My Unhealthy obsession with the Phillips CDI

[Duncan]

Hey, enough bashing. If people have good memories of their CD-I playtime, then let them be! Just because they didn't have the "hot" system everyone else had at the time doesn't mean they need to be ridiculed for it.

For instance, my first video game experience came from...an RCA Studio II.

Like the Philips CD-I, the Studio II was a video game system from a company that normally dealt in "regular" electronics. All RCA knew is that they wanted to be able to call themselves a tech leader; they didn't care how they got there.

Also like the CD-I, the Studio II was up-to-date and impressive for about three seconds after it was released -- then it immediately retreated to the bargain bins and was quickly forgotten by most people.

But not me.

Set the Way-Back Machine to 1985. Our neighbors had upgraded to an Atari long ago (I forget which, but it was probably a 2600) and were willing to give us their old system -- the Studio II. Being kids, and knowing that video games were damn cool (the other neighbor had an Intellivision), we immediately wanted it. The parents agreed, and we plugged her in.

I have great memories of playing Bowling, Baseball, Speedway and the Doodle program. Yes, they were in black-and-white. Yes, they sucked (in hindsight) when compared to other systems. But when that's all you have, you do your best to make the very most of it.

And I suspect the same is true for the CD-I. So while Joe or others may not be a fan of Space Ace or Burn:Cycle, don't worry if you have a healthy obsession with those titles.

I understand fully -- I've still got my Studio II.

[Ed Oscuro]

Yeah, the bashing ended half a month ago, Duncan ;)

But as for "I suspect the same is true for the CD-I" ... perhaps, but Joe is probably the biggest CD-i fan out there (I'd say I'm very close, and I have a healthy respect for the thing as it was capable of much more than was released on it, especially with Super Mario World's CD-i port) and his comments about Space Ace are quite correct. I probably had more fun with that one than should be possible, though :)

[Classicgamesdepot]

Hehe this is probably a bad time to offer my collection of about 40 cdi titles for sale..?

BTW..pm me if your interested

[digitalpress]

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call myself a fan of the CD-i, Ed, but like everything else in gaming it has its place. Besides, if I were really BASHING it, would I have just plunked down $169.99 on a boxed portable CD-i?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...egory=187&rd=1

[Duncan]

Yeah, the bashing ended half a month ago, Duncan

I know I'm late.

And I don't care. :P

[Ed Oscuro]

Besides, if I were really BASHING it, would I have just plunked down $169.99 on a boxed portable CD-i?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...egory=187&rd=1

What'd I say, biggest fan of the CD-i. Especially considering you had the only bid on that monster (if I'd known about this I would've dropped a bid just for...no, wait, I wouldn't have because that wouldn't be right)! Well, that's a nicer find, I think, than my $300 "luggable" CD-i; I bet that one's a good deal smaller than mine - and I want one of these now! Actually, I think I might see about doing that. :)

[digitalpress]

Besides, if I were really BASHING it, would I have just plunked down $169.99 on a boxed portable CD-i?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...egory=187&rd=1

What'd I say, biggest fan of the CD-i. Especially considering you had the only bid on that monster (if I'd known about this I would've dropped a bid just for...no, wait, I wouldn't have because that wouldn't be right)! Well, that's a nicer find, I think, than my $300 "luggable" CD-i; I bet that one's a good deal smaller than mine - and I want one of these now! Actually, I think I might see about doing that.

I was the only bidder because I used "Buy it Now"... and I'm pretty sure there was another one just like it when I did that, so QUICK!

[Ed Oscuro]

Yep there sure was at least one other...I have no extra money though.

[Mega D]

I remember that old CDI infomercial, with a guy who was looking for the meaning of life. Yeah, you heard me. And I remember trying it out at a local electronics store all the time. I liked it, but I guess it was because I had been used to old Nintendo and Genesis stuff at the time. I remember the games they had there. They Had this golf game the first time I saw it, then an anime game of some kind called "Escape from Cyber City", then a pinball game, then "Burn Cycle", and then some weird maze game that I think was called "Kether".

I wouldn't mind getting my hands on this system. I've played and enjoyed cheesy games before, wouldn't mind playing a few more.

[LouLee7th]

I've been a member here for a bit and really don't post at all, but I really felt the need to interject. I own all but 15 of the Philips Cd-I titles, I am a huge collector of that system and while yes, the games were really cheesy, there were some games that for their time were REALLY good.

Defender of the Crown: Hands-down the BEST version of the game before the new one was released. Cd-I made this game awesome and it really is a classic game.

Name That Tune: The whole concept of this was way before its time. The FMV with Bob Gowen wasn't anything special, but the actual concept of hearing a melody of a song and having to guess it was really cool. A next generation system NEEDS to make a game like this, which would be awesome for parties.

Pinball: Definitely before its time. The game was really really cool, the graphics were cool, and you could choose 4 different machines, all of which were fairly unique.

Clue: I'm a big board game junkie and I was SO dissapointed with SNES's interpretation of the Clue series. My favorite Clue game was actually Clue: Master Detective for the Apple system. Cd-I did these games very well, adding elements from the board game into the game.

A Great Day at the Races: Before Winning Post came out for the Saturn (which is my all-time favorite game ever) this was the ONLY horse racing game in North America, period. You could bet, watch the races, and Trevor from Hollywood Park called all of the races. It was unique, and no other system had attempted anything like it.

Like I said, I don't post here that often, because I'm really not an expert on a lot of systems and some of the people's collections on here blow me out of the water. But I played this system a ton and really know that there were GOOD games for it. Did the Link and the Zelda games suck? Yeah, I definitely thought they did. And I think this system got a bad reputation BECAUSE of the high expecations that the Zelda franchise upholds. This system DID have good games for it, and I recommend it to anyone that wants to try something completely different. Just my two cents...

Lou