While the Commodore Amiga – which turns 40 this year – was a massive success and sold almost five million units during its lifespan, spin-off systems like the CDTV and CD32 were notable commercial duds.
The latter was especially damaging to the brand, as it was seen as Commodore's last-gasp attempt to wrestle market share away from Japanese systems like the Mega Drive / Genesis and SNES.
Launched in 1993 and one of the first 'all-in-one' CD-based home consoles, the CD32 could only manage around 125,000 total sales before the plug was pulled following Commodore's collapse into bankruptcy in 1994.
As is so often the case with failed hardware, a dedicated fanbase has nonetheless grown up around the CD32, and the modder Rodrigo Vertulo is giving the platform a second chance at success via his CDex32 project (formerly known as The Mini CD32).
According to Vertulo, the CDex32 will not only auto-boot original CD32 discs but will also allow you to load up games in .adf and .lha format from USB. To top it all off, the unit will output to your TV via HDMI, bringing Commodore's CD-based system into the modern era.
This is all thanks to the fact that, rather than using original hardware, the CDex32 replicates the performance of the original console via a Raspberry Pi.