Philips CD-i

[bbagnall]

Just curious, was anyone here ever into the Philips CD-i? I haven't done much reading yet but it looks like the forerunner to DVD players, but it could also play video games. Apparently there were three relatively unknown Legend of Zelda games produced for it, but only one of them was any good.

[Shane R. Monroe]

I almost bought a CD-I for the SOLE purpose of playing the most arcade-like version of Space Ace and Dragon's Lair, but I instead went the route of the Amiga CD32.

Both units required a FMV card to watch movies (why would you sell a set top box like the CD-I without one?) I guess most of the non FMV centric games were average at best. Philips came out with a newer unit with the FMV card included, but it didn't work out well.

Philips CD-I movies came in a couple different flavors - VideoCD (the VCD standard) and Phillips Video (I think that's what it was called) which was MPG1 in written in some sort of proprietary disc format. The CD32, incidently, reverse engineered the Philips Video and was able to play them (I still have a couple of Philips movies running around here like Star Trek 6 and Addam's Family Values). It is possible to extract FMV from a Philips CD-I disc with ISOBuster - which will also, incidently, rip FMV video tracks from the handful of CD32 titles that had some sort of FMV on them.

I think the Philips CD-I was the first to try the NUON technique of being a video playback system as well as an entertainment machine. Both technologies appear to have ended up the same way :)

[rolisme]

Just like Shane, I bought (well Shane didn't buy it, but I did for the same reason he almost did) a CD-I to play Space Ace and Dragon's Lair. I was also interested in the Zelda games because I was a big Zelda fan. I don't know where you heard one of these games were good, because I had everyone one of them and they were all crap. It boggles my mind why Nintendo would allow games of this porr quality to be released. Say what you want about Nintendo, but there is one thing I got to give them credit for (this may not include Game Cube, I don't know because I have never played one so I cannot make a statement about that) their first party games are always produced with high quality. They may not be very fun games, but usually their games feel and run pretty solid.

Now the Dragon's Lair and Space Ace were pretty good, everything else sucked about this machine. It was expensive. I cannot remember exactly how much I spent on it, but it was quite a bit. The controller I had was this piece of crap wireless remote thing. It must be the worst designed remote control I have ever seen. I did but a regular controller for it, but again it was crap. After spending many hundreds of dollars on it, I still had to buy some add on MPEG decoder card so I could watch the VCD movies on it. I don't think this player plays SVCD either. I cannot say enough bad things abouh this machine. It was the biggest waste of cash I had ever spent.

[Demolition Man]

Yeah I wasn't impressed by the CD-I the few times I played around with it at Best Buy. The controller was a complete turn off to me.

The most funniest CD-I story I have tho is back during my Goodwill days for some odd reason my back room manager decided to put out a few CD-I games out for sale. He probably thought the same thing as this one customer did because she kepted trying to convince me that it was a game for her PC yet kepted asking what the system requirements were. Finally she gave up and said I needed to learn "customer service" since I kepted telling her that its not a PC game and that its for the CD-I machine.

Needless to say the store ended up junking out the CD-I games after them sitting aroud for several months. :lol:

[bbagnall]

I was also interested in the Zelda games because I was a big Zelda fan. I don't know where you heard one of these games were good, because I had everyone one of them and they were all crap.
Heh... I see where I went wrong. On the website I was reading it said, "This game isn’t as bad as the other two games." I took that to mean it was maybe good. I'd still be curious about it, though, since everything is digitized/FMV. Interesting reading here:

http://www.zeldacentral.net/cdi/index.shtml

If I stumble on a CD-i at a garage sale I'll definitely pick it up.

[Chewchilla]

If I stumble on a CD-i at a garage sale I'll definitely pick it up.

You should avoid the CD-I Zelda games like the plague. They are so bad that Nintendo doesn't even acknowledge their existence.

I don't know if you watch G4-TechTV, but there's a show on there called Icons that did an episode on the Zelda games - you should watch it if you can. They cover the CD-I versions and show some footage from the games. :shock: The footage alone should make you forget ALL about picking-up them up.

Horrible, horrible games.

[Danny]

Wow shane I thought I was the only person that brought an Amiga CD32!
What were you're fave games for it? mine were Diggers, Osscar and Shadow Fighter (A rip off of Street Fighter) and Brutal Football (Injury Time lol)

[paul_stranger]

www.theworldofcdi.com

You will find all you need about Philips CD-i

[Shane R. Monroe]

Wow shane I thought I was the only person that brought an Amiga CD32!
What were you're fave games for it? mine were Diggers, Osscar and Shadow Fighter (A rip off of Street Fighter) and Brutal Football (Injury Time lol)

Jetstrike, Superfrog, Qwak, Lil Divil, Guardian, Roadkill ... just to name a few.

[bas]

Hi there
if you're not impressed by CD-i you should watch the videos of the cd-i prototype of Microcosm, videos right here (http://cdii.blogspot.com/2007/05/cd-i-microcosm-in-action.html)

I love CD-i and after visiting this site, you'll probably know why.....

Nice forums!

[Flare]

Hi there
if you're not impressed by CD-i you should watch the videos of the cd-i prototype of Microcosm, videos right here (http://cdii.blogspot.com/2007/05/cd-i-microcosm-in-action.html)

I love CD-i and after visiting this site, you'll probably know why.....

Nice forums!
Pity... no CD-I Infomercial in that site either :(

[Bill_Loguidice]

As part of my collecting, I have a huge CD-i collection, including two full-size players and a portable Sony CD-i with built-in LCD screen from the mid-90's. Like the 3DO, I've found the CD-i's to be very finicky when trying to read discs. By the way, just as an FYI, the DV cartridge was created well after the CD-i's release, when Philips wanted to re-energize the platform. The DV cartridge (built into later CD-i players) contained extra memory to help out the base 16-bit system. For FMV-games, it really was about the best quality you could get until the DVD era. The platform itself is deeply flawed with many curious design decisions, but it has a large selection of entertainment, video, educational and game software. In fact, it's surprising game-wise what was released and how competitive many of those releases were to the same versions on other platforms.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Better to see the RETAIL release of Microcosm on the Amiga CD32 :)

[bas]

Hi, I'm interested to know what you mean with this:

The platform itself is deeply flawed with many curious design decisions

It's a pity the system is flawed as I think the potential was huge. What should have changed to give the CD-i any chance of succeeding....?

And I would love to see that infomercial too, unfortunately the guy who had it sold his collection on ebay. Maybe someday........

[hiphopcr]

I vaguely remember the CD-i being marketed as a quasi educational videogame system.