Games - CD-i

	Games - CD-i

CD-i or Compact Disc Interactive is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. CD-i also refers to the multimedia Compact Disc standard utilized by the CD-i console, also known as Green Book, which was co-developed by Philips and Sony in 1986. The first Philips CD-i player, released in 1991 and initially priced around USD $400, was capable of playing interactive CD-i discs, Audio CDs, CD+G (CD+Graphics), Karaoke CDs, and Video CDs (VCDs), though the last required an optional "Digital Video Card" to provide MPEG-1 decoding.

CD-i software

Early software releases in the CD-i format focused heavily on educational and self-improvement titles, with only a handful of video games, many of them adaptations of board games like "Connect Four". The most popular games for the system were The 7th Guest and Burn: Cycle. Later attempts to develop a foothold in the games market were rendered irrelevant by the arrival of cheaper and more powerful consoles, such as the Sony PlayStation. CD-i is noted for the release of several spinoffs of popular Nintendo video games featuring characters typically seen only on Nintendo consoles, although those games were not developed by Nintendo. Hotel Mario was a puzzle game that featured Super Mario Bros. characters and three Legend of Zelda games were released: Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Zelda's Adventure. Nintendo and Philips had secured an agreement to co-develop a CD-ROM enhancement for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Philips was contractually allowed to continue using Nintendo characters after the deal fell through.

Although extensively marketed by Philips, consumer interest in CD-i titles remained low. By 1994, sales of CD-i systems had begun to slow, and in 1998 the product line was dropped. With the home market exhausted, Philips tried with little success to position the technology as a tool for kiosks and industrial multimedia.

CD-i players

Philips

In addition to consumer models, professional and development players were sold by Philips Interactive Media Systems and their VARs. Philips marketed several CD-i player models.

The CD-i player 200 series, which included the 205, 210, and 220 models. Models in the 200 series were designed for general consumption, and were available at major home electronics outlets around the world. The Philips CD-i 910 was the American version of the CD-i 205, the most basic model in the series.

The CD-i player 300 series, which included the 310, 350, 360, and 370 models. The 300 series consisted of portable players designed for the professional market and not available to home consumers. A popular use was multimedia sales presentations such as those used by pharmaceutical companies to provide product information to physicians, as the devices could be easily transported by sales representatives.

The CD-i player 400 series, which included the 450, 470, 490 models. The 400 models were slimmed-down units aimed at console and educational markets. The CD-i 450 player, for instance, was a budget model designed to compete with game consoles. In this version an infared remote controller was not standard but optional.

The CD-i player 600 series, which included the 601, 602, 604, 605, 615, 660, and 670 models. The 600 series was designed for professional applications and software development. Units in this line generally included support for floppy disk drives and connected to computer keyboards and other computer peripherals. Some models could also be connected to an emulator and had software testing and debugging features.

There also exist a number of hard-to-categorize models, such as the FW380i, an integrated mini-stereo and CD-i player; the 21TCDi30, a television with a built-in CD-i device; and the CD-i 180/181/182 modular system, the first CD-i system produced.

Other Manufacturers

Besides Philips, several other manufacturers produced CD-i players, including Magnavox, GoldStar / LG Electronics, Digital Video Systems, Memorex, Grundig, Kyocera, NBS, Highscreen, and Bang-Olufsen, who produced a television with a built-in CD-i device.

Technical Specifications

CPU

16-bit 68070 CISC Chip (68000 core)
Clock Speed of 15.5 MHz

Display

Resolution: 384x280 to 768x560
Colors: 16.7 million w/ 32,768 on screen
MPEG 1 Cartridge Plug-In for VideoCD and Digital Video

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