Blazing Lazers

Every system has one Supreme Collector and Expert who is without doubt the greatest, most passionate, and knowledgeable about the system. For the VIS, Eddie is the undisputed Master! We recently completed yet another deal, and he is as good a shipper as he is a buyer, that is, above and beyond. He packs as flawlessly as anyone else I've ever seen, only with the best materials. His communication is faster than anybody else's, and always warm and enthusiastic. If you ever have the chance to engage with Eddie, be sure to do so. He is among the very best!

What exactly counts or doesn't count is entirely up to the individual collector. No two will ever fully agree. There is no such thing as a "complete set" with CDi.

Not quite. CDi is really unlike every other media format. It's a hardware platform, a specific software disc format, and also a brand. CD-i hardware could play Video CD, PhotoCD, and audio CD discs, in addition to discs in the CD-i format. Many, many VCDs, and even some PCDs, were given CD-i branding and packaging without actually being CD-i format in the technical sense. Most of the various "CDi Movies" are actually VCDs with CDi branding. Just for CD-i format discs, two types exist: retail releases and promotional titles available to the general public; and professional titles that were not publicly available. Hundreds of different retail releases were offered by Philips and various third-party companies all around the world. Thousands of non-retail professional titles were made for various kiosks, governments, educational, promotional, training, corporate, institutional, and other use cases. Preservationists are still discovering and verifying previously unrealized retail releases into the present year of 2024. I've found several lately. No collector to date has obtained a full global retail release set of CD-i format discs, and with many titles having single digit and even just 1 known copies in existence, it is unlikely that anyone ever will accomplish such a set. For the countless professional titles, we will never know all that were made. The earliest such CD-i discs go back to the mid 80's, and the newest ones found so far were at least two boxsets of German driving school titles from 2011. As a result of its 25 year verified professional lifespan, CD-i might hold the record for the longest continually supported game console platform. It's a real shame that most only know about it as a short lived retail failure and not a long-term commercial success.

CD-i has so many interesting titles, even for fairly niche subjects. Some even have more than one title related to them. Sailing and yachtsmanship happen to be among them. Most systems don't have any titles related to sailing, CD-i has several. Others exist, but either have not yet been verified (we're still searching!) or are only partly related to sailing, such as Discover Sport Fishing: Northern Edition. A new collector could be forgiven for having no idea, as pretty much all of the sailing related titles for CD-i are rarely ever seen in online listings, and are rare even in comparison to each other. They include, in order of rarity: 1) Sail '95. Actually one of many VCDs with CD-i branding, it is one of hundreds of such titles that turn up with great frequency in various online listings for lots of CD-i and VCD titles, so often enough that it has sometimes been included on various checklists of actual CD-i titles. Any serious CD-i collector will inevitably buy a lot with this title in it. 2) Sailing. Yes, just Sailing. It's such a generic name that any search for copies will be very difficult due to all of the unrelated motor parts. Sailing is one of the few titles was exclusive to the US longbox packaging format, and is one of the harder ones to locate now that the previously abundant NOS has dried up. It wasn't ever given a JCRRV (Jewel-Case Re-Release Version) in the US, though a few specialty shops and mail-order outfits did sell copies outside of the US. Within the US, it was sold in retail stores and through mail-order. There are usually no copies available for sale at any one time online. 3) Sail to Win. On a Rarity scale of 1-10, it's at least a 9. Only about 6 or 7 copies are known to exist, based on a survey of collectors and several years of online listings. If you ever see it, buy it. It's rare enough that it will make excellent trade bait with a CD-i collector, or speculator, that doesn't have a copy. This title is a prime example of why it is unlikely that anybody will ever have a complete collection of retail CD-i releases. Sail to Win is also an example of why nobody will ever agree on what exactly constitutes a "complete list of all CD-i games", because it is mainly a single and multiplayer quiz program based on the subject of Sailing, in addition to serving as an in-depth multimedia reference work on the subject. Unlike a lot of other "CD-i" titles put out by XDRA/McNo, Sail to Win is indeed a full CD-i format disc, and not a VCD or a PCD (PhotoCD). It was available in select stores and mail-order catalogs in the US, UK, and Europe, and what few copies have been seen have been seen all over the globe. 4) Beneteau Sailing Yachts 95/96 Gamme Voiliers 95/96 is one of my personal favorite CD-i titles. Ostensibly a European title, though much of it and the DV Digital Video scenes take place in the US. I found it to be genuinely engaging and informative. If any CD-i owners ever want to get a good idea of just how much work and effort go into crafting a nice boat, this is the title to pop in to your CD-i player. It really makes excellent use of the Digital Video and multimedia capabilities of CD-i. I traded a Philips 310 model portable CD-i unit to obtain my copy, and it was absolutely worth it. Only about three copies are known to exist: one in the US, one in the UK, and one at the ICDIA Collection/Museum. A fourth copy is rumored to exist somewhere in France. No copy is known to have come up for public sale in over a decade, and possibly never. The possibility exists that Beneteau Sailing Yachts is indeed a title that was available to the general public, as two of the known copies were factory shrinkwrapped. Titles like this are a big part of why there will be certainty on what makes up the "full set" of CD-i retail releases. CD-i collectors have engaged in quite a few lively debates (usually through email) about such titles and fringe cases, comparing notes and exchanging information about them.

Very cool to see another copy pop up! Out of curiosity, and for Asset Tracking purposes, what can you relate about the backstory of how you happen to own this cart? How did you find it, how long have you had it, etc. A lot of us collectors really enjoy knowing the history and story of the rarer titles like this one.

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Everything sold in the end, except for two of the small sets that I decided to keep in reserve, probably for in person trades. Even if I was able to ship freight, none of the sets were the sort of BVMs or extreme 1440p @100+ HZ computer monitors that would justify such measures. Although even if they had been, I still probably wouldn't risk it. The sets are irreplaceable.

Welcome back:) I've been keeping an eye on the usual sites and while I'd like to think I haven't missed any copies I don't doubt the possibility of one or two that might have slipped under the radar. It will eventually get preserved. It's just a matter of time.

I'm lucky enough to have completed several full sets years ago, and before prices reached the current levels of unaffordability. There are other sets that I could easily have gotten in the past but really can't justify at today's price points, so I have some sympathy for fellow collectors that missed out on the easy days of collecting. That being said, I would definitely want my eventual copy to come from an established collector or vendor. Over a certain price point there is always a concern about fakes, though at least for something as rare as Mr. Boston there are so few copies that it wouldn't be the easiest thing to fake, and a community as strong as the Vectrex community would have plenty of people that could authenticate all of the future copies that will inevitably come up for sale.

I'm lucky enough to be the proud owner of one of these Minestorm carts, and it's been a while since one came up for open auction. I'll be following this listing. I really hope it goes to a dedicated Vectrex enthusiast and not a flipper.

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Thread has been updated to note what sets are still available, and the price is reduced for buying the entire lot just in case anyone wants an instant collection.

If you're anywhere near the DC/Baltimore area I'm willing to meet up since you're a known AtariAger. For random Craigslist people I've had to be a bit cautious with whom I worked deals. At least all the usual red flags were obvious and I could just ignore and block them. Send me a message if you're somewhere nearby. I don't ship things like CRT sets for many good reasons, not the least of which is because I care about what happens to the sets. My buyer for that set turned out to be able to read the serial and verified that it was made in 1969, and was the oldest Panasonic set she'd ever seen in person. The old guy I got it from said he was the original owner and had several more but they weren't in good shape. Maybe I should have picked them up after all. The other woodgrain set, the '83 Trinitron, is still available because two seemingly done deals fell through at the last moment due to fickle potential buyers. Friends don't let friends ship CRTs. I've heard of and read about quite a few such stories with sad endings. I also know that a few shipping centers in the region and in other parts of the US have "drops" in the conveyer lines that ensure anything delicate or fragile like the innards of a CRT or other electronics will get damaged no matter well the seller might pack the item.

Funny that you mention it, as I got a few dozen or so emails asking pretty much that, and so the sets are currently being parted out. It's actually shaping up to where my total take will be a bit more than $500, and I'll still have a few sets left over. A few sets had absolutely nobody asking about them, and others had multiple different people making inquiries. The one that really surprised me is the ancient Panasonic set, as apparently Panasonic sets as old as that one are tough to find. I had an eager buyer within hours of the post first going up.

Out of curiosity, do you have the dimensions for an Adventure vision box? I have a very odd such box that I got long ago, that I'm told was an expensive custom repro made years before by a previous owner but which definitely looks to be undistinguishable from what I remember of the real boxes that I've seen in person. I've often wondered if it could be a real box. I'm sure you've seen the repro manuals for the system and games on ebay. I don't think I've ever seen repro boxes for the system or games, apart from possibly mine.