Just scored a Philips CD-I, any recommendations???

[cheesystick]

Through a friend of a friend, I managed to score a Philips Cd-I in trade for a spare copy of "NiGHTS" for Saturn. I recieved:
-Philipcs Cd-I "sideloader" system with hookups. Any info on the difference in system types would be helpful.
-2 Controllers. One looks exactly like the original gravis PC gamepad. The other resembles more of a Saturn pad, minus the shoulder buttons and with fatty grips.
-Blue shooter gun
-Complete "Mad Dod Magee"
-Loose "Space Ace"

They guy who traded me the system warned me that the system was god-aweful. He said space ace was too slow and required percision timing (a la speeder bike levels of NES Battletoads). He then said that Mad dog Magee was just plain flawed in design. He stated that no matter where on the TV that he placed the "recieving eye" for the light gun, it would always somehow be off, which made the game unplayable. Despite this any other foul words I have heard about the system, I was excited to get it. Every system has its highlights, and I intend to find them.

Do you guys have any recommendations for the system? Any half decent light gun games on the system? Or any personal stories of the systems conception and downfall?
Any words would be appriciated.
Thanks,
-crispy

[Querjek]

Ha. Burn it. The only game I can recommend is Hotel Mario. And it's only good with a gamepad (BTW, if I could use a CD-i gamepad...)

[christianscott27]

you can always use it for watching VCDs, if you have any asian enclaves near you chances are you'll be able to find all kinds of crazy martial arts, anime, porn discs for dirt cheap. you probably have another device that could play them already or maybe not, its a novel use though.

[brandver3]

My advice is don't give into curiosity and play either Zelda game. You may say to yourself "oh it can't be that bad".

Heed my warning, play them not.

[Ed Oscuro]

My advice is don't give into curiosity and play either Zelda game. You may say to yourself "oh it can't be that bad".

Heed my warning, play them not.

Nah, play em. Just don't watch the cutscenes. Or do watch the cutscenes, THEN you'll be sorry.

(Totally not inspired by Titus: "Go ahead son, stick the penny in the wall socket")

A CD-i unit is nice, but I'd rather have a copy of NiGHTS.

[Jive3D]

Contrary to these fools above I AM a CD-i fan. got the system when it came out which makes me SICK that you got all that stuff for a copy of NiGHTs which goes for what, $20 bucks on eBay? Jeez, the system went for something like $1000 when it first came out.

Most of the games really were not all that great but a few games that are worth checking out are:

hotel mario - kind of a mario game, but not what you expect
burn cycle - I like the story, some hate it, but the music in the game was cool at the time (if you are into the electronic scene)
The Zelda games: if you are a zelda fan, its VERY worth checking these out, if only so you can properly bash them. They were fun at the time, ignore 'zeldas adventure' though.
Escape from Cyber city - it was a fun one back in the day
mega maze - it's what it sounds like, tons of puzzle-tastic mazes, if you are into that kinda thing.

There were a lot of crap games for the sytem, but that never stopped be from having fun with the few gems it had.

[Ed Oscuro]

I didn't pay much attention to the music in Burn: Cycle, besides noting that the crap that plays during the intro scene is OMG FARKING ANNOYING. Zelda's Adventure is said by some to be the best of the Zelda titles, and I do like the cover art. However, the FMV movie stuff is very much not a good thing. The other Zelda games really aren't as bad as some say; it's just that they could've been better drawn. Still, Link: The Faces of Evil has a nice big world, with some various nice mood setting pieces. The overworld map is awesome, really one of the better things I've seen on the system.

Hotel Mario is quite nice, but the constricted gameplay fields show all to clearly how little effort was put into games. Considering that the system has a Motorola 68070 (NOT a 68K or a 68040, which Sharp x68000 series computers and NeXt Cubes have, respectively) @ 15 MHz, and one MEGABYTE of RAM, standard (2.5 if you have a DV cart or a Philips 370 handheld system, with 512K set aside for MPEG decoding), it's hard to see how anybody in their right mind could manage to develop such crap games for it. One thing that's true of the system (at least the handheld), though, is it tends to become very hot quite quickly.

I need to see about getting and burning a copy of Super Mario World, 'cuz it should be lots of fun.

Football games and Caesar's Palace Boxing = suck.

[Swiftman007]

the cd-i have the best version of 7th guest

[Jive3D]

thats true I recall reading about how 7th guest was superior on CD-i.

But I had 7th guest. I played it first on the PC and then tried to play through on the CD-i and one of the puzzles in the kitchen didnt appear when it should have and hence I couldnt advance any further. So i got rid of it.

Funny how I thought that was scary, little did I know that RE was on the way...


And as far as Super Mario's Wacky Worlds - There are demos flying around the web, I have it and it's not fun to play at all, neat little piece of CD-i history though.

[Querjek]

And as far as Super Mario's Wacky Worlds - There are demos flying around the web, I have it and it's not fun to play at all, neat little piece of CD-i history though.

<THREADJACK>
Then maybe you can help me. My CD-i always reboots whenever I try to run my copy. Help! I wanna try this thing.

[Ed Oscuro]

Huh. The 7th Guest was alright on the CD-i, just got stuck with the game crashing after a maze puzzle. :( Still got a good deal of playtime in on it, though.

[BHvrd]

I've never had a glitchy game for my CD-i period. Seems I must have the good version or something. The system also has the best versions of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace i've ever played. *shrugs*

If you can get past the quirky nature of the "zelda games" you will actually find quite enjoyable games so don't just pass them up if you can get them. "Tetris" is great on the CD-i. "Litil Divil" is a pretty cool adventure game, I really loved it till I just couldn't figure out what to do. "Burn Cycle" is a must. "7th Guest" is of course great. "Chaos Control" is an interesting shooter if a bit stiff "worth trying". "Lemmings" is really good on the CD-i too.

The system really has some keepers and is nowhere near as bad as is lead to believe. I can't believe you got that kinda trade! Lucky you.

Stay away from games like Kether, Accelerator, Voyeur "you may like that one, not me though", and quite a few more or you may throw the system away, cause there are some really crap titles on the CD-i for sure, but alot of good too.

Btw, I never had a problem with Mad Dog McCree. Best version I ever played on a console. 3DO version, now that sucked.

[Pantechnicon]

Through a friend of a friend, I managed to score a Philips Cd-I in trade for a spare copy of "NiGHTS" for Saturn. I recieved:
-Philipcs Cd-I "sideloader" system with hookups. Any info on the difference in system types would be helpful.
-2 Controllers. One looks exactly like the original gravis PC gamepad. The other resembles more of a Saturn pad, minus the shoulder buttons and with fatty grips.
-Blue shooter gun
-Complete "Mad Dod Magee"
-Loose "Space Ace"

In addition to the controls you've mentioned, there was also a Koala-style touchpad controller available for this machine. I believe they were intended for use with some sort of art program but they might have other uses as well. I have 3 or 4 them, but ironically no CD-I machine of my own (long story behind that). Anyway, PM me if you're interested in one, some or all. Congrats on the acquisition in any case.

[esquire]

Contrary to these fools above I AM a CD-i fan. got the system when it came out which makes me SICK that you got all that stuff for a copy of NiGHTs which goes for what, $20 bucks on eBay? Jeez, the system went for something like $1000 when it first came out.

Hmmm... you paid full price for the CD-i? Now whose the fool?

I have a CD-i and several games for it, and quite frankly it's just not worth it. I rank it up there with the Atari 5200 as one of the suckiest consoles of all time. Why bother when the majority of games (except Hotel Mario) that most people recommend are available on other consoles, such as the 3DO, Sega CD, Jaguar CD, etc. None of the games really stand out as a must have or a reason to buy the system. If you really want a good version of Dragon's Lair or Space Ace, buy the DVD versions and play it on your DVD player. The quality and response time is way much better than the CD-i.

Personally, I'd sell the thing on ebay after the novelty of owning an obscure console wears off. More than likely it will just sit there and collect dust.

[Jorpho]

Cliff Johnson made a few games for the CD-i (Merlin's Apprentice, Labyrinth of Crete, and Hana Barbara's Cartoon Carnival). He's written some of the most engaging puzzle games I have ever seen.

Of course, there's not much point in getting those games for the CD-i since you can download the Windows versions for free from his website.