Saw the title and clicked. Paused at the 1 second mark, because I'm excited to see this one. I have one literally 15 ft behind me in a storage area. Or, as I call it, the shower we don't use. I worked for Blockbuster Games, and we had 3 test stores. Early try before you buy games, was the concept. After the store failed in 95, we sold everything for up to 90% off. We had CD-i machines in storage, and I grabbed both unused ones from the back(FYI my boss helped me with "security footage"), and bought a lot of software and movies(pre DVD Early mpeg-1), and I also took most of the demo discs. Dragon's Lair, and Space Ace was the big draw. Also 7th guest, and my favorite Burn Cycle, which I wish I would have gotten a copy of. I gave the other CD-i to my best friend. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk
I remember see this demoed at Best Buy in 1994 around the Holidays with BURN:CYCLE as part of Philips' attempt to re-market it as a gaming console. I initially wanted one but after looking at the model and seeing how much hassle it was going to be to set one up, I backed out and was disappointed because I wanted to play BURN:CYCLE... my prayers were answered when Philips ported it to the PC.
Its classed as a games console now but im old enough to remember that every advert I saw for this in the first 1-2 years were geared towards old people and businesses. encyclopedias, interactive picture viewers, schedule applications, crosswords etc etc.. I didn't even know this was a console until near its end when they really started pushing it as one. So yeah now its a failed gaming console but at the time it was a failing powerpoint computer for boardroom meetings...that made some games for some reason.
I never realized there were multiple versions, like the 3DO. I once rented the system with a few games. I remember playing at least 1 Zelda game. The worst part was the controls were very laggy
I've always loved the CDi, since the early 90s - And I am an avid gamer too who has had many consoles. One aspect of the CDi that unfortunately rarely gets mentioned, and one of it's main selling points from a gaming perspective, is both its Lightgun (Peacekeeper revolver) and Lightgun titles. It used 'air technology' (later to be used by Wii) and so the lightgun titles ran very smoothly - Mad Dog McCree, who shot johhny rock, de zaak van Sam, to name a few classic light gun games for the system. Not many consoles could offer such an experience. A fantastic point n click adventure from that era too - the secret agent, was another great CDi game and console exclusive. It's easily one of my favourite systems.
A good friend of mine had one around the time Burn:cycle was released. We played the hell out of that game, and were both impressed with the storyline, the acting, as well as the soundtrack. Another favorite was "The Apprentice", which was a colorful little platform game.
I remember when Link:The face of Evil came out. I bought a copy before I even had a CD-i. It took me the better part of a whole year saving up to get a system and then the cut down Magnavox system came out which I could afford. When I got the CD-i system it came with an encyclopedia title and a coupon for Burn Cycle. In 1994 / 1995 I could not easily find the game pad controller which meant I had to play Link with that god awful one handed spoon shaped controller. Quickly I realized how god awful Link was and gave up because of the terrible collision detection and frustrating inconsistent design. Burn cycle was pretty good. Kinda like Blade Runner except you have a computer virus in your brain. Burn Cycle is worth a play through,.
Hahaha, i remember getting mine, back then..... i had so many consoles that were so crap, they were great. I had the CDi, the smaller model though, and i had 7th Guest, Burn Cycle and the movie Alive on disc.... I remember laying in bed watching the movie and thinking ''this is the future'' as a kid. I had that, the Amiga CD32 with Cannon Fodder and Alien Breed 3D, also the 3DO, which was my brothers with Rebel Assault and Road Rash. All 3 crap, yet all 3 great and all 3 failed massively. The 90s were a weird time for gaming, when people that were more known for making music centres, video recorders and.......... Blenders, suddenly said, ''Lets make a monster interactive gaming device, with no real games, just grainy movies you choose how they end, and any actual good games, we will butcher and they will be better on other consoles''. Ahhh, the memories.
i do remember seeing the cd-i at service merchandise years ago. i seen a guy walked in & pulled out a wad of cash & bought a cd-i with both Zelda games. we were talking about the cd-i . so, he told me I'm buying it for the Zelda games.
I was 12/13 when this thing came out. I remember seeing it in Comet and played a pinball game with that crappy controller and thinking “why would I want this when I already have a Gameboy and a megadrive and the snes is also on the market?” Fair play to anyone that likes this thing, but it’s not for me.
A big piece of lost media that is sought after is the Phillips CDI Applebee's training video. And the only time I know of it. Is in the Bohemia and lake Grove New York Applebee's
I remember when this came out wanting one but didn’t get one as parents couldn’t afford one. Looking at the size of it now it’s huge similar to the ps5 size
My old best friend bought it and to be honest, it sucked compare to every other consoles he owned at the time. Only after a few weeks, he unplugged it and it collected dust since.... he did bought most games for it too.... and they also sucked too...
I remember buying the cdi.i even wrote a few article's for a magazine.i tried to be open minded,but this media player sucked.you'll be lucky to find 4,or 5 games worth playing.your better off getting a 3do,or even the jaguar!
I remanber as an cub the CDI and 3DO plus thier games where sold only at one store. Tha store closed lees then 1 yaer afer it opened. Mindly beaucase about 90% of popole that was going in were wlaking out with nothing because they didn't have thing's like SNES or Gensis games. In fact they wound try sell the systems to both the Nintendo and SEGA kids buy calling those systems an cowafucking pirce of dog shit. I be fair The number 1 resoen why they coundn't sell the systems wasn't thier $700 cost but the fact that Blockbuster video didn't have CDI and 3DO games.
This thing was marketed as an expensive CD player, edutainment, and golf game machine. No wonder it failed. At least that's all they advertised on the kiosks I saw in stores.
The Apprentice, CDi Tetris, Zelda games, and a few others are pretty good or interesting at the very least. There are far worse and far more boring consoles than the CDi. I own a 450 RGB modded model and I love it.
I agree, I wanted one back then but never got one...I did manage to play a friend's CD-i at one point and really liked it for what it was. I really wanted to play The Apprentice and those two Christmas platformer games. Those were actually pretty good. There's some others too I just forget what they were.
I loved watching the CDi infomercial that would play late at night in the early 1990s. It had 2 brothers who were competing video game repairmen but one brother was a CDi rep and would push the CDi on every broken console customer.
I can't tell if Lady Decade is really short or the CD-i is comically huge. Probably both. Oh, and congrats on 100K. Don't know if you have room on the shelves behind you for the silver plaque.
I had one of these, always enjoyed it and i still have used it (until it was stolen when I was moving in 2016 ) I used it for movie games and mainly as a cd player
thats where i membered the CD-i Maddog McCree. my cousin way back in the day had that game.. i saw him play it in the mid 90's if memory serves me right. "Mad Dog's back!" there was a 2nd game childhood memory unlocked🔐
I remember seeing the LONG promos for this thing. And the graphics looked no better than a suped up sega CD but with a massive price tag, just made no sense.
Still have my 450 model I bought off eBay in 2001 for $199 and now have nearly every FMV title they made. If you know how to burn the titles correctly and find images of each game, you can in theory have ANY title you want now on the CD-i. Still love this much maligned but unique system!
The first CD-I machine I ever saw was the PHILIPS CD-I 205 but I didn't see it in this video. It was a heavy ( but well made) beast that made all the ones that came out after it feel budget even if they were still pretty solid too. I owned a CD-I and it definitely doesn't deserve the 'worst games machine of all time' tag that it gets labeled with a lot of the time, I wish I had held onto the Mario and Zelda games that I bought although I didn't enjoy them at the time !
I LOVE the CD-i Phillips really needed to go balls to the wall on this one. If only they did the sony thing and made a loss on hardware and included the Digital Video Card to make up on media.Or if they included a Tv tuner and a Cd Burner for the price that would have been a game changer.
Heh, shrugging and looking unsure while holding the CD-I console... appropriate. Kind of funny how such an overt failure probably is only interesting to the history of things kinda like how DeLoreans are only interesting because of Back to the Future. (Because you know without that notoriety, DeLorean cars would just be an insignificant failed car in the line of many others.) Also kind of a shame there was just a pervasive notion in the 90s that "CD-ROM" means "we gotta have video files" instead of finding clever and relatively luxurious ways to expand a game itself.
For the entry price, the CD-i needed to be really good at what it did, or at least match its peers. Sure, it had some good games and other titles - the CD-i version of The 7th Guest was considered the best version, but that's not enough (thinking also of Tempest 3000 for the Nuon) - but also a bunch of not so good stuff. Being able to play VCD's later with an expansion card (like the PlayStation and Saturn also did) might have been more of a selling point here in North America if there had been more of a market for the format like in Japan, southeast Asia or Europe. Having multiple versions of the player on the market probably didn't help either. However, given that it was marketed as a home entertainment system, having different models to choose from (like with a VCR, LaserDisc player or stereo equipment) it did make some sense to show that it wasn't "just another game console", unlike the 3DO later that probably suffered more than the CD-i by having different versions available.
Why it failed? Late to the party, crappy hardware, poor games lineup, Philips incompetence in treating the CD-i as a home appliance instead of a videogame system...
Oh, what is this...? A woman making videos about video games? Fascinating... My own knowledge about CD-i is rather limited, but this seemed like a well researched topic. I also liked the presentation, although this Lady Decade's pronunciation of "Mario" is way off. Still, I think I am going watch some more of her videos in the future.
I got a near mint system at the flea market from a guy who really didn't know what it was for $30 and it came with like 10 games including Hotel Mario. It took me a while to realize what I was looking at then I saw Mario and it clicked.
The emulators of this console are still kind of buggy, but they do play most of the major games. Also, the CDi emulator runs the multimedia stuff pretty well. I just wish the Nylon City game would work.
Ah, yes! NovaLogic... From Super Mario to the USA Army and USAF supplier of software simulators and classic war games for PC. I miss F-22 Lightning II and Raptor. And Delta Force.
Funny how they didn’t want to market it as a game console. I mean look at Sony a few years later with the PSX. While perhaps not a complete success it was a game changer and in the next generation Sony was able to release the PS2 which would go on to completely conquer the market. That could have been the cd-i if they had just chosen to have a coherent marketing strategy that focused on it being a game console.
