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History
The story of the CD-i began in 1979, when Philips and Sony joined forces to design a new digital audio disc. In 1980, the task force published the Red Book, which details the standard for the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA). In 1982, Sony released the first commercial CD player, the Sony CDP-101. Both Sony and Philips recognized that their invention could hold more than just audio, and in 1984 they started work on an extension of the Red Book (the CDDA standard) called the Green Book. The Green Book, which defines the Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-i) standard from both a software and a hardware perspective, was initially created with the intent of revolutionizing the training industry, the point-of-sale industry and the home entertainment industry.
In March 1988, the CD-i player 100 was first demonstrated at the CD-ROM Conference. The system, produced by Philips in collaboration with Kyocera, served as a development kit, with authoring software produced by OptImage that was released at the same time. As commercial software was not yet available, these units were mostly used for development or to run custom programs.
Release
It was on December 3, 1991 that the CD-i finally saw the light of day. Released first in the United States under the name CDI 910 (called the CDI 205 elsewhere), the CD-i was marketed as a home entertainment system. The plan was to position the CD-i as a home device that would be cheaper than a PC but could basically offer the same things, with software, games and the ability to play music and video. To achieve this, Philips first relied on educational titles, as internet access was not standard at the time and such content was not readily available. Philips made sure not to mention video games in its initial marketing strategy, as the device had no chance if it was perceived solely as a game console.
But the competition was fiercer than anticipated. Not only did other companies start to produce similar devices, such as the Tandy VIS, but as PC components got cheaper, it was really hard for Philips to market its device as a cheaper solution than a home computer, since cheap home computers were flooding the market. To stay competitive, Philips had no choice but to drop the price from $799 to $599, even though the CDI 910 had not been out for a full year. In mid-1992, Philips decided to switch gears and push the gaming side of the CD-i, with the announcement of multiple full-motion video titles that would be ported to it.
In 1993, Philips made another push into the gaming industry by releasing peripherals that gave the system more memory and MPEG full-motion video support, and, most importantly, new consoles with a second controller port for multiplayer games. But these additions turned out to be a double-edged sword. While the peripherals did help convince developers to port games to the CD-i, they created a situation where the most popular games now required these upgrades, which added to the cost of the system.
By 1994, Philips made yet another push to increase the reach of the CD-i in the consumer market by making the Green Book (the CD-i standard) free. Until then, the standard, which defined the hardware specification for reading CD-i discs, required a license from Philips. By making it free, Philips basically allowed any other manufacturer to create its own CD-i compatible system without paying royalties.
Demise
Philips continued to support the CD-i for quite some time, publishing numerous titles for it until 1998. In the end, the CD-i never managed to dominate any of the market segments it competed in. It was subpar as a gaming console and too expensive as a multimedia player. While the CD-i was not a total failure, it was certainly not the success Philips had hoped for.
Games
Around 200 titles were released for the system over the years, including some noteworthy ones:
- The Joy of Sex: Published by Philips Interactive Media, this is interactive software based on the book of the same name. While not truly a game, it is the only software rated Adult Only by the ESRB on a gaming console. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas also received this rating, but not intentionally. San Andreas was originally granted a Mature ESRB rating, but an adult mini-game (dubbed Hot Coffee) that had not been removed from the code could still be accessed by modding the game. While this was not possible on the PS2 and Xbox, the ESRB still demanded that all copies be recalled, or that any store owner who still wanted to sell the game as it was apply an Adult ESRB sticker to it. A second edition of the game was released soon after, removing the code and regaining the Mature rating.
- The Nintendo Games: In 1989, Sony and Nintendo started working on a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo. Dubbed the Play-Station, the add-on would have made it possible to release larger games for the SNES. Under their agreement, Sony would develop and retain control of the Super Disc format, with Nintendo thus effectively ceding a large amount of control over software licensing to Sony. Nintendo did not like the terms of the agreement, so it secretly negotiated a more favorable one with Philips. At the June 1991 Consumer Electronics Show, Sony announced its SNES-compatible console based on cartridge and CD, the Play-Station. The next day, Nintendo revealed its partnership with Philips at the show, which surprised the audience, including Sony. After the poor reception of the Sega Mega-CD, Nintendo scrapped the idea of making an add-on entirely. As part of dissolving the agreement with Philips, Nintendo gave it a license to use several of its IPs for games on Philips’s console, the CD-i. It is not unheard of for Nintendo IPs to appear on non-Nintendo devices or to be published by another publisher, but most of the time, Nintendo retains the right to ensure the quality of the games. Not in this case. Under this agreement, Philips released four games based on Nintendo IPs. While the first one, Hotel Mario, is not a bad game, the other three titles, Link: The Faces of Evil, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Zelda’s Adventure, are notoriously bad, featuring atrocious cutscenes that are either badly drawn (in the first two) or poorly acted (in the last one).
Consoles
Dozens of CD-i consoles were created under many different brands. The more obscure and interesting ones will be added here over time: