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1/25/2008 10:21 AM

	Kevin J Baird
4270 posts

CD-I

The CD-i was a system that ran CD-i discs. These were a common standard that was created by Philips and Sony to have interactive content on a CD. Like most ideas that are new, some things didn't work as well as others. The system had an MPEG movie module that one could use to watch VCD films. It did a decent business in Europe (Although overshadowed by Commodore's CDTV), but was marginalized in the United States with some infomercial sales. Internally it ran on a 68000 Processor clocked at almost 16mhz. The same as the Sega Genesis. And was cable of more colors than either the SNES or Genesis at the time. Unfortunately it really wasn't meant to be a game system, and so it didn't really come packed with game controllers. Most games had to use the remote, so there wasn't a lot of fast based action titles. It wasn't a horrible system by any means, it just wasn't sure what it wanted to be. Was it a game system? Education system? Movie player? It didn't do any of these things very well, and was eventually retired. The images shown are of the Magnavox edition. There were MANY different models, although all of them were capable of playing the same titles.

1/25/2008 10:32 AM

	Sheep
1208 posts

Re: CD-I

Is this the only 'console' to have Nintendo characters featured in non-Nintendo publshed titles? I remember seeing the Zelda games and a Mario Hotel game or something. From what I've read it all had to do with Phillips making a deal with Nintendo to create their own Snes CD add on (which of course fell through).

I still want to pick one of these up at some point though, so I can at least play it for once.

click

1/25/2008 8:30 PM

	Kevin J Baird
4270 posts

Re: CD-I

It is true that they had a deal for Nintendo characters. I know the Zelda titles were terrible but notable in that they exist. I can't say for sure if these are the only other platform that Nintendo characters were ever on though. Probably, but there are a lot of odd Japanese systems out there that might have something on them that I don't know about. Like the Wonderswan or SuprGfx or a Playdia. I have no idea. But it sounds about right. Amazingly they were all crap on the CD-i, so maybe Nintendo did it on purpose.

1/30/2008 6:09 PM

	Lard
1327 posts

Re: CD-I

Is this the one that was created to go with the N64?

1/30/2008 8:26 PM

	SegamanXero
1109 posts
segamanxero.googlepages.com/

Re: CD-I

Modified By SegamanXero on 1/30/2008 8:29:33 PM

no, your thinking of the nintendo DD. The nintendo DD came out for the N64 in japan and didnt do well. as for in amercica they never released it.

I belive nintendo made a deal with these guys and sony to make a CD add-on for the SNES or somthing like that. not exactly sure, i need to brush up on my video game history at wikipedia...

"the dominus of the black megadus"

1/30/2008 8:54 PM

	Kevin J Baird
4270 posts

Re: CD-I

Not quite. Nintendo worked with Sony to make a CD add-on for the SNES. Nintendo canceled the project and Sony turned it into the PlayStation.

As far as I know, this was Philips only real attempt at entereing the game industry. And they really were pushing the new standard of interactive CD and less on this being a true game system.

1/31/2008 7:04 AM

	Sheep
1208 posts

Re: CD-I

From what I've read, Nintendo worked with both Sony and Phillips on a Snes Cd add-on. The Sony deal collapsed first, followed by the Phillips deal (which then allowed Phillips to use the Nintendo characters). Not sure if that's the most accurate version of the story, but it's what I've seen in the past (and currently on Wikipedia).

click

1/31/2008 10:03 AM

	Kevin J Baird
4270 posts

Re: CD-I

I didn't know that, cool. After doing some research it appears that the Philips device was never shown. It may have been on paper only. The Sony device was shown at a CES and we now know what became of it. The original PlayStation was actually 100% backwards compatible with the SNES.

The problem that Nintendo had, from what I understand, is the Super FX chip. The CD device didn't contain one. So the games for it would have been worse than Nintendo's Super FX titles. (Which was all the rage back in the day.) At which point it was determined that Nintendo didn't need CD as Super FX proved to them that they could continually adapt their cartrdiges with new technology where as CD could change the underlying hardware.

Such a big difference from the Nintendo of today.

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