The CD-i might be the most misunderstood "console" of all-time

[godslabrat]

I had one of them, the 220 I believe and got the DV card for it too. I had probably 15-20 games for the thing, plus the encyclopedia, the manhole, and some other stuff, plus used it as my first CD player too. The thing is, the only people who really really misunderstood it was the gaming media. They jumped all over it as a console, which it never was pitched as, ever. It was before it's time pitched accurately as a multimedia device because they tried to corner the market on disc movies with their VCDs and they had a lot, good quality movies on it too, but also audio, reference, education, entertainment, and also strictly gaming too. The device never was just made for or ever designed for games which is why it did some genres so well and others just awful. Even the system itself came with a remote with a menu thumb stick, you had to buy a rebranded gravis pad extra basically (which I did.)

 

The CDi got mocked and screwed, tagged for death by attention seeking glory hound earlier era fanboy gaming media who just as they do now act like a bunch of selfish petulant manipulative brats. They played it up on one of its features to fill their magazines like EGM, and when they didn't get what they wanted from the company both in kickbacks or so called proper game releases it was run through the mud and helped kill it off well and good in the NA market. It lived on for some years in the home era of Europe but it was a life support clinger that choked. I don't think it really was from the start misunderstood, it got clowned by trolls so it would be misunderstood as a gaming console.

There was a fair amount of misinformation in the media, but Philips does need to share the blame for that. They did market the CDi as a games machine... when it suited them.

[JaguarVision]

You said people bought it "just for movies". I'm asking you to substantiate that. The CDi did not sell well in consumer circles (it did modestly well in education, where the movie feature was all but forgotten). If it didn't sell well in the first place, it's hard to then make a case that it sold because of movies.

You said people bought it "just for movies". I'm asking you to substantiate that. The CDi did not sell well in consumer circles (it did modestly well in education, where the movie feature was all but forgotten). If it didn't sell well in the first place, it's hard to then make a case that it sold because of movies.

It sold 1 million by 95. A few years ago people thought it did less than 500k with education being 1/3 or more of it's sales.

 

The CD-i players sold 1 million by 95 across multiple manufacturers, the third-party CD-i's mostly were not focusing on education. we don't know what it did from 95-98 but I'd guess maybe another 500k minimum. It sold from 1991-1998 which is around 7 years, and picked up game and movie releases in 92.

 

Let's be realistic here, people brought the CD-i for various reasons, and if you didn't buy the CD-i for education than you brought it for either games, movies, internet, or a combination of multiple features.

 

You seem to be trying desperately to find excuses to say the CD-i was only brought for education. 1 million sales by 95, maybe 1.5-2 by the end of it's life and you think the majority of sales would be in an industry they were not actively pursuing after late 92???

 

In 1996 they released internet focusing on media and introduced an online game, along with new movie and game releases. They didn't make those for schools. Come on man.

 

The CD-i has been hit by enough misinformation all these years, it doesn't need more.

[JaguarVision]

There was a fair amount of misinformation in the media, but Philips does need to share the blame for that. They did market the CDi as a games machine... when it suited them.

Maybe asmall piece of it. The CD-i bashing mostly happened post it's shelf life

[+x=usr(1536)]

I had one of them, the 220 I believe and got the DV card for it too. I had probably 15-20 games for the thing, plus the encyclopedia, the manhole, and some other stuff, plus used it as my first CD player too. The thing is, the only people who really really misunderstood it was the gaming media. They jumped all over it as a console, which it never was pitched as, ever. It was before it's time pitched accurately as a multimedia device because they tried to corner the market on disc movies with their VCDs and they had a lot, good quality movies on it too, but also audio, reference, education, entertainment, and also strictly gaming too. The device never was just made for or ever designed for games which is why it did some genres so well and others just awful. Even the system itself came with a remote with a menu thumb stick, you had to buy a rebranded gravis pad extra basically (which I did.)

 

The CDi got mocked and screwed, tagged for death by attention seeking glory hound earlier era fanboy gaming media who just as they do now act like a bunch of selfish petulant manipulative brats. They played it up on one of its features to fill their magazines like EGM, and when they didn't get what they wanted from the company both in kickbacks or so called proper game releases it was run through the mud and helped kill it off well and good in the NA market. It lived on for some years in the home era of Europe but it was a life support clinger that choked. I don't think it really was from the start misunderstood, it got clowned by trolls so it would be misunderstood as a gaming console.

 

We had a 220 (IIRC) as well, along with the MPEG-1 cartridge. One of my immediate family members was involved on the production side with a couple of CD-i titles, and we had one on loan from Philips for a while.

 

Philips absolutely pushed it as a gaming device - as well as an educational device, entertainment device, and general multimedia platform, at least in European markets. I really don't know much about how they positioned it in North America, so won't speak to that part of it.

 

Despite having been intrigued by the early reviews i had read of them, it turned out to be probably the single most underwhelming piece of consumer electronics I've ever had the use of. Once it was actually in my hands and the initial novelty had worn off, it just didn't do anything in a particularly standout manner. Jack of several trades; master of none.

 

By the way, if I'm not mistaken, global sales of laserdisc players outstripped CD-i sales in every year that the CD-i was in production.

 

The CD-i was a dead-end platform. Lots of interesting ideas, plenty of mediocre execution, and no real market interest.

[godslabrat]

It sold 1 million by 95. A few years ago people thought it did less than 500k with education being 1/3 or more of it's sales.

The CD-i players sold 1 million by 95 across multiple manufacturers, the third-party CD-i's mostly were not focusing on education. we don't know what it did from 95-98 but I'd guess maybe another 500k minimum. It sold from 1991-1998 which is around 7 years, and picked up game and movie releases in 92.

Let's be realistic here, people brought the CD-i for various reasons, and if you didn't buy the CD-i for education than you brought it for either games, movies, internet, or a combination of multiple features.

You seem to be trying desperately to find excuses to say the CD-i was only brought for education. 1 million sales by 95, maybe 1.5-2 by the end of it's life and you think the majority of sales would be in an industry they were not actively pursuing after late 92???

In 1996 they released internet focusing on media and introduced an online game, along with new movie and game releases. They didn't make those for schools. Come on man.

The CD-i has been hit by enough misinformation all these years, it doesn't need more.

At no point did I say the CD-I was bought "only for education". Where you got that, I have no idea. You did, literally, say that people bought the system "just for movies" and I'm asking you to back that up, because I suspect you pulled it out of nowhere. If you want to be taken seriously, you can't just speculate wildly on past events and not expect to be challenged.

 

Serious question, do you even remember the early 90s?

[Austin]

The CD-i had several great tiles you should check out (in no order):

I guess I'll bite on some of these.

 

1. Tetris with FMV backgrounds and CD audio.

Controls much too sluggish with a game pad. Controls much too twitchy with a mouse or trackball. Try playing on level 9 with either setup, then get back to me on how you feel about this version.

 

2. Burn:Cycle

A legitimately decent game, but with limited appeal (FMV, adventure fans only).

 

3 The Apprentice

Amiga-style precision platformer. Decent for what it is, but would be seen as simply "average" if it was available elsewhere.

 

4. Lemmings

Available on so many other systems. CD-I version is good by CD-I standards, but still gets quite sluggish. Not a good reason to buy a CD-i.

 

5. Mutant Rampage Body Slam

Neat concept, but strangely requires the DVC and yet still manages to only run at something like 10 frames per second.

 

5. Pac-Panic,

Solid game on its own, but it's choppier than other versions. Might as well play the other versions.

 

6. The 7th Guest

Was good for its time and it has improved visuals over the MS-DOS original. That said, there are constant loading pauses, many puzzles have been cut, and it just doesn't feel good in this day and age. Better versions are available on more modern platforms.

 

7. Chaos Control (not a Sonic game)

Run-of-the-mill on-rails FMV shooter. Not bad for what it is, but again, limited appeal. Also available on Saturn.

 

8. Kether

Meh. A little too ambitious for its own good. Most would probably say it's not all that much fun.

 

9. Flashback

An OK port. Runs sluggish at points and it doesn't take up the full screen. FMV sequences are extremely choppy, sort of embarrassing in that regard honestly. Another one that's good by CD-I standards, but would have been seen as a lazy conversion on any other platform.

 

10. Dragons Lair

11. Dragons Lair II (still exclusive to this day)

Meh. A couple of games that were impressive for their time, but that few actually care about these days outside of their historical context.

 

13. Dimo's Quest

A decent puzzle oriented game, but again, limited appeal.

 

15. Escape from Cyber City

Confusing as all hell. Most probably wouldn't be able to get into this.

 

17. Alien Gate

You know those crappy shoot 'em ups you'd get on those "1000 in 1" shareware discs for Windows? Yeah, that's what this is like.

 

18. Namco Classics

Poor conversions of a couple of popular Namco arcade games. Absolutely terrible when stacked next to their own Namco Museum iterations.

 

19. Golden Oldies

Like the above, but not even officially licensed. These are crap knock-offs of popular arcade games.

 

20. Ram Raid/Atlantis Last Resort

Wolfenstein 3D is basic, but at least it's still fun. Atlantis couldn't even manage to be that.

[OldSchoolRetroGamer]

Well, I wont speak to any of the points or info that the OP posted because frankly I don't need everything picked apart or denied as that seems it is all he does in every thread he starts.....

 

Just adding a few of my own thoughts on the my experience on the CD-i in general that I posted elsewhere talking to a friend about our CD-i collections.

 

I have a Magnavox top loader, I like it, I like 3DO more and the CD-i required the FMV module to make games look basically as good as the 3DO (the 3DO had a FMV module as well but it was only used for VCD movies) and sadly most CD-i systems are just ticking time bombs until the "timekeeper" module either leaks or fails and once that happens it not only loses time keeping but can lose the ability to even boot. There ARE videos and articles on replacing or even modding the timekeeper module but man the process is time consuming and a real pain for even those skilled at such mods. I no longer have the eye sight or the ambition. Sadly, I learned all this AFTER getting a pretty decent CD-i package, it is still working the last time I checked but I know it could go at anytime Bad design on Phillips part.

[JaguarVision]

At no point did I say the CD-I was bought "only for education". Where you got that, I have no idea. You did, literally, say that people bought the system "just for movies" and I'm asking you to back that up, because I suspect you pulled it out of nowhere. If you want to be taken seriously, you can't just speculate wildly on past events and not expect to be challenged.

 

Serious question, do you even remember the early 90s?

You directly implied it by saying that education was the CD-i's biggest success(with no proof) and also implying that it can't have had buyers only interested in movies because it failed In the consumer market(which you also have no proof of)

 

But see,the person trying to be taken seriously here and failing is you, not me. You aren't challenging me on anything you are only here to troll the thread and desperately trying to find as many excuses as possible to bash the CD-i for some reason. Spreading more misinformation.

 

If you wanted to challenge me on something you wouldn't have only targetted "movies". Why don't you challenge me on whether people only brought a CD-i for games? Simple, on this website you know there's people who own niche game machines and wanted to avoid people posting here saying "I did" because this is the kind of site where it's likely to happen and you didn't want to screw yourself over. Either that or it's just incompetence.

 

I like how all your previous statements were struck down abd all you have now is "prove people brought it for movies".

 

You can go on CD-i forums right now and find people who brought it for movies, you can look at old articles where Phillips positioned the CD-i as a movie player as well as reviews of it's movies. You were around in the 90's were you? It's becoming likely you may not have been. This is like asking me to prove the PS2 was brought by people only for movies.

 

I had a CD-i, three in fact, ending with the 604 model. I kept track of the pr and latest news, I had the magazines, and I was a subscriber. You likely never seen anything related to the CD-i in your life. It is very likely you didn't even know the CD-i sold 1 million until this thread. I and many others known this for years,in fact me and others fought to spread that around in 2009-11 but everybody kept echoeing the same bs. Eventually someone got the articles out on more gaming sites and wiki a few years ago along with the online modem, so it's starting to spread.

 

What I find funny is looking at this thread, most of your info is from the same old unreliable sources and YouTubers from years ago. It would explain the education bs you pulled out of thin air.

 

I get it, you never had the system, and you don't like it due to a perception that was given to you by unreliable sources. I get it, but until you even know what a CD-i is you aren't contribution to the discussion by playing semantics and spreading misinformation.

 

What's more odd is me and the other posters talking about the misinformation spread about the CD-i aren't even saying it's the best machine ever. So I have no idea what you're goal is.

[jaybird3rd]

What's more odd is me and the other posters talking about the misinformation spread about the CD-i aren't even saying it's the best machine ever. So I have no idea what you're goal is.

Enough with the long, drawn-out hectoring over trivia, or the thread gets locked.

 

(... and while we're bickering over insignificant details, it's "your", not "you're.")

[JaguarVision]

Enough with the long, drawn-out hectoring over trivia, or the thread gets locked.

 

(... and while we're bickering over insignificant details, it's "your", not "you're.")

Good thing you're to lazy to read the first page, or you have seen trolls arguing semantics since the start and another user pointing it out.

 

To be fair it's partly my fault. His circular argument did work, he got a mod to read 3 posts out of context and I ended up getting scolded instead of him. Congratulations I guess.

[JaguarVision]

I had one of them, the 220 I believe and got the DV card for it too. I had probably 15-20 games for the thing, plus the encyclopedia, the manhole, and some other stuff, plus used it as my first CD player too. The thing is, the only people who really really misunderstood it was the gaming media. They jumped all over it as a console, which it never was pitched as, ever. It was before it's time pitched accurately as a multimedia device because they tried to corner the market on disc movies with their VCDs and they had a lot, good quality movies on it too, but also audio, reference, education, entertainment, and also strictly gaming too. The device never was just made for or ever designed for games which is why it did some genres so well and others just awful. Even the system itself came with a remote with a menu thumb stick, you had to buy a rebranded gravis pad extra basically (which I did.)

 

The CDi got mocked and screwed, tagged for death by attention seeking glory hound earlier era fanboy gaming media who just as they do now act like a bunch of selfish petulant manipulative brats. They played it up on one of its features to fill their magazines like EGM, and when they didn't get what they wanted from the company both in kickbacks or so called proper game releases it was run through the mud and helped kill it off well and good in the NA market. It lived on for some years in the home era of Europe but it was a life support clinger that choked. I don't think it really was from the start misunderstood, it got clowned by trolls so it would be misunderstood as a gaming console.

Yeah, I remember IGN riding that wave when they were still a Nintendo site.

Edited September 11, 2018 by JaguarVision

[Tanooki]

There was a fair amount of misinformation in the media, but Philips does need to share the blame for that. They did market the CDi as a games machine... when it suited them.

 

Fair enough, I remember it when it arrived though. It was just an equal side note to a list of features. When they got hung out by the press, when it suited them you're right they really did push it like it was something it wasn't that was basically gas for the fire and confirmation bias fun for the media to feed off of for more cheap shots and stupidity.

 

x=usr: That wouldn't surprise me, the market where you are would have been pretty different than in the US. Here you had to go into mass merchandise stores like the now dead Montgomery Ward or dying Sears into their electronics area and it was set up usually with the TV and VCR area spaces, not on the same rack of shelving as the Nintendo, Sega, SNK and NEC stuff of the time. They had these pamphlets that folded out and games were on it, but they weren't made like the highlight of their fold outs so they didn't play it up until it came to where they kind of got shoved into it. You're right and I know it, the CDi was a lost cause and it did get outsold as you said. Philips tried hard to push a format, and they failed, just like Sony often does with their junk like UMD and minidiscs that failed.

 

 

I'm not going to touch that game list Austin tore up, but there were others, mind you by love through taste or just solid conversions from other systems of the time like Lords of the Rising Sun that were quite worth while. There were even unique solid games though a bit hobbled by the hardware loads like Mutant Rampage Body Slam. And for as ripped on as they got the 2 Zelda side scroller adventures and Hotel Mario were actually pretty good for what they tried to do on that space, but Zelda's Adventure was pure garbage that never should have seen release.

[jaybird3rd]

Congratulations I guess.

Congratulations on getting the thread locked. Keep up the attitude and you'll be on mod preview (or worse) in no time.