CD-i
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| Manufacturer | Philips | ||
| Type | stationary game console | ||
| generation | 4th generation of consoles | ||
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| Main processor | Philips SCC68070 | ||
| Graphics processor | 2 × SCC66470 | ||
| Storage media | CD-i, audio CD, CD + G, karaoke CD, VCD | ||
| Units sold | approx. 567,000 | ||
The CD-i (short for Compact Disc Interactive ), which was released in October 1991, was a multimedia system that was primarily developed by Philips , but partly also by Sony . The system was ultimately sold by Philips alone. The device could play so-called interactive compact discs, as well as audio CDs , CD + G (CD + Graphics), karaoke CDs, photo CDs (Kodak Photo CD) and video CDs (VCD), the latter requiring the purchase of an optional "Digital Video Card" required for MPEG-1 decoding. The CD-i was also a game console, and many titles have appeared over the years, including four games licensed by Nintendo .
history
In 1994 sales dropped noticeably until production was completely stopped in 1998. Philips never managed to convince the public of the capabilities of the CD-i.
In 1995, Philips brought a television with a built-in CD-i player and a CD-i plug-in card for PCs on the market so that the tracks could also be played on them.
technology
Since Philips, as the developer of the compact disc, controls the international CD standards and decides on the allocation of the CD logo , the 16-bit CD-i console was elevated to the rank of an official CD standard (the so-called Green Book ). In addition, the White Book on Video CDs also prescribes playback software for CD-i players that can be stored on every standard Video CD.
hardware
- Processor: 16/32-bit SCC68070 with 15.5 MHz
- Video: SCC66470 later MCD 212
- Audio: MCD 221
- RAM: 1MB
- Colors: 16.7 million of which 32768 are simultaneously on the screen
- Resolution: 384 × 280 to 768 × 560
- Operating system: CD-RTOS
software
Initially, mainly educational software titles and only a handful of video games appeared , most of them board game adaptations such as Connect Four! . Later attempts to enter the gaming market proved futile when the cheaper, more powerful Sony PlayStation was announced.
Thanks to a licensing agreement with Nintendo, Philips developed some games with actually Nintendo-exclusive characters for the CD-i. The background was that Philips should develop a CD drive for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . In Hotel Mario came Super Mario -Characters, and three The-Legend-of-Zelda games were released: Link: The faces of evil (Original title: Link: The Faces of Evil ), Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon ( Zelda : The Wand of Gamelon ) and Zelda's Adventure ( English for Zelda's adventure ).
Competing products
In the early 1990s , the competitor Commodore tried to enter the same market segment with its Amiga- based products CDTV and CD³² - but with just as little success. The same fate befell the product 3DO from Panasonic and later Goldstar.
emulation
In 2001 a first, more experimental emulator , CD-iCE, appeared, but its development was discontinued in early 2002. In 2005, CD-i Emulator was released, a fully functional, paid emulator.
See also
Web links
- The World of CD-i (English)
- The Philips CD-i reference site (English)
- The New International CD-i Association (English)
- The Black Moon Project - a CD-i information page
- Interactive Dreams - another CD-i information page
- CDinteractive - another CD-i information site, successor to Interactive Dreams
- The Philips CD-i format - CD-i format information
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Microsoft Home Journal 2/95
