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History
Pioneer Corporation traces its roots to 1937, when its founder, Nozomu Matsumoto, developed Japan’s first hi-fi dynamic speaker. In January 1938, he established Fukuin Shokai Denki Seisakusho, Pioneer’s precursor, in Tokyo, as a radio and speaker repair shop. The company’s name reflected Matsumoto’s Christian faith, and it is often translated as “Gospel Electric Works”. The company was incorporated as Fukuin Denki in May 1947, introduced its PE-8 hi-fi speaker in December 1953, and changed its name to Pioneer Electronic Corporation in June 1961.
The 1960s and 1970s were a period of fast growth. In 1962, Pioneer introduced the world’s first separate stereo system, and in 1966 it opened sales subsidiaries in Europe and the U.S. In December 1977, it introduced the world’s first two-way addressable cable TV system in the U.S., together with Warner Cable. That experience with interactive television would later help shape the LaserActive.
Pioneer also became one of the main champions of the LaserDisc format. In February 1979, it introduced an industrial-use laser optical video disc player. In March 1981, Warner-Pioneer established the LaserDisc Corporation in Japan, and by October 1981 Pioneer had introduced home LaserDisc players with 70 software titles. This company was renamed Pioneer LDC in 1989. By the early 1990s, Pioneer was one of the best-known names in the LaserDisc world.
At the beginning of the 1990s, Pioneer decided to release a high-end LaserDisc system that could do it all: play LaserDiscs, CDs, video games and karaoke discs. As Pioneer had no experience with video games, it approached prominent video game companies to form partnerships. The idea was to make the player expandable through add-on modules called PACs, which stands for Player-Add-on Cartridges. A PAC would allow games from different systems to be played from their original media, and would also allow new games to be released in the LaserDisc format. A game LaserDisc (LD-ROM) had a 540 MB data area, plus sixty minutes of analog audio and video. That was 10 to 20 times larger than a normal cartridge, which was ideal for games with video cutscenes.
The two game formats created for the system, Mega LD and LD-ROM², were rebranded versions of Philips’ LD-ROM format, adapted for each company’s PAC. Pioneer reached deals with both Sega and NEC to make the games for their consoles playable on the LaserActive.
Release
The LaserActive was released in Japan on August 20, 1993 at ¥89,800. In the United States, Pioneer officially launched it on September 13, 1993 at $970, marking the company’s entry into the multimedia and video game arena. It was never released in Europe.
NEC also released its own branded version of the player, the LD-ROM² System, in December 1993 at the same price. It was fully compatible with Pioneer’s PAC modules. The LaserActive was generally well received by critics at launch.
Demise
The modular nature of the system was both its greatest quality and its worst flaw. Having a unique system that combined all your entertainment needs was an advantage. The problem lay in the price of the PACs. The video game PACs cost two to three times as much as a standard console, which made them very unattractive. At launch, the player cost $970, each of the Sega and NEC PACs cost $600, and software retailed for $120 per title. A player with one game PAC therefore cost $1,570 before buying a single game.
Only a few dozen games were released, with limited support from developers and a software library of mixed quality. Without a PAC, the console itself was only a glorified and very expensive LaserDisc player. In the end, the device fell short of delivering exclusive content that could justify its very high price tag. It is considered a commercial failure and was discontinued in 1996.
Peripherals
PACs plug into an expansion bay at the lower left of the player. Four PACs were released, for Sega, NEC, karaoke and computer use.
- Mega LD PAC (PAC-S1 / PAC-S10): Plays Mega LD discs, standard Sega CD discs, CD+G discs and Genesis cartridges. It included a LaserActive-branded 6-button Genesis controller. US $600.
- LD-ROM² PAC (PAC-N1 / PAC-N10): Plays 8-inch and 12-inch LaserActive LD-ROM² discs, as well as CD-ROM² and Super CD-ROM² discs, HuCards and CD+G discs. The Japanese version of the PAC can also run Arcade CD-ROM² discs through the use of an Arcade Card Duo. The US version came with a 2-button controller and an LD-ROM² with the same games that came with the NEC TurboDuo. US $600.
- Karaoke PAC (PAC-K1): Plays LaserKaraoke titles. US $350.
- Computer Interface PAC (PAC-PC1): Has an RS-232 port that allows the LaserActive to be controlled by custom computer software, and came with a 33-button infrared remote.
- LaserActive 3-D Goggles: The goggles allow you to play the following games in 3D: Museum (1994), Vajra 2 (1994), Virtual Cameraman 2 (1994) and 3D Virtual Australia (1996). A separate goggle adapter (ADP-1) allows one or two pairs of goggles to connect to the player. The goggles are also compatible with the Sega Master System and are interchangeable with the SegaScope 3-D Glasses.
Games
A total of 31 games were released for the system. The tables below list the games by publisher. Some titles, such as Goku and the J.B. Harold games, appear in both tables, since they were released for both PACs.
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Technical Specifications
- Model: CLD-A100 (Pioneer)
- Type: Converged device that plays LaserDiscs, CDs, console games and karaoke discs
- Built-in disc formats: LD, 8-inch LD, LD-G, CD, 3-inch (8 cm) CD, CDV and LD-ROM, in both CAV and CLV modes
- Laser: Infrared diode, 780 nm wavelength
- Video standard: NTSC only, with no digital framebuffer for trick-play features on CLV discs
- Video outputs: 2 composite RCA outputs, with no S-Video
- Audio outputs: Stereo RCA and 1 optical digital (TOSLINK)
- Game disc format: LD-ROM, with 540 MB of data and 60 minutes of analog audio and video
- Expansion: PAC bay at the lower left of the player
- Controllers: None included with the player. Controllers are bundled with the PACs
- Remote: 24-button infrared remote
- Dimensions: 420 × 145 × 390.5 mm
- Weight: 7.8 kg
- Power: 120 V, 47 W (US); 100 V, 40 W (Japan)
- Region lock: PACs are region-locked, but Mega LD and LD-ROM² games are region-free and play on any NTSC system.