Joe Guard CD-i prototype gameplay footage

How the CD-i version of Micro Machines came to be

Ash: I think it was Philips who instigated the Micro Machines conversion for CD-i. After the multimedia angle hadn't exactly put a CD-i in every home, they started trying to get deals together to get larger name game titles ported to the system. Micro Machines and Codemasters were pretty big at the time so it wasn't a bad idea. Actually, I remember speaking to Philips directly myself before I even moved to Codemasters, sometime in late 91 or early 92. They didn't seem so keen on games then, but I was looking for systems where I could possibly carve a niche for myself. When I caught wind of the possibility of doing Micro Machines I was fairly keen to get involved, which was fortunate because, no offence to Philips, but I don't think any of the other programmers were especially interested. Personally I saw it as a decent way to get some experience developing for a CD-based system, which were fairly new at that time. I think the deal pretty much happened early to mid 1994, so it was several months before the PlayStation surfaced.

Initially I had hoped it would be fairly simple from a code perspective, since CD-i had a 68000 series CPU and the Megadrive game had already been coded in 68000 assembler. Unfortunately, due to some rights problem (I still don't really know why) we couldn't use that code. So I had the original NES 6502 assembler code handed over, and I made a printout of the whole thing. I made a rough map of the code functionality (for example higher level processes and lower level detail) and decided on a rough plan of attack. During the development I basically took each part of the code in turn and re-coded it into 68000 directly from the 6502 reference. It wasn't the prettiest way to do it really, but time was likely to be short and at least it was methodical if not optimal. Philips had given us a useful base framework to get started with, as well as a development kit with SNASM tools and so on. What I remember most was how much I hated using a PC. Quite a few of us had used Amiga A4000 workstations for the Megadrive development, using a mix of off the shelf tools like DevPac, and stuff we wrote ourselves. For code editing, CygnusEd was simply the weapon of choice. By comparison, tools on the PC were like the dark ages. To this day I still can't really believe it!

[Thanks, Ashley Hogg, Devin]

The 7th Guest CD-i Video Review

Since I accidentally posted the Zenith video for the second time (woops), let's do another one I enjoyed a lot: The 7th Guest was reviewed by Seb a while ago, but The 7th Guest is worth watching anytime.

Girl's Club: A fantasy dating game on CD-i

Girl's Club is a fantasy dating game published by Philips Interactive Media for the CD-i in 1992. Starring Nickelodeon's Heidi Lucas[1] as the leader of the club who helps the player choose which date to go on. Philips based the game on the classic Dream Date board game where girls get to go on simulated dates with "thirty of the coolest guys in the universe.". One of the dates is actor and acting coach Chambers Stevens (star of the Emmy Award winning Steve Spots).
Girl's Club, created by the Philips POV group (Who also made Voyeur, Thunder in Paradise and Mystic Midway) for the CD-i was a pioneer in the early days of video games. It was one of the first video games to use live footage of actors. The format was the classic dream date. Obviously made for girls (around the age of 12), the players got to choose among many handsome 'dates'. From the disc: " Learn everything you want to know about thirty 'to-die-for' buys, then vote secretly for your dream date and guess which of the guys your friends picked. When the results are revealed, the dates begin."
It's one of the original Philips games that disappeared into the background with all the other games they created on CD-i, but Girl's Club was one of their first experiments with CD-i.

[Thanks, XGD]

The 7th Guest CD-i game disc alterations

Seb just brought up an interesting detail: "I've noticed that some CD-i titles have slight variations in boxes or the CD print itself. Like sometimes the Philips shield is on the left and sometimes on the right.
However, I'm mostly interested in the alteration I see with 'The 7th Guest'. What colors are the CD's printed top supposed to be? If I'm correct it's supposed to be purple for the game disc and blue for the soundtrack. However, I also have a couple of copies where the game disc is also blue. Were their multiple releases, or are these misprints or something?"
The 7th Guest did have different versions, but in my version both discs still have a different color (blue and purple). Is it a mistake, or a choice? I'm also interested in other CD-i release alterations. If you have any info, let us know!


[Thanks, Seb, HalfBlindGamer]

The GoldStar CD-i Digital Video Cartridge

A licensed Philips product or the other way around? These are pictures of the GoldStar Digital Video Cartridge as available in the GoldStar CD-i players. Carlo states it also works in Philips CD-i players. The 450 unit was licensed to GoldStar, whether the Digital Video Cartridge was sold seperately as well is new to me! According to the sticker it is made in Belgium, which is the same factory as where the Philips CD-i players came from. Carlo: This is the Philips CDi Digital Video Cartridge. Model number 22ER9956. Fits the Philips CDi 450. Allows games & films that require the Digital Add-on to be played"

[Thanks, GamesStationRetro, Carlo]

MPEG seamless branching in Kathy Smith's Personal Trainer on CD-i

The Kathy Smith's personal trainer CD was made possible by one of the techniques Philips invented: "MPEG seamless branching", which allows for a continuous video/audio MPEG stream to be displayed, even though it is made of a multiple of very short clips (about 7 second). There are only a few CD-i titles that use this technique; The best example is The Lost Ride, where Digital Video is presenting a virtual roller coaster. Interesting is that the development of this 'Seamless Branching' continued at Philips Research into development of a networked 3D car chasing game for CD-i. From the developer: "Two teams would compete against each other: the good cops and the bad villains. Each player would be part of one of the teams and through his car could see the whole city in 3D-generated MPEG video. MPEG seamless branching was going to be used to seamlessly arrange on the fly thousands of pre-produced road driving sequences (also played back at variable MPEG frame rates), in order to create the illusion of an interactive 3D of very high visual quality. Other cars were going to be shown as graphical sprites. The project did not get past the prototype stage because of its cost, but if it had been completed it would have been the most complex and ambitious CD-i game ever produced. Technically it was a combination of techniques applied in Kathy Smith Personal Trainer (seamless branching), Dead End (variable mpeg frame rates) and networked gaming (this was before the days of the Internet boom!). Too bad it did not happen. It was a lot of fun designing it though!"

More Sony Portable CD-I IVO-V11 Intelligent Discman pictures

A month back we showed you pictures of the CD-i 360 Docking Station and that same website that posted them just put up some nice close-ups of the Sony Portable CD-I IVO-V11 Intelligent Discman.

Carlo: "Officialy named the Sony Portable CD-I IVO-V11 Intelligent Discman, this was Sony's debut into CD based videogaming. In some way this is the prequel to the famous Sony Playstation as well. Sony released two versions of their portable CD-i unit, IVO-10 and IVO-11, the latter was an improvement on the previous model IVO V10: it solved some compatibility issues and it was compatible with the standard for CD-i pointing devices.

Rumoured is the IVO-V12 which might be about the (as well) rumoured digital video version of Sony's portable CD-i player. Released in 1990-1991, the Intelligent Discmans did not support Digital Video. So yes, the Compact Disc Interactive was developed by both Philips and Sony, only Sony stepped out of the format at an early stage to go its own way with the Playstation.

This portable unit has an build in LCD screen and a small speaker on the right side, as well as RCA for television (or recording device). It also has a headphone jack. On the front panel it has a power switch as well as common CD playing controls like fast forward, rewind, stop, pause and play. Remarkable detail."

[Thanks, GamesStationRetro, Carlo]

Original dutch CD-i retail prices in 1996

Back in 1996 the dutch Wehkamp catalogue advertized a lot about CD-i players. The original 490 player was brand new and it cost 700 guilders (approximately 300 dollars) and the 210 player was prices at 1700 guilders (around 800 dollars). I feel that the price difference between the players was huge, and what does the 210 offer more? These prices were published in 1996; Philips already abandoned the format, but the prices stayed as high as they were during its launch!

[Thanks, Hifi Museum]

5th Anniversary of Frog Feast might show new CD-i project

The new edition of Frog Feast CD-i will strictly be a re-release, there will be no enhancements over version 1.0. Charles did reveal something interesting: "I am working on something new, though. Hopefully I'll have something to show on August 20th." At August 20th, Frog Feast will exist five years. At its 2 years anniversary, Charles created an anniversary party too with new material as well, although all new Rastersoft projects haven't arrived yet on any platform (Connaone or the mode-7 style racer). New Rastersoft games will be published by Chaos89.com

[Thanks, cdoty]