Interesting article on the CDi.

[Darth Sensei]

I hope it hasn't already been posted.

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3149883

Discuss.

[c0ldb33r]

Wow I didn't notice the similarities between the Wii (uggh - I'll never get used to that) controller and the CD-i controller.

I love reading about the CD-i. I've never owned one, and in fact never ever seen one, but I find it interesting.

Why did Nintendo bother with Sony/Phillips at all for the cd-rom attachment? Why not just make it themelves?


The company launched an aggressive advertising campaign, the height of which resulted in the nightly airing of two 30-minute infomercials pushing the CD-i on America's nocturnal population.

I used to love those infomercials :D

[Mr. Wardner]

I love reading about the CD-i. I've never owned one, and in fact never ever seen one, but I find it interesting.



You missed out on some good games! I personally liked Kether, Lost Eden (amazing soundtrack), Thunder in Paradise, Hotel Mario, Voyeur and the 7th Guest. The 7th Guest used the DV cartridge add-on that made it the best version in my opinion (MPEG-1 upgrade to the video capabilities gave super smooth transitions between scenes and puzzles in the mansion)!

[RevQuixo]

"Philips made with its first -- and last -- voyage into the gaming industry."


I guess 1up didn't do its research as Philips, a Dutch company, produced a number of rebranded Magnavox Pong clones in Europe in the early 70s as well as buying out and controlling Magnavox during the era of the Odyssey².


x_x

[Kitsune Sniper]

"With close to $1 billion lost on the CD-i since launch, Philips did its damnedest to save the console." (Taken from page two).

I find it very hard to believe that Philips actually spent so much money on the CD-i... especially because that's 1994 dollars. That's an insane amount of money for that time.

Talk about bad planning.

[c0ldb33r]

I find it very hard to believe that Philips actually spent so much money on the CD-i... especially because that's 1994 dollars. That's an insane amount of money for that time.
Agreed. That's an insane amount of money for any time.

[Murph74]

I actually enjoy the CDi system-- have 3 of them here (none hooked up in about 2 years though). In the late 90's I grabbed a couple to use as VCD players with the mpeg1 built in. As I got my first Highspeed connection, VCDs were a very attractive thing for me-- didn't last long though.

But I did get a huge set of CD-i software off Ebay for like $3 a disc all still shrinkwrapped. Most of them are STILL shrinked today. :)

My personal favorite game was Name that Tune-- not a bad party game among friends or family! It's also come in handy as a karaoke (CD+G) player. :)

Murph

[Ruudos]

"Philips made with its first -- and last -- voyage into the gaming industry."


I guess 1up didn't do its research as Philips, a Dutch company, produced a number of rebranded Magnavox Pong clones in Europe in the early 70s as well as buying out and controlling Magnavox during the era of the Odyssey².


x_x

That's right. The Philips Videopac (=Odyssey²) was pretty popular in Holland.

[Fighter17]

CD-i sucks, BURN IT!!!!!!!!!!!

[ShinobiMan]

My dad used to work for an electronics store when I was a kid and he had brought home a CD-i to play one night. We had it for a week. It was awful. Never played the Zelda games, but Hotel Mario was a joke as were all the educational and FMV games.

I barely consider this machine a gaming console. It really was pitiful. But I can see some of it's merits for youngsters and learning.

[wisekrak]

I recall when the CDI first came out. I was working in a game store at the time, and we had one on display. When the store was empty I was able to try some of the games. I was never really impressed with it and felt that the whole"Multimedia" angle was not the way to sell units. The controller/remote also sucked pretty bad. They finally did come out with a d-pad wired controller and that worked better.
My manager and I did have fun with it running the Dragon's Lair game on it for customers and we enjoyed watching this cocky big-mouth regular customer and self proclaimed "Dragon's Lair Expert" constantly die while trying to show off. The poor guy had no Idea that we were using the remote controller to make him choose the wrong actions. LOL
He would say "This is such a crappy conversion... the controller is messed up!" My manager would walk over to it and proceed much farther into the game and then hand it to him and say "seems fine to me... were you going to buy anything today?"

Ahh good times... :)

[Ponyone]

Man I always wanted a CD-i . Back then (and still) way into the whole FMV game thing. My favorite systems are sega cd and 3do (I think 3do is one of my most favorites of all time)

I used to sit and stare at the kiosk display at Service Merchandise (which is no more) playing that golf game and watching cuts from Burn Cycle

Cool article.

[exit]

Throughout the entire level, you'll hear babies crying, the off-key singing of nursery songs, and a woman yelling things like, "I never wanted children! YOU were the one who wanted children!" This continues on for many stages, culminating with the "old-age" level, which ends with your family telling you they don't love you, and that they can't wait for you to die. What a fun game!

ahaha what the hell, that Phantom Express game sounds like a bad acid trip. I'm surprised that game was even put in production, it still sounds very intriguing tho.