History Platform / PhilipsCDi

* Gamepad controller (Gravis PC [[UsefulNotes/GeneralGamingGamepads Game Pad]])

** Video CD (requires MPEG 1 cartridge)[[note]]Philips' and Sony's failed attempt to bring home video into the digital age. Video [=CDs=] had the advantage of not degrading with repeated plays the same way VHS does, but its main drawback was its limited resolution, ensuring that Video [=CDs=] barely looked better than their analog VHS counterparts, not to mention you couldn't record TV shows on a Video CD. Video quality was also noticably poorer than [=LaserDisc=] which had double the resolution not to mention discrete surround sound support (which wouldn't come to Video CD, which was before that point strictly stereo, until long after the format had already lost popularity and when DVD-Video would come out at the same time), ensuring that the format would not find an audience in neither the mainstream nor videophile market. The format did catch on in parts of Asia where the humid weather made owning VHS too much of an inconvenience and remain popular in the continent to this day as a budget alternative to DVD and Blu-Ray.[[/note]]

The '''CD-i''' (short for Compact Disc Interactive) was an attempt by [[Creator/PhilipsRecords Philips]] to create a multimedia CD player standard, released in 1991. Development was originally started in 1986 by Philips in cooperation with Creator/{{Sony}}. As multimedia functionality for the UsefulNotes/CompactDisc format was still in an early and experimental state, Philips decided to design their own standard for multi-purpose, multi-media discs: carrying over the player's "Compact Disc Interactive" name, the CD-i format was defined by what became known as the Green Book Standard. CD-i discs were capable of providing both pre-recorded videos and interactive software on a Compact Disc, acting as a prototype to both the Video CD format and the more widely popular CD-ROM format (despite being designed and debuting after the latter).

Since the system was barely aimed at traditional gamers, its library mostly consisted of educational titles, reference works, and board games like ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'' or ''TabletopGame/AxisAndAllies''. Philips tried to capitalize on its gaming capabilities when the edutainment titles failed to sell, but the arrival of more powerful systems, like Sony's Platform/PlayStation, the Platform/SegaSaturn and the Platform/{{Nintendo 64}}, made the change of direction too little, too late. The format did find some success as a kiosk application and remained in production up until 1998; where game-focused multimedia systems such as the [[Platform/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]] were eventually made obsolete by more powerful dedicated game consoles, the CD-i was the only one to cover the electronic self-help niche. The CD-i would also be superseded on the video front by the UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} format with its higher resolution and greater capacity than the Video CD.

* ''VideoGame/EscapeFromCyberCity'' (port of a UsefulNotes/LaserDisc-based arcade game called ''Freedom Fighter''.[[note]]However, it is unknown if the game had any kind of release beyond a possible prototype.[[/note]])

->''"It was a device that kind of basically got caught in the middle. It was a terrible game machine, and it was a terrible PC."''

-->-- '''Creator/BillGates''' on why the CD-i failed. ''NEXT Generation'', issue 18, June 1996

->''"Look how huge it is! It looks like one of those old [=VCRs=]. It is the biggest video game console I've ever seen. Literally, you can fit two of these inside it. ''[the Nerd stacks the smaller CD-i console on top of the giant one]'' If you remember my Platform/Atari5200 video where I commented how big it was, ''[cut to the CD-i and the Atari 5200 side-by-side]'' well, both consoles are ridiculously huge, but the CD-i just barely wins."''
-->-- '''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'''

Since the system was barely aimed at traditional gamers, its library mostly consisted of educational titles, reference works, and board games like ''TabletopGame/{{Clue}}'' or ''TabletopGame/AxisAndAllies''. Philips tried to capitalize on its gaming capabilities when the edutainment titles failed to sell, but the arrival of more powerful systems, like Sony's UsefulNotes/PlayStation, the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn and the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}}, made the change of direction too little, too late. The format did find some success as a kiosk application and remained in production up until 1998; where game-focused multimedia systems such as the [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer 3DO]] were eventually made obsolete by more powerful dedicated game consoles, the CD-i was the only one to cover the electronic self-help niche. The CD-i would also be superseded on the video front by the UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} format with its higher resolution and greater capacity than the Video CD.

Like the aforementioned 3DO, the CD-i was conceived as a standard and thus several manufacturers produced their own versions, like UsefulNotes/{{Magnavox|Odyssey}} (though by this time, Magnavox was owned by Philips, so their version was essentially a badge-engineered version) and Sony. However, Philips was adamant on maintaining that every player and every disc be compatible with one another, which directly blocked any and all attempts at expanding the system's capabilities or streamlining its complex hardware due to the fact that it could've opened the doors for developers creating software only compatible with more powerful variants. While the notion of universal compatibility seemed altruistic to consumers on paper, it ultimately did more harm than good, causing the system's capabilities to stagnate almost immediately and preventing it from ever being able to hold its own against advancing hardware in the seven years between its debut and discontinuation. To give a point of reference as to how badly it was beat out by other video game systems, the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast debuted the same year as the CD-i's discontinuation.

The system is best known today for its four Creator/{{Nintendo}}-licensed games (''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaCDIGames'' and ''VideoGame/HotelMario''), the result of a deal between Philips and Nintendo for a cancelled [[UsefulNotes/{{SNESCDROM}} SNES CD-ROM add-on]]. Their DerangedAnimation cutscenes are a popular source of YouTubePoop, lending them WatchItForTheMeme status.

* Unlike consoles like the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem, the CD-i does not support sprite scaling or sprite rotation effects, which proved to be a handicap when developing the scrapped game "Super Mario's Wacky Worlds".

* FlawedPrototype: By all rights, what the CD-i was attempting to do ''would'' see widescale success... with the UsefulNotes/PlayStation2, itself a multimedia system capable of natively playing games, movies, and music [=CDs=] -- all of which the CD-i billed as a selling point. However, the [=PS2=] was more focused on gaming with its early game lineup and had a lot of solid games to draw in gamers, and also came out when the DVD format was just starting to become the new standard for video distribution; the CD-i, by contrast, [[MasterOfNone wanted to include all that variety, but lacked a solid focus in any of the areas]], while VHS was still the largest standard at the time it came out. Additionally, the lack of copy protection for Video [=CDs=] made studios wary, since VHS at least had analog generation loss and playback degradation to deter consumers from over-copying tapes. All of this led to a lack of appeal in any specific category for the system, which would end up being its ultimate downfall.
* ProductFacelift: Thanks to Philips devising the CD-i as a standard that could be licensed out to other companies (like what the competing UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer did), several different models of the system exist. Of the ones made by Philips themselves and their North American imprint Magnavox, there's the original CDI 220, the top-loading CDI 550 and CDI 450, and the CDI 910, which returned to the tray-loading configuration of the CDI 220 but featured a greater amount of visual flourish on its façade. In terms of the actual hardware beneath the cases, however, the models are all nearly identical, owed to Philips' requirement that every player had to be compatible with every disc. The only differences are the disc drives used and the fact that models after the CDI 220 remove the RCA port for outputting digital audio.

->''"Look how huge it is! It looks like one of those old [=VCRs=]. It is the biggest video game console I've ever seen. Literally, you can fit two of these inside it. ''[the Nerd stacks the smaller CD-i console on top of the giant one]'' If you remember my UsefulNotes/{{Atari 5200}} video where I commented how big it was, ''[cut to the CD-i and the Atari 5200 side-by-side]'' well, both consoles are ridiculously huge, but the CD-i just barely wins."''