Mark Tomlinson tomlin@elec.canterbury.ac.nz Jerry Youngberg yngmnds!youngber@uunet.uu.net Ari Yrj\vl\d ayrjola@beta.hut.fi Ray Zarling rayz@koko.csustan.edu Also, thank you to everyone who answered my posted question about GVP SCSI product names: Ralph Babel rbabel@babylon.rmt.sub.org Brent Burkholder eyeq@banzai.wpi.edu Glenn Durden alfa@werple.apana.org.au Paul Kolenbrander boinger@myamy.hacktic.nl Jim Pritchett jdp@caleb.UUCP Arnie Robbins arnie@csource.oz.au Magnus Thelander Magnus_Thelander@p18.atb.bbs.bad.se Stephen Walsh curl@csource.oz.au Ray Zarling rayz@koko.csustan.edu Dan //////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ | Dan Barrett -- Dept of Computer Science, Lederle Graduate Research Center | | University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 -- barrett@cs.umass.edu | \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\///////////////////////////////////// --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu