There used to be a secondhand games shop in Chicago, named People Play Games. One day I walked in, and Hotel Mario was on a shelf right next to The Joy of Sex. They denied it was a true sequel, but I'm still not sure.
Man, growing up, I remember wanting a CD-i so bad. As it turns out, the best part of the CD-i were their infomercials, sadly. Just think if the CD-i actually was successful... Nintendo would have inadvertently spawned two competitors.
same here. those informercials and nintendo properties on it had child-me wanting one BAD. later on, my brother got obsessed with the 3do and tried to talk me into selling the snes to buy one. so glad i didn't agree
@@soundred1254 I do think of any of the failed systems / game companies that we saw in this era, 3DO / Panasonic had the best chance of entering into the big boy ring of console developers. 2 million sales might be abysmal, but that still means the 3DO sold as much as the Sega CD, and they still were able to beat many other companies who were directly competing, like Atari with the Jaguar and Sega with the 32x. Or maybe this is all my bias for the 3DO, idk
Are you talking about the Tetris Effect vinyl set? That has teh music from teh CD-i version of tetris on it? If So I may have to buy it, I've seen it at my local record store but it was kind of expensive.
The CD-i does digital video exceptionally well, which I think is a testament to both Philips' technological prowess back then and their entirely shortsighted focus on selling it as a multimedia player. Later on in its life, they heavily marketed it as a gaming machine (with Phil Hartman of all people in the TV commercials), but by then it was way too late and those who knew about it (I saw a CD-i kiosk regularly as a kid when my mom would go to Sears and I'd wander off in the electronics section, only to be mesmerized by the Sega CD sitting right next to it) knew that its library was mostly non-gaming junk, and the games that were available were not even second-rate. As it was, the CD-i was a couple years late to market, and I think like the 3DO (which also was mostly marketed at first as a multimedia machine), the concept was just a bit too far ahead of its time. The hardware definitely has some limitations, but it could have been a competent 16-bit competitor, had Philips had any marketing cachet and more importantly, good games. The CD-i desperately needed quality third-party support, since they didn't have killer titles like Sega and NIntendo did. Having said that, it's hard to see how even under the best circumstances it could have ever significantly competed with the SNES and Genesis. It was too expensive and couldn't really offer enough from a gameplay perspective over the competition to warrant a purchase. Philips made a valiant attempt to keep the system alive, and there are a handful of games that are, at the very least, curiosities that might tempt at least one play-through. My favorite game is Burn:Cycle, which luckily saw a PC release which is what I owned back then (I still would like to try playing the CD-i version some day). It's got a rather Johnny Mnemonic cyberpunk vibe to it that I totally love, and the acting isn't even that bad. It's one of the better examples of FMV integration in games, especially for the time, even if the gameplay still ends up being a bit on the shallow end. I'd probably buy a CD-i for Burn:Cycle alone (for the right price). And that's what I think the CD-i ends up being: a curiosity of a console that you buy for maybe 4 or 5 peculiar games that you like in spite of their flaws (Thunder in Paradise, anyone?). It's like the 3DO, but with older technology and a far more limited and mediocre library. Still, it has its diehard fans (just ask Yahel) and it will always have a cult following.
The soundtrack for Tetris for the CDI changed my life. It's the best vaporwave album I've ever heard - years before it's creation. Absolutely fantastic, super dank. Happy to see it mentioned.
The really funny thing about The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe is that if they'd included Mapplethorpe's other photography, the game would've certainly gotten an Adults Only rating. At least the game would've been more interesting that way.
The Phillips CDi had PHENOMENAL graphics and sound capabilities for the time period. It's a shame it didn't get any quality software. I'm sure a talented developer could have really made this hardware pop. Remember, this was in the league of the Genesis and SNES.
While the CDI had vastly more processing power, system memory, vram, available colors, and other technical advantages from being both newer and in a higher pricing class, it was not designed to be a videogame console primarily, and as such, didn't have proprietary graphics modes specific to scrolling layers of graphics and sprites like an SNES, Genesis, or arcade hardware. Look how shitty and choppy that Zelda game looks. Early 90s MS-DOS games had this disadvantage as well. Programmers had to write software to draw sprites and scroll backgrounds in painstakingly slow fashion where consoles with 1/10th or less power handle with ease.
I have a soft spot for my CDi 210, 450 and 470. I also pretty much have all the games, mods and accessories. I also fixed my time keeper chips on all of them. Ace 😎
@@jay1185 I wouldn't have liked it back then, either. There's zero interactivity in the game, the puzzles don't make any sense, and the FMV clips are annoying and repetitive. There's no spooky atmosphere to the game whatsoever. The best (and simultaneously most annoying) thing about the game is Stauf. 7th Guest is a prime example of a game that takes individual game elements from various games and puts them together, only to fail at making them into a cohesive whole. It doesn't execute any of the particular game elements well at all. What grates me the most is it's often categorized as an adventure game, which it most certainly is not. It's a puzzle game at best.
So it's all led up to this, it is amazing how much has been collected for this video. Considering the fact that (at least in Europe) is hard to come by most of the consoles, games and accessories covered in this video, especially the genuine games and without burning your wallet. And the fact that some of the games were burned, shows how rare and hard to get these games are. It is a shame that not as many people will experience playing games on the CD-I, compared to it's competitors and contemporaries of the time due to it's rareness and value.
Nice CD-i overview! One note, and it's super minor, but worth pointing out: the CD-i release of The Joy of Sex did not have any ESRB rating. Note that the screenshot you provided was of the cover of the Macintosh computer version. The CD-i release pre-dated ESRB ratings. Other than that, thanks for continuing to show the CD-i some love!
The CD-I was such an.....interesting system. It's like it didn't exist in our reality, it seems like so many other devices that I confuse it with them.
i tried emulating the CD-i, after several attempts i got it running through MAME of all things. That was years ago and i was told that there was ONE developer working on CD-i emulation in MAME and he was the only one actively working on it, period. Which means you need the roms in CHD format, not in .cue + .bin like you would get from a REDUMP set. I think either Sound or Videos was completely missing, some specific module was completely un-emulated and un-documented anyway (i think it was sound), but i managed to walk through a few Zelda levels... and that was all that i bothered to do.
also try escape from cyber city. It was a game that actually used the video so it would be specific to cdi. Altho if it was ever ported To MAME it might be better there
Gotta say, I really love these videos of yours covering obscure systems like the CD-i. It was your videos on it that convinced me to get a 3DO, keep it up and you might convince me to cop a refurbished CD-i.
I remember a couple of decently interesting games on the CD-i, Namely Laser Lords and Mutant Rampage Bodyslam, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few other hidden ""gems"" on the CD-i just waiting to be found honestly.
My friend had a CD-I back in the day. My mind was blown by the animation and voice clips in Link. I thought the game was pretty amazing. Granted, up till then I had only played NES and SNES games.
Good old times. In 1994-1995 I worked on CD-I productions for Philips at the first Interactive agency in The Netherlands. This was just before internet was a “thing”. Fun fact: When the CD-I for 2 Unlimited was made the two singers / artists where not on speaking terms anymore with each other and that is why they where recorded separately. We made many other CD-I’s, Philips paid well :)
the CDi was a very competent CD player, it performed extremely well compared to a ton of mid range to high end CD players at that time making it a very good deal and the very last CDi produced, the CDi-740 is one of the best CD players of the entire decade with it's advanced features and high build quality (very rare model, rarely ever comes up for sale).
Took me a bit that he was 0utting the video into the Rick and morty clip because as he had said it would fit right into the interdementional channel concept.
Thanks for shedding some light into this machine! There are surely not many other videos like this out there, and none of them has shown the beauty of some games you showcased here... I am tempted to try them out some day!
At 9:24, the "Super Exploding Pizza II" logo is a direct parody/reference to Super Street Fighter II, specifically the box art. With that and the Room/Doom parody, I'd be curious if the other games also had title screens that were parodies of popular contemporary games.
The cdi is so bad!! I love it!! The 7th guest wasn't bad and dragons lair was ok My mum got me mine from the car boot and I couldn't believe Mario and zelda was available on it I was scratching my head at the time
The Philips CD-I was released before I started high school, but it gained notoriety during my high school years. I have a lot of nostalgia for this console and really enjoyed it back then. When I revisit some of the games now, I often think, "What was I thinking?" Yet, I still absolutely love it.
10:40 You were not wrong. During the video game explosion of the early 90's a lot of companies wanted to jump on the bandwagon cuz it seemed like easy money. Most of them had no idea how to actually make video games. The good side of the coin is that we actually got a lot of innovation and cool new ideas and some software and hardware advancements out of that ignorance. The bad news is we also got tons of garbage hardware and software. Many of them thought you could just hire a random programmer fresh out of college and they would do whatever you wanted. Eventually some managers realized you needed different kinds of coders as well as artists and other talent. Thats why there was a sharp increase in the number of tech startups during that time period, and why so many of them disappeared after a short while. You used to be able to get catalogs thru mail order and find hundreds if not thousands of new and crappy games, many of them made by one person businesses. Some guys actually made out alright and would either start or join proper software companies. And of course piracy and intellectual theft were very common back then. A lot of people referred to it as the Wild West era of computing.
I'm shocked that emulation of the CD-i is so difficult. It's not an overly complicated machine. The 68000 used in it is fairly weak - there was a couple of years delay between designing the hardware and actually getting production started, and the new models of the 68000 had gotten a higher clock speed by that point but they didn't integrate that into the design. I have a 450 model, with the bad disc eject issue, along with a bunch of accessories I'd picked up here and there. I do have the Apprentice along with Hotel Mario and the two Link games (which are those "demonstration only - not for sale" kind). I picked it up just for the novelty of it. Back when I really hunted thrift stores like crazy I'd find software for it but there weren't a lot of games in the mix. There just wasn't a market for that kind of multimedia machine. Instead of spending $300 for something that's sort of computer-like, most people would rather spend $1200 to get an actual computer. You could always look into the Memorex VIS next. It was a consolised 286 PC sold through Radio Shack stores, so it sold like garbage. But at least it'd be easier to emulate.
I think part of is because there's simply a lack of interest in emulating it. The PSVita has a similar problem, it's not an overly complex system (definitely easier to work with than, say, the PS3). Until recently, there wasn't an Xbox emulator despite every other 6th gen system (including the Wii which is about as powerful) having one.
@@calzonemaniacsvideocorner0804 the Xbox is probably an excellent point of comparison. In theory it's not a hard system to emulate, but there's not much software that makes it worth the time or effort. The Xbox is slightly better served than the CDi in that regard, but a lot of the exclusives - particularly the "heavy hitters" like Halo, were natively on PC.
I think the main part of the problem is lack of doccumentation. A 68k is easy to emulate sure, but what the graphics? Obviously people have worked around it since Mame has at least some support, but I can't imagine it was trivial. Another sticking point will be the Digital Video Cartridge. Good luck finding documentation on that.
good luck trying to get it work. have tried either Retro Arch 'Same CDI' or 'Mess' So many people have problems trying to play CDI emulation and even if they manage to there are only a handful of games that actually run. CDI emulation needs a renaissance like the Jaguar emulator 'BigPEmu' Jaguar CD games for the longest time were not emulated and someone came along and not only made an incredible jaguar emulator with all the modern features and then some but shortly after got Jaguar CD games running great. this is what many of the older systems need. there is plenty of demand and support for later systems like the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 3, GameCube and an infinite number of NES and SNES emulators already. Best to close out all the oldest systems first and then all resources can be focused on recent and current systems.
Finally came across a solution that actually works... well for me anyway. Check out the video 'Steam Deck: Philips CD-i Emulation (EmuDeck / ES-DE / RetroArch)' For me it has to do with the Bios files and this uploaded guides you to get the correct ones. I just tested some CDI games with Retro Arch + Same_Cdi emulator core. Burn Cycle Hotel Mario Caeser's Palace Space Ranger all work However FMV games do NOT work as apparently the 'Video cartridge' that the CDI uses has not be emulated yet. So many of the bigger games and FMVs will not work until this has been emulated.
I know I'm commenting on an old vid, but I feel most compelled to mention: DAMN GOOD JOB ON THIS VID, SIR!!! This is the best video practical-summary of the CD-i console and many of its products. I used to work in a Philips semiconductor fab once upon a time, and I understand why the CD-i was a promising system turned mediocre ultimately by incompetence within the company. But that is beside the point. Thank you so much for this vid!
Answer: Yes. And that's why it's worthy of historical archiving and preservation for future generations... No one sets out to make a crap games console. The missteps on the CD-I journey are worthy of discussion and note. Might even make a great film lol. All the best.
@@darthkai8242 It's one of the few 'devices' I'd happily let slide unacknowledged into history. The 'sole' thing anybody would want to use it for is to play VideoCDs (not anything CDI specific) - and there were so many other devices that could do this (and as VideoCd was mainly an asian piracy standard, nobody was buying that CDI to play them)
The funny thing is that you're right. It's always the trash that ends up being the rarest. Since no one really cared about the console, there isn't as much documentation for it, nor great ways to get the system running again (that battery shit looks horrifying). And since it was a commercial failure, any console or media for it is going to be increasingly rare.
@@darthkai8242 i agree 👍. the cdi was marketed to rich people. It was more expensive than a Neo Geo iirc. At store I seen it at they had a huge area set up an the golf game was on. It wasn't a store with childrens toys. It might have been the long gone *Service Merchandise* It was a cd player in times when A. People knew what CDs were an B. times when they may be very expensive.
Tetris does go with mellow music -- look to Tetris Effect on PS4. Zenith reminds me of some games on C64 and Amiga that also involve controlling a forward-moving, bouncing ball.
1:58 This is the same way the Sega CD Model 2 works. I really like it, it's nice to just set the disc in and pick it up instead of snapping it down and popping it off. That said, I did break the wobbly thing on top once and it was a pain in the neck to repair.
For 25 years I looked for the game Burn Cycle without knowing it's name, what the weird controller I played on was. If it was even real or just some fever dream... Then I figured out why I couldn't find it. IT's a CD-i game that got a really bad PC port in 1996. On a very unpopular console that made games that look like the games on computers in disney movies from the late 90's.
Cdi was my first system actually lol. I have alot of childhood memories with it. I feel it had alot of potential for its time if they focused more on gaming
Wow you answered a life long nagging memory question I had been living with. When I was a kid in the early 90s I had played a video game console at a block buster that was on display. It was that Tetris you showed! I have been wondering what console it was for years. I had assumed it was an early playstation or maybe a sega saturn version of Tetris but when I would look through their library of games nothing like it I could fine. I remember just being so mesmerized by the music and background scenery. I can't thank you enough! Not knowing what version of Tetris and what console I had played that on has bugged me my whole life. I was really young (like 7-9?) so I couldn't remember or probably didn't even know at the time what console it was. This kind of makes me want to get a CD-i so I can get it. I hadn't actively looked for what version of Tetris it was in probably a decade but its always been a memory that has stuck with me.
Nobody ever mentions that you can use a simple backup cable to save your save games to a PC. You also don't need to dremmel out the battery, just wire up a new battery to the pins.
Films on the CD-i makes me think that that format was the prototype for the DVD. 5:38 That controller was, indeed, made by Gravis for use for the CD-i.
I see people cutting away at the chip to replace the battery and this works but seems wrong. If you can solder or know someone who does just solder a socket in place and buy a new chip. With a socket you can easily replace the chip again if needed. I have always been curious if a mod could be done to allow using interchangeable chips mounted on boards. They timekeeper is still sold and last time I bought one it was like 8 bucks. There is a chip shortage so maybe they have went up. Still seems the better option.
My granddad had pinbal and van Goch on the CDI. In the pinbal game we got the bal stuck between two of those bouncy things which had resulted in a high score if not for the required reset.
I remember you mentioning that you bought your CD-i from a specific seller who dealt with its ticking time bomb and a couple other things and that doing so, selling CD-i consoles after modifying them, was kind of his thing. Do you know if he's still doing this and, if so, where to find him? I've been seriously thinking about getting one of these, but I only want to do so if I can find one that's in this more ready-to-go condition.
It's maybe a bit more secured by the 3 spring-loaded ball bearings in the spindle, but the disc tray in the PS3 Super Slim works pretty much the same way. It's pretty universal that it's the last cost reduction to an optical drive, saves you a motor. On the plus side it's more reliable in the long term because of one less part that can break, its' why so many 1st generation Sega CDs are dead but the 2nd generation ones with the spring loaded lid are still going.
I had a CD-I back in the 90’s. Cost me $550. I got it so I could play Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace. Then I also came to love Kingdom. I liked the fact that not many had the system and it was like a secret. Ha. The games weren’t always good but I had a lot of fun. I did enjoy Zelda’s Adventure.
Your CD of Zelda's Adventure didn't work because it was burned at an incorrect speed. CD-i will read burned CDs with no throuble only if you burn them on slower speeds, the lower, the better. I had to get myself a very old CD drive that could burn CDs at speed 2.
It has that 90s optimism oozing out of it. Play any CD-I game, even a bad one, and it's like the present day, with all its cynicism just vanishes. It's a real time capsule.
My family bought a CD-I back in the day. We didn't have a whole lot of worthwhile software, but the ones I remember us having the most fun with were that pinball game, which after watching this, has not aged well visually, and a word puzzle game called Text Tiles. We had a big track ball controller that looks like it had been designed by Fisher Price. I still have the system, most of the software, the funky track ball controller, AND THE ORIGINAL RECEIPT FROM WHEN WE PURCHASED THE DAMN THING!! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME?!
Interesting 👍😊 It's the same for the Game Boy Advance. It may look like a "simple" portable Snes. But actually is WAY more than that "technically speaking" 😉
You say that CD-i emulation is still difficult, but I remember running some games on MAME, and they ran quite good. That was around 2-3 years ago. I even remember having to convert the ISOs to CHDs so I could boot them up properly. I know that running things on MAME isn't the easiest thing, but it worked well enough for me to play both Zeldas and Hotel Mario. The only thing it lacks is, of course, the Digital Video Cartridge, but that's only a matter of time and resources.
The CDI, 3DO and Sega CD sucked because the library of games were mostly lame and for the time they were GROSSLY over-priced for what they were worth to any consumer. They were low budget junk games and pure gimmick.
i'd like to see internet demonstrated (or at least simulated) on the more advanced CD-i consoles. i know one of them even had printer support, even online shopping. just interesting to see how a cd-i was attempting to make the PC experience into a TV console experience. for $400-800, it really wasn't a bad price considering PCs at the time ran between $1500-2800. the CD-i was just badly designed and could have been so much more. liken it to someone buying an xbox one S and using it for doc/web/print (yes it can do all this) for about $250 vs a $1200 desktop from best buy (sadly the days of DIY for under $300 are over).
I remember seeing a late night infomercial on CD-i and thinking to myself it looked kinda interesting. About a month later it was DEAD. Seems making the infomercial was the last ditch effort to sell more units. Glad I didn't take the bait!
0:44 I disagree that the CD-i was like an earlier 3DO. Unlike the CD-i, the 3DO was always supposed to be a game machine and its hardware specs proves that. The CD-i was more like an earlier DVD player because it was designed to be a video player that can run interactive software that could be entertaining (i.e. games). I mean, the default means to control the CD-i is an IR remote that's designed like a TV/VCR remote, hardly conducive for game playing.
1991: Phillips CD-I releases 1995: US patent laws change to allow for a max term of 20 years provided the patent owner keep up with payments 1998: CD-I discontinued 2006: Wii releases 2012: Wii-U releases 2014: Phillips sues Nintendo for patent infringement and wins This timeline is so absurd. Not only did they wait for 8 years to sue, but they expected the courts to believe they paid upkeep on a patent they weren't doing anything with for 16 years. And on top of that, 2012 let alone 2014 is more than 20 years after 1991. Surely this would've been way past the statute of limitation. This is some patent troll shit.
I had this system before the PS1 came out I took it back. I had golf game for it CBS golf. The power meter sucked. It was a rectangle box that went outward fast to. Putting and driving was a pain.
In Mutant Body Rampage was that supposed to be Doc Brown and Marty Mcfly? What was good about the CDi? Not the FMVs, games,controller or price of the system. Even that Genesis looking controller only had 2 actual action buttons since the third one according to what you said about it was just linking to 2 others so when you mashed it it was just like mashing button 1 and 2 at the same time. I guess the one good thing abut it it at least it had better FMV than the Sega CD.
Oh my god, I've seen the Mutant Rampage cutscenes before, but I never thought about how they sound exactly like an interdimensional cable clip from Rick and Morty. That edit had me in stitches.
I remember CDi being in the Library at our elementary when it came out. A lot of the kids wanted to use it, but I thought it was stupid and a poor way to spend my library time while waiting to get home and play actual video games. Though I have to say, Jetsons and Flintstones were still an everyday cartoon in the 90s. They played just as often as Bugs, Roadrunner, etc. The new cartoons didn't have reruns clogging up the airwaves yet, so the majority of what we saw as kids throughout the day were those older cartoons. They were still considered relevant.
Zenith reminds me of that one unreleased Virtual Boy game about the bouncing ball. Bound High. Looks like at least one variation of that idea saw the light of day. That makes me happy.
There IS decent CD-i emulation on MAME. The only caveat is that it doesn't support the digital video cartridge as of yet. It's tricky to run MAME from a command line, however, it has a GUI (and many other 3rd party GUIs as a holdover from back when it didn't) and setting it up with a launcher isn't too bad. Google and youtube will provide plenty of tutorials for getting it working no matter which option you choose. Sadly, Mutant Rampage Bodyslam is one of the games that uses the DVC.
That still sounds like too much of a hassle for me. All the tutorials I came across were like 11 years old, are there more recent videos or has it been stagnant since then?
Im sorry, the cdi required a separate cartridge to play video cds??? What is the point of the cdi again? I thought one of its big selling points was “can play video cds”
I thought red white and yellow is the same as SCART out as they had the SCART adapters? Wtf im shocked if thats not true lol. Hope someone replies to this!? 😄
In fact I'm sure it's the same as you had cables that started as either SCART or the cables out and ended in the opposite for your TVs available port??
Hotel Mario and the Zelda CD-i games are probably best known for their heavily parodied cutscenes. "I hope she made lotsa spaghetti!" "All toasters toast toast!" "I wonder what's for dinner..."
Still have my CD-i 220 from back in the day. If you used it as a multimedia device it was great. Playing Music CD's, video-CD's and playing games while connected to a good sound setup was excellent and quite revolutionary at the time here. Still games weren't great but I still have fond memories of Dragons Lair and Burn:Cycle.
There used to be a secondhand games shop in Chicago, named People Play Games. One day I walked in, and Hotel Mario was on a shelf right next to The Joy of Sex. They denied it was a true sequel, but I'm still not sure.
The Joy of Sex is a sequel to Hotel Mario? That makes so much sense
OHH i remember People Play Games, so sad i never got the chance to go inside there
Finally, all my questions have answers! The sequel really explains a lot
Mario teaching people how to lay pipe lmao
It's based on Nintendo's love hotels.
Man, growing up, I remember wanting a CD-i so bad. As it turns out, the best part of the CD-i were their infomercials, sadly. Just think if the CD-i actually was successful... Nintendo would have inadvertently spawned two competitors.
same here. those informercials and nintendo properties on it had child-me wanting one BAD. later on, my brother got obsessed with the 3do and tried to talk me into selling the snes to buy one. so glad i didn't agree
Imagine a world where Phillips, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo were all at each other's throats
@@mangleman25 that would be cool. Imagine all the exclusives Sega and Phillips would have today. Heck even add on the 3DO and see what they would do.
@@soundred1254 I do think of any of the failed systems / game companies that we saw in this era, 3DO / Panasonic had the best chance of entering into the big boy ring of console developers. 2 million sales might be abysmal, but that still means the 3DO sold as much as the Sega CD, and they still were able to beat many other companies who were directly competing, like Atari with the Jaguar and Sega with the 32x.
Or maybe this is all my bias for the 3DO, idk
@@mangleman25 really if the 3DO was just done better and they didn’t make as many mistakes as they did then the 3DO would have been successful.
Tetris got a licensed vinyl soundtrack in 2019. Fully endorsed by the composer. It’s fantastic proto-chill wave .
I regularly listen to it on TH-cam. Definitely one of the best game soundtracks period.
Holy crap that’s awesome
Makes me think of 90s workout or infomercial music.
Are you talking about the Tetris Effect vinyl set? That has teh music from teh CD-i version of tetris on it? If So I may have to buy it, I've seen it at my local record store but it was kind of expensive.
Mmwjheeehb
The CD-i does digital video exceptionally well, which I think is a testament to both Philips' technological prowess back then and their entirely shortsighted focus on selling it as a multimedia player. Later on in its life, they heavily marketed it as a gaming machine (with Phil Hartman of all people in the TV commercials), but by then it was way too late and those who knew about it (I saw a CD-i kiosk regularly as a kid when my mom would go to Sears and I'd wander off in the electronics section, only to be mesmerized by the Sega CD sitting right next to it) knew that its library was mostly non-gaming junk, and the games that were available were not even second-rate.
As it was, the CD-i was a couple years late to market, and I think like the 3DO (which also was mostly marketed at first as a multimedia machine), the concept was just a bit too far ahead of its time. The hardware definitely has some limitations, but it could have been a competent 16-bit competitor, had Philips had any marketing cachet and more importantly, good games. The CD-i desperately needed quality third-party support, since they didn't have killer titles like Sega and NIntendo did.
Having said that, it's hard to see how even under the best circumstances it could have ever significantly competed with the SNES and Genesis. It was too expensive and couldn't really offer enough from a gameplay perspective over the competition to warrant a purchase. Philips made a valiant attempt to keep the system alive, and there are a handful of games that are, at the very least, curiosities that might tempt at least one play-through. My favorite game is Burn:Cycle, which luckily saw a PC release which is what I owned back then (I still would like to try playing the CD-i version some day). It's got a rather Johnny Mnemonic cyberpunk vibe to it that I totally love, and the acting isn't even that bad. It's one of the better examples of FMV integration in games, especially for the time, even if the gameplay still ends up being a bit on the shallow end. I'd probably buy a CD-i for Burn:Cycle alone (for the right price).
And that's what I think the CD-i ends up being: a curiosity of a console that you buy for maybe 4 or 5 peculiar games that you like in spite of their flaws (Thunder in Paradise, anyone?). It's like the 3DO, but with older technology and a far more limited and mediocre library. Still, it has its diehard fans (just ask Yahel) and it will always have a cult following.
The soundtrack for Tetris for the CDI changed my life. It's the best vaporwave album I've ever heard - years before it's creation. Absolutely fantastic, super dank. Happy to see it mentioned.
The really funny thing about The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe is that if they'd included Mapplethorpe's other photography, the game would've certainly gotten an Adults Only rating. At least the game would've been more interesting that way.
What was it called? "Robert Mapplethorpe's sadomasochism"?
The Phillips CDi had PHENOMENAL graphics and sound capabilities for the time period. It's a shame it didn't get any quality software. I'm sure a talented developer could have really made this hardware pop. Remember, this was in the league of the Genesis and SNES.
While the CDI had vastly more processing power, system memory, vram, available colors, and other technical advantages from being both newer and in a higher pricing class, it was not designed to be a videogame console primarily, and as such, didn't have proprietary graphics modes specific to scrolling layers of graphics and sprites like an SNES, Genesis, or arcade hardware. Look how shitty and choppy that Zelda game looks. Early 90s MS-DOS games had this disadvantage as well. Programmers had to write software to draw sprites and scroll backgrounds in painstakingly slow fashion where consoles with 1/10th or less power handle with ease.
they actually probably could've made a good game on it. they wanted to make mario world 2 (again).
I have a soft spot for my CDi 210, 450 and 470. I also pretty much have all the games, mods and accessories. I also fixed my time keeper chips on all of them. Ace 😎
I thought Ace hung out with the seventh doctor
Did you like Escape From Cyber city?
that arcade game is what drew me to it the most
I am surprised you didn't showcase The 7th. Guest. It actually got better music than the PC release.
I love 7th guest on PC. I did not know it came out on the CD-I!! 😲
7th Guest is a terrible "game." I made the mistake of buying into the hype and getting it off of GOG. I don't understand why people like it so much.
@@rars0n The puzzle designs, the soundtrack and the corny 90's FMV aesthetic.
@@rars0n I guess you had to be there for the original CD-ROM era experience.
@@jay1185 I wouldn't have liked it back then, either. There's zero interactivity in the game, the puzzles don't make any sense, and the FMV clips are annoying and repetitive. There's no spooky atmosphere to the game whatsoever. The best (and simultaneously most annoying) thing about the game is Stauf.
7th Guest is a prime example of a game that takes individual game elements from various games and puts them together, only to fail at making them into a cohesive whole. It doesn't execute any of the particular game elements well at all. What grates me the most is it's often categorized as an adventure game, which it most certainly is not. It's a puzzle game at best.
So it's all led up to this, it is amazing how much has been collected for this video. Considering the fact that (at least in Europe) is hard to come by most of the consoles, games and accessories covered in this video, especially the genuine games and without burning your wallet. And the fact that some of the games were burned, shows how rare and hard to get these games are. It is a shame that not as many people will experience playing games on the CD-I, compared to it's competitors and contemporaries of the time due to it's rareness and value.
Really? I've had 3 in 10 years (Sweden) and I imagine Netherlands being a good place to look too
Honestly in American they aren't easy either since that Watch Battery they have, and because not too many bought them, and even less took care of them
Nice CD-i overview! One note, and it's super minor, but worth pointing out: the CD-i release of The Joy of Sex did not have any ESRB rating. Note that the screenshot you provided was of the cover of the Macintosh computer version. The CD-i release pre-dated ESRB ratings. Other than that, thanks for continuing to show the CD-i some love!
The CD-I was such an.....interesting system. It's like it didn't exist in our reality, it seems like so many other devices that I confuse it with them.
Was always hoping for a sequel called "The OTHER Pictures of Robert Mapplethorpe" 😉
Robert Mapplethorpes pictures of your mom
Dang I wasn't the only one to comment on that
You must be a BDSM fan.
Nothing else like a good bullwhip sticking out of someone's butthole.
Possibly pictures from the time he was around, likely mountainscapes, gardens, and pretty scenery.
i tried emulating the CD-i, after several attempts i got it running through MAME of all things.
That was years ago and i was told that there was ONE developer working on CD-i emulation in MAME and he was the only one actively working on it, period.
Which means you need the roms in CHD format, not in .cue + .bin like you would get from a REDUMP set.
I think either Sound or Videos was completely missing, some specific module was completely un-emulated and un-documented anyway (i think it was sound), but i managed to walk through a few Zelda levels... and that was all that i bothered to do.
this video was so worth waiting for. I just knew the CDI had to have something good on it
@RazorBackX PSP has a bunch of good stuff on it that's still exclusive to it to this day
also try escape from cyber city. It was a game that actually used the video so it would be specific to cdi. Altho if it was ever ported To MAME it might be better there
Gotta say, I really love these videos of yours covering obscure systems like the CD-i. It was your videos on it that convinced me to get a 3DO, keep it up and you might convince me to cop a refurbished CD-i.
The CD-i is the unholiest grail of any videogame collection.
@@arturocevallossoto5203 That would be the Game-Com. Not the CD-i
I remember a couple of decently interesting games on the CD-i, Namely Laser Lords and Mutant Rampage Bodyslam, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few other hidden ""gems"" on the CD-i just waiting to be found honestly.
You seem familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?
@@AmaroqStarwind I'm not sure, The only Amaroq that I recall is a character in "No Evil" by Betsy Lee...
My friend had a CD-I back in the day. My mind was blown by the animation and voice clips in Link. I thought the game was pretty amazing. Granted, up till then I had only played NES and SNES games.
Good old times. In 1994-1995 I worked on CD-I productions for Philips at the first Interactive agency in The Netherlands. This was just before internet was a “thing”. Fun fact: When the CD-I for 2 Unlimited was made the two singers / artists where not on speaking terms anymore with each other and that is why they where recorded separately. We made many other CD-I’s, Philips paid well :)
One of my friends knows people who worked on the Zelda games. They are Russian.
the CDi was a very competent CD player, it performed extremely well compared to a ton of mid range to high end CD players at that time making it a very good deal and the very last CDi produced, the CDi-740 is one of the best CD players of the entire decade with it's advanced features and high build quality (very rare model, rarely ever comes up for sale).
That Mutant Rampage opening got me bursting out laughing as soon as I heard "radically altered the gene pool" with the image of the bird baby.
Took me a bit that he was 0utting the video into the Rick and morty clip because as he had said it would fit right into the interdementional channel concept.
That "The Ultimate Showdown" reference was amazing.
I hadn't heard that in like 15 years, I completely forgot it existed, so immediately went to watch it
I’m glad I got to do the intro for a really awesome video
I found an old CDI controller in a garagebox. As a 2000-baby who grew up with the ps2, I had no idea what it was, so thanks for the video!
Very cool
Wow! That Flintstones game really makes me want to try out a CD-I!
15:42 that line was a true test of my maturity
LOL
Thanks for shedding some light into this machine! There are surely not many other videos like this out there, and none of them has shown the beauty of some games you showcased here... I am tempted to try them out some day!
At 9:24, the "Super Exploding Pizza II" logo is a direct parody/reference to Super Street Fighter II, specifically the box art. With that and the Room/Doom parody, I'd be curious if the other games also had title screens that were parodies of popular contemporary games.
I thlammed my Zenith in the car door
The cdi is so bad!! I love it!!
The 7th guest wasn't bad and dragons lair was ok
My mum got me mine from the car boot and I couldn't believe Mario and zelda was available on it I was scratching my head at the time
The Chinese continued to use CD-I as a movie format wayyyyy after it failed everywhere else. Hell, they may STILL be using it.
The Philips CD-I was released before I started high school, but it gained notoriety during my high school years. I have a lot of nostalgia for this console and really enjoyed it back then. When I revisit some of the games now, I often think, "What was I thinking?" Yet, I still absolutely love it.
10:40
You were not wrong. During the video game explosion of the early 90's a lot of companies wanted to jump on the bandwagon cuz it seemed like easy money. Most of them had no idea how to actually make video games. The good side of the coin is that we actually got a lot of innovation and cool new ideas and some software and hardware advancements out of that ignorance. The bad news is we also got tons of garbage hardware and software. Many of them thought you could just hire a random programmer fresh out of college and they would do whatever you wanted. Eventually some managers realized you needed different kinds of coders as well as artists and other talent. Thats why there was a sharp increase in the number of tech startups during that time period, and why so many of them disappeared after a short while.
You used to be able to get catalogs thru mail order and find hundreds if not thousands of new and crappy games, many of them made by one person businesses. Some guys actually made out alright and would either start or join proper software companies. And of course piracy and intellectual theft were very common back then. A lot of people referred to it as the Wild West era of computing.
Surprised you didn't bring up the surprisingly lewd easter eggs in Apprentice, really unexpected for a cutesy platformer from the mid 90s
I'm shocked that emulation of the CD-i is so difficult. It's not an overly complicated machine. The 68000 used in it is fairly weak - there was a couple of years delay between designing the hardware and actually getting production started, and the new models of the 68000 had gotten a higher clock speed by that point but they didn't integrate that into the design.
I have a 450 model, with the bad disc eject issue, along with a bunch of accessories I'd picked up here and there. I do have the Apprentice along with Hotel Mario and the two Link games (which are those "demonstration only - not for sale" kind). I picked it up just for the novelty of it. Back when I really hunted thrift stores like crazy I'd find software for it but there weren't a lot of games in the mix. There just wasn't a market for that kind of multimedia machine. Instead of spending $300 for something that's sort of computer-like, most people would rather spend $1200 to get an actual computer.
You could always look into the Memorex VIS next. It was a consolised 286 PC sold through Radio Shack stores, so it sold like garbage. But at least it'd be easier to emulate.
iirc it's a 68010.
I think part of is because there's simply a lack of interest in emulating it. The PSVita has a similar problem, it's not an overly complex system (definitely easier to work with than, say, the PS3). Until recently, there wasn't an Xbox emulator despite every other 6th gen system (including the Wii which is about as powerful) having one.
@@calzonemaniacsvideocorner0804 the Xbox is probably an excellent point of comparison.
In theory it's not a hard system to emulate, but there's not much software that makes it worth the time or effort. The Xbox is slightly better served than the CDi in that regard, but a lot of the exclusives - particularly the "heavy hitters" like Halo, were natively on PC.
I think the main part of the problem is lack of doccumentation.
A 68k is easy to emulate sure, but what the graphics? Obviously people have worked around it since Mame has at least some support, but I can't imagine it was trivial. Another sticking point will be the Digital Video Cartridge. Good luck finding documentation on that.
Oh man, that bit about Interdimensional Cable cracked me up. The edit was perfect!
Does Retroarch have a cdi core and how much power do you need to run it? If you can run ps1 and psp will it be fine?
Flintstones x Jetsons looks incredible I want to play that so hoping there is a working emu
good luck trying to get it work.
have tried either Retro Arch 'Same CDI' or 'Mess'
So many people have problems trying to play CDI emulation and even if they manage to there are only a handful of games that actually run.
CDI emulation needs a renaissance like the Jaguar emulator 'BigPEmu'
Jaguar CD games for the longest time were not emulated and someone came along and not only made an incredible jaguar emulator with all the modern features and then some but shortly after got Jaguar CD games running great.
this is what many of the older systems need.
there is plenty of demand and support for later systems like the Nintendo Switch, Playstation 3, GameCube and an infinite number of NES and SNES emulators already.
Best to close out all the oldest systems first and then all resources can be focused on recent and current systems.
Finally came across a solution that actually works... well for me anyway.
Check out the video 'Steam Deck: Philips CD-i Emulation (EmuDeck / ES-DE / RetroArch)'
For me it has to do with the Bios files and this uploaded guides you to get the correct ones.
I just tested some CDI games with Retro Arch + Same_Cdi emulator core.
Burn Cycle
Hotel Mario
Caeser's Palace
Space Ranger
all work
However FMV games do NOT work as apparently the 'Video cartridge' that the CDI uses has not be emulated yet.
So many of the bigger games and FMVs will not work until this has been emulated.
I know I'm commenting on an old vid, but I feel most compelled to mention:
DAMN GOOD JOB ON THIS VID, SIR!!!
This is the best video practical-summary of the CD-i console and many of its products. I used to work in a Philips semiconductor fab once upon a time, and I understand why the CD-i was a promising system turned mediocre ultimately by incompetence within the company. But that is beside the point. Thank you so much for this vid!
Answer: Yes. And that's why it's worthy of historical archiving and preservation for future generations... No one sets out to make a crap games console. The missteps on the CD-I journey are worthy of discussion and note. Might even make a great film lol. All the best.
@@darthkai8242 That’s not the ONLY reason!
@@darthkai8242 It's one of the few 'devices' I'd happily let slide unacknowledged into history.
The 'sole' thing anybody would want to use it for is to play VideoCDs (not anything CDI specific) - and there were so many other devices that could do this (and as VideoCd was mainly an asian piracy standard, nobody was buying that CDI to play them)
The funny thing is that you're right. It's always the trash that ends up being the rarest. Since no one really cared about the console, there isn't as much documentation for it, nor great ways to get the system running again (that battery shit looks horrifying). And since it was a commercial failure, any console or media for it is going to be increasingly rare.
escape from cyber city alone was worth playing if you found it used considering how much you would spend at the arcade on it.
@@darthkai8242 i agree 👍. the cdi was marketed to rich people. It was more expensive than a Neo Geo iirc. At store I seen it at they had a huge area set up an the golf game was on. It wasn't a store with childrens toys. It might have been the long gone *Service Merchandise*
It was a cd player in times when A. People knew what CDs were an B. times when they may be very expensive.
15:42 "There's more Balls than just your own... Or u can play with Blue Balls" That sounds terrible & I am so immature Lmao
Tetris does go with mellow music -- look to Tetris Effect on PS4. Zenith reminds me of some games on C64 and Amiga that also involve controlling a forward-moving, bouncing ball.
1:58 This is the same way the Sega CD Model 2 works. I really like it, it's nice to just set the disc in and pick it up instead of snapping it down and popping it off. That said, I did break the wobbly thing on top once and it was a pain in the neck to repair.
best thing about the CD-I.. we get to see Phil Hartman in one more commercial.
For 25 years I looked for the game Burn Cycle without knowing it's name, what the weird controller I played on was. If it was even real or just some fever dream... Then I figured out why I couldn't find it. IT's a CD-i game that got a really bad PC port in 1996. On a very unpopular console that made games that look like the games on computers in disney movies from the late 90's.
Im trying to create some CD-I backups but no dice. My dvd drive only writes as low as x10. do you think thats a potential barrier?
Cdi was my first system actually lol. I have alot of childhood memories with it. I feel it had alot of potential for its time if they focused more on gaming
Even tho the CD-I Games are a flop. The infamous Memes and YTPs had sparked the internet has we know it today
Wow, people thought the Atari Jaguar had a bad game library.
Wow you answered a life long nagging memory question I had been living with. When I was a kid in the early 90s I had played a video game console at a block buster that was on display. It was that Tetris you showed! I have been wondering what console it was for years. I had assumed it was an early playstation or maybe a sega saturn version of Tetris but when I would look through their library of games nothing like it I could fine. I remember just being so mesmerized by the music and background scenery. I can't thank you enough! Not knowing what version of Tetris and what console I had played that on has bugged me my whole life. I was really young (like 7-9?) so I couldn't remember or probably didn't even know at the time what console it was. This kind of makes me want to get a CD-i so I can get it. I hadn't actively looked for what version of Tetris it was in probably a decade but its always been a memory that has stuck with me.
"I'm here today to find out if there's more than meets the CD-eye"
Me: God Dammit I'm done
How did you get CloneCD to work?
Nobody ever mentions that you can use a simple backup cable to save your save games to a PC.
You also don't need to dremmel out the battery, just wire up a new battery to the pins.
Films on the CD-i makes me think that that format was the prototype for the DVD.
5:38 That controller was, indeed, made by Gravis for use for the CD-i.
I see people cutting away at the chip to replace the battery and this works but seems wrong. If you can solder or know someone who does just solder a socket in place and buy a new chip. With a socket you can easily replace the chip again if needed. I have always been curious if a mod could be done to allow using interchangeable chips mounted on boards. They timekeeper is still sold and last time I bought one it was like 8 bucks. There is a chip shortage so maybe they have went up. Still seems the better option.
My granddad had pinbal and van Goch on the CDI.
In the pinbal game we got the bal stuck between two of those bouncy things which had resulted in a high score if not for the required reset.
I remember you mentioning that you bought your CD-i from a specific seller who dealt with its ticking time bomb and a couple other things and that doing so, selling CD-i consoles after modifying them, was kind of his thing. Do you know if he's still doing this and, if so, where to find him? I've been seriously thinking about getting one of these, but I only want to do so if I can find one that's in this more ready-to-go condition.
I'm not sure, but if this helps his name was "sellingmycollection78" on eBay
The music in Tetris for the CD-i is incredible. I really wish there was a remastered soundtrack from the original source material.
where can i find the launch base remix you use for your outro
It's maybe a bit more secured by the 3 spring-loaded ball bearings in the spindle, but the disc tray in the PS3 Super Slim works pretty much the same way. It's pretty universal that it's the last cost reduction to an optical drive, saves you a motor. On the plus side it's more reliable in the long term because of one less part that can break, its' why so many 1st generation Sega CDs are dead but the 2nd generation ones with the spring loaded lid are still going.
I had a CD-I back in the 90’s. Cost me $550. I got it so I could play Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace. Then I also came to love Kingdom. I liked the fact that not many had the system and it was like a secret. Ha. The games weren’t always good but I had a lot of fun. I did enjoy Zelda’s Adventure.
No Burn Cycle?
Your CD of Zelda's Adventure didn't work because it was burned at an incorrect speed. CD-i will read burned CDs with no throuble only if you burn them on slower speeds, the lower, the better. I had to get myself a very old CD drive that could burn CDs at speed 2.
The CD-I Tetris OST is one of my favorite chill video game soundtracks of all time. It's great stuff!
Emulated this system on my steamdeck. Its cool
Where did you buy this CD-I and the Controller
I've always had a fascination with this thing. It's quintessentially 90's.
It has that 90s optimism oozing out of it. Play any CD-I game, even a bad one, and it's like the present day, with all its cynicism just vanishes. It's a real time capsule.
My family bought a CD-I back in the day. We didn't have a whole lot of worthwhile software, but the ones I remember us having the most fun with were that pinball game, which after watching this, has not aged well visually, and a word puzzle game called Text Tiles. We had a big track ball controller that looks like it had been designed by Fisher Price. I still have the system, most of the software, the funky track ball controller, AND THE ORIGINAL RECEIPT FROM WHEN WE PURCHASED THE DAMN THING!! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME?!
2:43 I think you mean Video Cassette Recorder (VCR)
6:28 Now I want to know if the Phillips Laser Lens Cleaner CD will work on the Phillips CD-i.
Not every VHS player is a VCR. Most, but not all. Nonetheless I say it this way to make it simpler to understand for modern generations.
@@FrameRater Oh, right... I sometimes forget that some people were born after the 2000's.
0:13 that SNES console, please share info about it. Never seen that one before, or I've forgotten
Either way, subbed
That's a model two SNES, I believe it was a short lived model towards the end of the SNES lifespan.
Interesting 👍😊
It's the same for the Game Boy Advance.
It may look like a "simple" portable Snes.
But actually is WAY more than that "technically speaking" 😉
CDi is less, if you don’t consider the video/JPEG decompression parts.
But at least it got a better CPU, just like in Genesis/Megadrive.
Yeah but the difference is
The Gba is actually a good system
The cdi is garbadge
You say that CD-i emulation is still difficult, but I remember running some games on MAME, and they ran quite good. That was around 2-3 years ago. I even remember having to convert the ISOs to CHDs so I could boot them up properly.
I know that running things on MAME isn't the easiest thing, but it worked well enough for me to play both Zeldas and Hotel Mario.
The only thing it lacks is, of course, the Digital Video Cartridge, but that's only a matter of time and resources.
Do you have a contact for the guy who replaced your CDI battery?
My grandma had the cdi and i hope its still somewhere in her loft
Where'd you get that Launch Base Zone remix?
The CDI, 3DO and Sega CD sucked because the library of games were mostly lame and for the time they were GROSSLY over-priced for what they were worth to any consumer. They were low budget junk games and pure gimmick.
i'd like to see internet demonstrated (or at least simulated) on the more advanced CD-i consoles. i know one of them even had printer support, even online shopping. just interesting to see how a cd-i was attempting to make the PC experience into a TV console experience. for $400-800, it really wasn't a bad price considering PCs at the time ran between $1500-2800. the CD-i was just badly designed and could have been so much more. liken it to someone buying an xbox one S and using it for doc/web/print (yes it can do all this) for about $250 vs a $1200 desktop from best buy (sadly the days of DIY for under $300 are over).
I remember seeing a late night infomercial on CD-i and thinking to myself it looked kinda interesting. About a month later it was DEAD. Seems making the infomercial was the last ditch effort to sell more units. Glad I didn't take the bait!
0:44 I disagree that the CD-i was like an earlier 3DO. Unlike the CD-i, the 3DO was always supposed to be a game machine and its hardware specs proves that. The CD-i was more like an earlier DVD player because it was designed to be a video player that can run interactive software that could be entertaining (i.e. games). I mean, the default means to control the CD-i is an IR remote that's designed like a TV/VCR remote, hardly conducive for game playing.
Missed out the giant multi coloured Roller Controller. Always used that in my local electronic shop playing the games.
1991: Phillips CD-I releases
1995: US patent laws change to allow for a max term of 20 years provided the patent owner keep up with payments
1998: CD-I discontinued
2006: Wii releases
2012: Wii-U releases
2014: Phillips sues Nintendo for patent infringement and wins
This timeline is so absurd. Not only did they wait for 8 years to sue, but they expected the courts to believe they paid upkeep on a patent they weren't doing anything with for 16 years. And on top of that, 2012 let alone 2014 is more than 20 years after 1991. Surely this would've been way past the statute of limitation. This is some patent troll shit.
8:33 that game is the most funny thing ever
What's the clip @ 05:44?
That's from Family Games II which is showcased later into the video.
Anyone know where I could get the ISO file for The Apprentice?
I had this system before the PS1 came out I took it back. I had golf game for it CBS golf. The power meter sucked. It was a rectangle box that went outward fast to. Putting and driving was a pain.
Did ypu try Dragons' lair and Space Ace? That's what I bought mine for back in the day I certainly couldn't aboard the $1 a play in the Arcades.
I managed to get The Faces of Evil working on MESS a few years ago, setting it up wasn't too bad, but getting an iso to go to to chd wasn't great.
In Mutant Body Rampage was that supposed to be Doc Brown and Marty Mcfly?
What was good about the CDi? Not the FMVs, games,controller or price of the system. Even that Genesis looking controller only had 2 actual action buttons since the third one according to what you said about it was just linking to 2 others so when you mashed it it was just like mashing button 1 and 2 at the same time.
I guess the one good thing abut it it at least it had better FMV than the Sega CD.
Oh my god, I've seen the Mutant Rampage cutscenes before, but I never thought about how they sound exactly like an interdimensional cable clip from Rick and Morty. That edit had me in stitches.
I remember CDi being in the Library at our elementary when it came out. A lot of the kids wanted to use it, but I thought it was stupid and a poor way to spend my library time while waiting to get home and play actual video games. Though I have to say, Jetsons and Flintstones were still an everyday cartoon in the 90s. They played just as often as Bugs, Roadrunner, etc. The new cartoons didn't have reruns clogging up the airwaves yet, so the majority of what we saw as kids throughout the day were those older cartoons. They were still considered relevant.
Zenith reminds me of that one unreleased Virtual Boy game about the bouncing ball. Bound High. Looks like at least one variation of that idea saw the light of day. That makes me happy.
2:15 Isn't that the case with the OG Playstation as well?
Nope, it had a holding piece much like other familiar systems.
There IS decent CD-i emulation on MAME. The only caveat is that it doesn't support the digital video cartridge as of yet. It's tricky to run MAME from a command line, however, it has a GUI (and many other 3rd party GUIs as a holdover from back when it didn't) and setting it up with a launcher isn't too bad. Google and youtube will provide plenty of tutorials for getting it working no matter which option you choose. Sadly, Mutant Rampage Bodyslam is one of the games that uses the DVC.
That still sounds like too much of a hassle for me. All the tutorials I came across were like 11 years old, are there more recent videos or has it been stagnant since then?
Im sorry, the cdi required a separate cartridge to play video cds??? What is the point of the cdi again? I thought one of its big selling points was “can play video cds”
I thought red white and yellow is the same as SCART out as they had the SCART adapters? Wtf im shocked if thats not true lol. Hope someone replies to this!? 😄
In fact I'm sure it's the same as you had cables that started as either SCART or the cables out and ended in the opposite for your TVs available port??
2:22 - You’re a Level 42 fan?? I now love this channel even more. ❤
18:56 This looks like a game that would have been a blast in the Amiga and would have received an obscure Russian ZX Spectrum clone in the '90s.
Hotel Mario and the Zelda CD-i games are probably best known for their heavily parodied cutscenes.
"I hope she made lotsa spaghetti!"
"All toasters toast toast!"
"I wonder what's for dinner..."
Anybody know what the format of the movies is? Thanks for the fun video.
Still have my CD-i 220 from back in the day. If you used it as a multimedia device it was great. Playing Music CD's, video-CD's and playing games while connected to a good sound setup was excellent and quite revolutionary at the time here. Still games weren't great but I still have fond memories of Dragons Lair and Burn:Cycle.