Tag - book

MEGA65 User’s Guide – 2nd Edition

2nd July 2024

Although my MEGA65 came with the very latest Revision 6 mainboard, the same cannot be said about the User’s Guide which is from the original print run of 1st Edition tomes. Trenz won’t be shipping the newer user guide with machines until they’ve used up the rest of that stock. Of course there’s a PDF user’s guide available online which I could refer to but you just can’t beat a decent paper version that you can have open right in front of you.

Thankfully there is a ‘Print on Demand’ version of the user’s guide available from Lulu so about a week ago I placed an order for it and it has now arrived!

The 2nd Edition User Guide from Lulu.

Have to say I was very impressed with it. I wasn’t sure if the quality would take a hit but happy to say it didn’t. The only noticeable physical differences are that the comb binding is plastic on the Lulu one and it lacks the clear plastic covers on the back and front of the original.

1st vs 2nd Editon Dates

Opening up the guide reveals the edition details near the front with the First Edition having gone to print back in November 2021 whereas the Second Edition is dated February 2024.

How the two guides stack up side-by-side

One big difference between the two versions though (besides a snazzier front cover on the newer guide) is that the second edition comes with a whopping extra 54 pages making it almost a full 1cm thicker overall!

The newer front cover (left) is definitely a lot snazzier – I like it!

Looking at the contents pages side by side you can already see an extra 10 pages having been added by the end of section 3 (18 pages vs 28) and this continues throughout the remainder of the guide.

Differences stacking up already

Some of the sections have been expanded upon, others have morphed into something different entirely. There are aslo a lot more appendices. The table below gives a rough outline of the differences.

First Edition	Second Edition

Introduction	Introduction
Setup	Setup
Getting Started	Getting Started
Configuring your MEGA65	Configuring your MEGA65
C64, C65 and MEGA65 Modes	Upgrading the MEGA65
Cores and Flashing	Using Disks and Disk Images
Floppy Disks, the Freezer and D81 Images	Transferring Files

APPENDICES	APPENDICES
A. BASIC 65 Command Reference	A. BASIC 65 Command References
B. Special Keyboard Controls and Sequences	B. PETSCII Codes
C. Supporters & Donors	C. Screen Editor Keys
	D. Screen Codes
	E. System Palatte
	F. Supporters & Donors

There are plenty of splashes of colour within the guide

Very happy I picked this second edition up now. It contains tonnes of extra information over the original guide and it’s a lot more relevant to the hardware I actually have now. If you have one of the newer R6 machines but are still rocking the older manual then this is well worth the investment.

CDTV Disc Reference Guide Book Review

25th October 2019

Steven

Amiga, CD32, CDTV

7 Comments

The CDTV Disc Reference Guide Book is a brand new title that has just been published by Castle Books. It’s been created by AmigaJay, the same guy who was behind the CD32 Scene magazines and ‘CD32 and Beer’ compilation CD’s.

The description on the back of the book goes as follows:

A comprehensive guide to Commodore CDTV software titles.

Over 190 titles fully catalogued, with screenshots and box-art, (over 850 images in total) with lots of other information on each disc, a perfect guide for collectors and owners alike.

Features of the book;

Each disc is catalogued into one of the six original categories, easily identifiable by the colour band on each page.

Biggest round-up of cancelled CDTV titles, over 130 in total!

New wave section, find out what new software has been available to buy for your CDTV in the last few years.

Did these games really come out in ‘Did They or Didn’t They?’

CDTV Stats

The book is A5 in size and has been produced in full colour and runs to 200 pages. The pages are thick and glossy making it around 10mm thick with quite a heft to it. It costs £19.99 plus £3.50 postage and packaging so £23.49 all in.

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A look inside the book

The book covers every single disc ever produced for the CDTV whether it be a PD release, encyclopaedia or game. All the discs are helpfully slotted into one of 6 main categories:

Arts and Leisure
Education
Entertainment
Music
Productivity
Reference

List of disc categories

There are also a couple of other categories for ‘Cancelled Titles’ and ‘New Wave’. The latter covers present day releases for the system such as PowerGlove Reloaded.

These colour co-ordinated categories are printed across the top of each page and are visible on the fore edge of the book. Titles are also arranged in alphabetical order within each category meaning you can easily track down ‘Lemmings’ in the ‘Entertainment’ section for example. Which is just as well because there is no index included within the book.

The vast majority of CDTV releases get their own page in the book barring a few exceptions. These exceptions are mostly stuff like yearly encyclopaedia updates and PD collections which are grouped together on a single page.

How CDTV titles are presented

Barring the exceptions mentioned above, each release is presented in the same format as shown below. There’s a photo of both the front and back of the CD packaging along with another of the disc itself. There’s also a couple of screenshots, usually featuring the title screen and the game or software in action. Other information provided includes the year of release, cost, languages, whether it was exclusive to the CDTV and if not, how it differed from the stock Amiga 500 version.

Example of how each CDTV title is featured in the guide.

The part I found most useful was the little rating box at the end. Every release has been rated from A to F and is accompanied by what I can best describe as a ‘micro review’. It’s hardly comprehensive but it gives you a fair indication about whether a particular release is worth tracking down or not.

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The book contains 200 pages and as most of the 190+ titles it covers get their own page this leaves some pages free for other content. Consequently there’s a few additional sections at the end of the book, detailed below.

Cancelled Titles – lists all the games that never quite made it to release along with the reasons why (if known). Sadly there’s quite a lot of games in this section.
Did they or didn’t they? – delves into a handful of mysterious releases that were advertised but the author was unable to track down.
CDTV Stats – provides information such as ‘least/most expensive release’ and ‘disc with least/most amount of content on it’ amongst various other things.

Worth a buy?

As a recent buyer of a CD32 console (most CDTV titles will work on a CD32) I’ve found this book to be quite a valuable resource . By referring to this guide I’m able to quickly see what titles are available and whether they were actually any good (I only collect stuff I will actually play/use).

The included images of packaging makes it much easier to spot them when ‘shopping’ and helps ensure you don’t buy something with dodgy home-made covers for example.

Personally I would have much preferred for it to come spiral bound so the pages could be opened easier and the book laid flat. Presumably that would have added to the cost though. However that’s just a minor niggle, it’s definitely usable as it stands.

It’s not something you are likely to sit down and read at length, it is a reference guide after all, but the content is interesting, useful and well presented. I’d say this was a recommended purchase for anyone who owns or is thinking about getting either a CDTV or CD32 system.