The Philips CD-I Game Console / Home Entertainment System - CD-I 210

Dan tells us about the Philips CD-I game console and tries out a few key games.
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[@Wonkabar007]

Happy memories, the CD-I was the first device I used to connect to the internet, photos downloaded one pixel line at a time most days. Burncycle was great fun and the soundtrack so good, to get the most out of the CD-I you needed the cartridge in the back, I think I paid £140 for it, which was expensive back then.

[@lukaswest5545]

In awe of Dan's gaming skills!

[@puddle_puddle]

IIRC Burn Cycle was one of the few (maybe only) FMV CD-i games that did not need the MPEG cart.

[@puddle_puddle]

Presumably because it didn't use MPEG. The video was clearly a lot rougher.

[@GH-pd8if]

In Burn Cycle there was a way to increase the time, you could get a 'bioderm' from the trader in the nightclub, it would give you an extra 30 minutes.

[@GiordanDiodato]

interestingly, this was a VERY advanced console for its time. Not only was it using a 16/32-bit CPU, but it had 1MB of RAM. On a console launched in 1990.

[@jontait1095]

I still have my cdi I bought it when I was a kid a had a paper round which I paid up monthly the cdi was £250 +£200 for DV cartridge

[@thehootsforce4201]

Smallville series 2 was released on VCD and I have some Asian VCDs for the Spongebob movie and Looney Tunes Back in Action. So hard to believe that this could have been the SNES-Station but would Nintendo have released Mario 64 or Goldeneye as a result and in turn would the Wii or the Switch be the Systems we know and love today? First time I saw this system was at Comet in Bury St Edmunds (used to love their Games Master area).

[@lifeschool]

I was almost the first official games playtester for Philips back around 1992/1993. I had the job all lined up, as a 'work experience placement' for a Youth Training Scheme I had joined as part of Maggie Thatchers New Britain. The Philips manufacturing plant was right next door to us in Glenfield Park Blackburn, but after chatting to a youth training friend over lunch in the Philips canteen, I realised I didnt want the job, or else I might end up having to be playtester for the CD-i. We laughed about it, and I didnt go for the interview - perhaps a lucky escape. I think the company lacked the street cred and therefore marketing clout of companies like Sega, Sony, even Commodore, so they were unlikely to get a huge backing of game makers from all over the gaming world. Most saw it as a stop-gap, rather than a future platform, and people were already struggling to find a use for the Sega CD. I guess the market was ready in 1995, but by then there were already 3 contenders for top dog, so it wouldnt get much traction. If they had made the machine like a modern info terminal, with a touch screen, perhaps it would have had a use, even today.

[@Xoferif]

0:30 That looks the business! Reminds me a bit of the Sharp X68000 series of computers. =)

[@mintydog06]

Good work. I'd have liked to see a few more games and maybe a mention of the updated look to the CD-i to get away from the VHS look of the original :)

[@TheCentreforComputingHistory]

Noted! Good points. Thanks :)

[@mintydog06]

@@TheCentreforComputingHistory You're welcome :)

[@loganjorgensen]

A nice balanced look at the platform, the good with the bad. ;) Imagine if The Vision Factory had made the Zelda games, I bet they would have been a lot better.

[@GazC]

Mah Boi. This CD-I is what all true gamers strive for.

[@TrainerCTZ]

Wand of Gamelon animator should be brought up on chargers of some sort

[@HikikomoriDev]

FMV interactive games where and are kinda terrible. Don't know anything that resembles it today or what ever, maybe small DVD movie games, and those where super cheesy as well and din't caught on either. Maybe a phone app or two somewhere still uses the format. 3D was the answer all the way. Don't know why they din't invest in that avenue.

[@marcomm7543]

Hi. Trying to find a command controller will work with my 210 unit. I bought it out of Europe and I have no controller. Can u suggest anything ?

[@jms019]

How do you put laser discs in it ?

[@Misterdoblina]

is there a iso link for this ?

[@Tempora158]

2:20 "...as the machine developed..."? No, more like the machine was flopping commercially as the interactive video player it was designed to be, so Philips desperately pivoted the machine into a faux game console, except it never had the graphics hardware or enough RAM to be a game console. This is the equivalent of Toshiba pivoting their HD DVD player, after it failed against Blu-ray, into a game machine by making a game controller for it and releasing nothing but Dragon's Lair knockoffs and Flash games for it. When the CD-i was still active on the market, "serious" Hi-Fi electronics stores that NEVER SOLD VIDEO GAMES did sell the CD-i and it was positioned as a new video player that could replace Laserdisc and VHS.

[@SonySupporter]

The CDI actually have 2MB RAM when the DVC is included. 1MB slow RAM and 1MB faster one.

[@MrMagee78]

I want to know morr about the robot in the background ;)