CD-i Questions

[Ze_ro]

Alright, so lately I've become interested in the CD-i. However, it seems like no one has any actual experience with these machines, so hopefully someone on here can enlightenment me on a few things. As it is, my list of titles to look for includes: Burn:Cycle, Dragon's Lair 1 & 2, Space Ace, Braindead 13, Kingdom: The Far Reaches (aka Thayers Quest), Litil Divil, all three Zelda games, Hotel Mario, 7th Guest, Inca, and Atlantis: The Last Resort. Yes, I realize a lot of those are pretty weak titles, but I'm interested in them mostly out of curiosity or a sense of historical significance. Are there any other worthwhile games I should keep in mind? I also know there's a lot of non-game items on the system... Are any of these interesting enough to actually bother with? I watch a lot of Discovery Channel, so anything interesting or informative would be cool. How much of this stuff requires the Digital Video cartridge? I was also told there was no region lockout or PAL/NTSC issues... can anyone confirm this?

 

And what's the word on CD-i movies? Can anyone comment on the quality of these? If I'm not mistaken, they're basically just VCD's with a menu system... if this is true, can they also be played (minus the menus of course) by anything that is capable of playing VCD's then?. Is there a list anywhere of what titles are available? I see them on eBay for pretty cheap, so I wouldn't mind picking some up.

 

Finally, with all the different CD-i models available, are there any that I should specifically avoid or seek out? The portable models look neat, but I have no need for portability and I know the Sony ones can't take a DV cartridge... so I guess it's between the 910, 220, 450 and 550. I like the console look of the flip-top ones, but a tray loader would leave me a bit more space. I know a lot of people have complained about crappy controllers on the system, but are the remotes useful at all for games? I would imagine they're at least enough for FMV games like Dragon's Lair...

 

--Zero

[Godzilla]

the remotes are useless for games. Which is kind of ok, as most of the cdi games are useless :-) make sure you get a flip top, the tray loaders are notorious. you MUST have dv. Some of the later, non-us, cdi games USE the dv cart for its extra muscle for gaming (like atlantis, a rudimentary wolfenstein 3d style game, minus the fun,) I have near every actual game

made for the cdi and some its adult edutainment stuff is actually better than most of its games, as long as you know what it is. edutainment. For games, the best I've found is Zentith (a stunningly good, FUN game, with actual decent textured looking 3d that is comepletely out of place in the CDI library,) and the mini golf game with eugene levy, which is just damn fun and funny. Everything else for the system is more of the 'watching a car accident' variety. Just to see how bad it can be...

[T2KFREEKER]

What ever you do, do "NOT" get a slide tray CD-i! They were really bad, as I used to work at a video game store that did repairs, and the only CDI systems we saw were the Tray models. The gears love to break and strip out. They also are well known for getting the wires tangeled in the gears! (I swear!)

 

Burn Cycle is an awesome game, and there is no region coding on the systems, just when you get the CDI system, make sure you get the correct power cord.

[christianscott27]

you really need that digital video pack, and the controller. as for games one i enjoyed thats not on your list is kether, its common as well

 

heres a decent review page for the system

 

http://www.videogamecritic.net/cdial.htm

 

to me its all about playing the best home versions of dragons lair and space ace, the rest is gravy. its kind of fun, clearly had potential. as far as movies go it does a great job with VCDs so if you're near an asian community you can watch lots obscure anime and soft core porn for dirt cheap. i'm kind of fond of my cd-i, i found it at a flea for 10 bucks, its not something i would have sought out or paid good money for but it grows on you.

[SteveW]

I have a CD-i, along with a joypad and a roller controller. I've also got a bunch of games, but not too many of them are worth mentioning. There's one called something like "The Apprentice" that's a so-so platformer, looking kind of Amiga like, except a lot more colors onscreen. I've also got Zelda's Adventure, which has decent looking graphics, but playwise, it sucks on toast. I haven't found any really compelling games to keep me coming back to the machine. Mine usually stays unplugged and collecting dust on a shelf. As far as non-game programs go, there's two or three Monty Python CDs out there, specially made for CD-i.

[Godzilla]

Yea, kether wasn't horrible. I had forgotten about that one :-) Definately one of the better cdi games. See I told you the tray loaders were notorious :-) I too worked at a game store during the time of the CDI :-)

 

The video quality is sub vhs, with large pixel areas showing up during any kind of mass motion (like the snow storm in star trek V, for example,) but it is a great vcd player. It does have some problems with certain downloaded and burned vcds, from time to time.

 

I've also bought all the post-death cdi titles that have been sold and none of them pass much muster. The CDI is truly a system for the hardcore collector. Kind of a modern day fairchild :-)

 

Just finished scouring the cdi stacks to see if I had forgotten anything and I had. There are two actually really good graphic adventures for the CDI, Alice in Wonderland and Little Devil. Also, 7th Guest plays great on the CDI and is preferable to the pc version, with much better fmv.

 

Accelerator is a fair to middling over-head racing game, which is as good as racing gets on the CDI.

 

Labrynth of Crete and Merlin's Apprentice are both actually pretty good, fun, puzzle games.

 

Christmas Country isn't a Sonic, but it's about the best platforming you'll find on the CDI (which is to say, slightly above an 'average' genesis or snes platorformer and no where near one of the tops.)

 

Also, Kether had a sequel of sorts, Inca, which was at least above average and playable.

 

Burn Cycle is OK, but you'll only play it once and it's much shorter than it should be, with 0 replay value and on top of that, it doesn't really play or control that well to begin with. As far as fmv drugery disguised as a game, I'd go with Voyeur over Burn Cycle.

 

Chaos Control is the best on rails fmv shooter the CDI has to offer (if there is such a thing as 'best on rails fmv shooter'.)

 

Ceasers World of Boxing is a suprisngly ok boxing game with management and other aspects.

 

The golf game is Wacky World of Miniature Golf, quite possibly the best fmv game ever.

 

oh, and just because Mutant Rampage is about the only fighting game on the CDI don't let that fool you. It sucks really hard on a splintery stick. Unless you haven't played a fighting game since Data East's Karate Champ, this one can bring you to tears.

 

One thing I do enjoy about the CDI is its amazing AMAZING life span, I have games for this system from the late 90s! (Heck, thats where it's best game, Zenith, came from. And one of it's worst (Tetsuo Gaiden (I know, lets make a game worse than galaxian and run some weird confusing FMV behind it, that'll make it better!))

[Ze_ro]

I've also bought all the post-death cdi titles that have been sold and none of them pass much muster. The CDI is truly a system for the hardcore collector. Kind of a modern day fairchild :-)

What about Jack Sprite vs The Crimson Ghost? The whole concept sounds crazy enough to be worth experiencing at the very least.

 

--Zero

[jesusc]

I too have bought the oldergames CDi releases, and they all suck (well, i hven't played go, so maybe that one is ok, but based on jack sprite and the pinball game, I doubt it).

I kind of liked mutant rampage, but then again I'm a sucker for Final Fight clones.

the animation of the characters is choppy, but is is playable at least. When it comes to the CDi library, that is not a small accomplishment.

I tried to like Appretnice, but I prefer horizontal platformers, not vertical.

Solar Crusade was decent (sequel to Chaos Control). Some of the game shows are fun with a crowd (but stay away from name that tune).

CDi games were made to play on any system from any country, so as previously stated, as long as you have the right power cord, you are good to go.

Most VCDs will work on a CDi, but not all CDi videos will work on a VCD player.

I find the quality to be ok. large areas of solid color (especially black) get quite pixelated, but it's not unwatchable (to me anyway, but then again, I also watchthe old RCA selectavision video discs).

 

I have the CDi 690. It has the DV cart built in, and I believe the most NV ram out of them all for saving games. It's a tray model, but I've had it for quite a while with no problems.

[Atariman]

I have the DVS CD-i player (I think it is the VE-200). It has built-in MPEG-1 playback (so I'm guessing that would pretty much translate into a built-in DVC). It is a pretty good unit (has a switch for PAL/NTSC on the back, too) and I haven't really had any problems with it. I actually like the remote that came with it a little better than the remote that came with my phillips CD-i player.

[Famicoman]

I always wanted a Cd-i, but have never located one. Just the thought of owning something that could have been the SNES-Cd makes me feel all warm inside

[SteveW]

oh, and just because Mutant Rampage is about the only fighting game on the CDI don't let that fool you. It sucks really hard on a splintery stick. Unless you haven't played a fighting game since Data East's Karate Champ, this one can bring you to tears.

959124[/snapback]

 

I thought Rise of the Robots was also out on the CD-i? Although, it's not exactly a winner. In fact, i've never heard anything good about it, other than the graphics.

[Ze_ro]

Well, I bought a CD-i off eBay. It's a 450 with the DVC... so I think it's safe to say that about 2 weeks from now, I'll be very disappointed

 

As for Mutant Rampage, as far as I can tell, it's a side scrolling beat-em-up like Double Dragon or Final Fight, rather than a tournament style 1-on-1 fighter like Rise of the Robots. I'll have to add Rise of the Robots to my list... I still haven't played that one, and the CD-i version should at least have some nice cut scenes that the Genesis and SNES versions won't have.

 

--Zero

[jesusc]

I kind of liked mutant rampage, but then again I'm  a sucker for Final Fight clones.

959311[/snapback]

[Ze_ro]

Well, I got my CD-i finally, and I love it. The only games I have at the moment are CD Shoot, Video Speedway, and A Great Day at the Races... all of which are pretty bad, but it's still a very interesting piece of history. Plus, I have Kether, Burn:Cycle, 7th Guest, Mad Dog McCree, and The Apprentice on the way, which I'm expecting to be much better games.

 

I'm also very impressed with the video quality of CD-i movies... I picked up Star Trek 1 and Naked Gun 33 1/3. It's not as good as DVD of course, but still better than I expected them to be. I'll have to pick up some more of these.

 

I still need to find a decent controller for the thing though... the one I have is just a one-handed thing with a D-pad and two buttons. Not nearly as bad as everyone said it was, but it's obviously not intended for serious gameplay. There was a legimate remote (the one with the thumbstick) on eBay the other day that I was thinking of picking up, but it's a good thing I didn't, since there doesn't seem to be an IR receiver on my CD-i 450... I guess I can never use one of those things, right? No big loss I'm sure. And while I'm asking about controllers, is there a multiplayer adaptor for the thing? I didn't know there was only one controller port on it. Sure there are 2-player games out there?

 

While I was playing CD Shoot, it asked me what controller I was using, giving me the option of two different trackballs, a mouse, and the remote... are the trackballs and mouse functionally equivalent, or do some games only support one of them or something?

 

Oh, and why is there a DC out jack on the back of my system? Were there add-ons that actually used that?

 

--Zero

[Lemmi]

http://www.icdia.co.uk/ is a site for all things CDi tons of info, if they have the codes for Strip poker they must have everything

 

oh and there is a splitter for 2 controllers its called the I/O port Splitter

 

here is a good site to read about alot of software for the CDi

http://www.pmpro.com/consumer/consumer/games.html

 

and you can burn most cdi games/movies on cdr and play in your cdi

you can take .mpg files make a vcd and watch them on your CDi

 

i have 48 games and 48 movies/recreational cds

here is a pic of my hardware collection

[christianscott27]

an LG cd-i player? it seems likes that company just enter the US market a couple years ago, korean i think - whats the story with that player?

[Lemmi]

as far as i know LG was Goldstar (like the 3DO system), and they just changed their name, other then that i dont know anything about the company

 

this came from the Cdi website above, and is the only story i know about the LG system

 

"The LG GDI 700 was especially intented for institutional/commercial situations. It was equiped with 32 KB of NV-RAM and a serial port allowing up to 38.4Kbps connections for fast modem communications. The player, which had integrated MPEG capability, was based on the Motorola 68341 Integrated CD-i Engine."

 

 

oh by the way my LG CDi came from the Michigan Supreme Court, there is a small metal tag on the system saying so

[yuppicide]

The only reason I wanted a CD-I was to see the Zelda game. My friend bragged how he played and beat every Zelda and I said there's one you haven't done yet. He refuses to buy a CD-I just for the game which is supposedly crap. I keep pestering him to get it.

[Lemmi]

I have the CDi 690.  It has the DV cart built in, and I believe the most NV ram out of them all for saving games.  It's a tray model, but I've had it for quite a while with no problems.

959311[/snapback]

 

the 600's are usually professional and authoring CD-i players, but i dont see that system number listed on the CDi website the last one is the CDi 670, do you have a picture of it?

 

is it white or silverish? http://www.icdia.co.uk/players/professional.html

 

all the Zelda games are bad and zeldas adv. is the best of the 3 (2 years ago they sold on Ebay new or used for $100+)

 

dont forget Hotel Mario, a very fun game which you will need the Philips Gamepad Controller to play to the end, i got to level 5 or 6 with the remote then i beat it with the gamepad

 

i also love Defender of the Crown, and its easier then the NES version, and you dont need a gamepad to play it

 

also if you like classics try these 3 games

 

Arcade Classics - 3 games - Galaga -- Galaxian -- MS. Pac-Man (the screen scrolls up and down a bit when playing) - i gave a detailed review on these games in a past post here somewhere

 

Golden Oldies I -- (2 games) Guardian (defender clone) -- Invaders (space invaders clone)

 

Golden Oldies II --(2 games) Block Buster (breakout clone) -- Bug Hunt (centipede clone)

[Ze_ro]

Well, I've since gotten the other 5 games I ordered... I haven't played them all that much, but they're certainly much better than Video Speedway and CD Shoot! I recently bought a 3DO, so I'll probably be taking a break from CD-i purchases at least until next year.

 

The Apprentice is a really cute platformer, which feels a lot like something you might see on the Amiga. Gets a little frustrating at time, but very addictive.

 

Kether is really bizarre... I can't figure out the storyline here to save my life. I'll have to play this one a little more just to get a handle on what the hell is going on.

 

Mad Dog McCree seems like a great port, but this really needs a light gun... I'm guessing all the other American Lasergames releases are equally unplayable with a controller.

 

Burn:Cycle seems really interesting, although I haven't really gotten anywhere in the game. For some reason, I got two copies of disc 1 and a soundtrack disc... so I guess I'll have to find another copy that has the second disc or something (This game seems super common, so I'll probably end up with another copy just from buying game bundles). The FMV seems kinda crummy compared to other games, but I'll assume that that's due to the game not using the DVC.

 

7th Guest I really haven't played much beyond making sure the game works... load times seem a little sluggish when moving between scenes.

 

I also burned a copy of the Super Mario's Wacky Worlds prototype, and I'm very impressed with it... it's too bad this game was never finished and released, as the control seems every bit as good as Super Mario World on the SNES was.

 

And yeah, Goldstar changed their name to LG at some point in the mid-90's. Apparently there was even an LG 3DO... some guy had one on eBay the other day with a BIN of over a thousand bucks. I had no idea it even existed.

 

--Zero

[yuppicide]

Hotel Mario sounds interesting.

 

Defender of the Crown is a GREAT game! The only version I've ever played was on the Commodore 64.

[christianscott27]

if this is taboo then pardon me but...

 

I also burned a copy of the Super Mario's Wacky Worlds prototype, and I'm very impressed

 

if you could post or PM me how to do this, uhh and the other mario/zelda games you'd totally make my thursday afternoon!

 

 

ohh come on its not like i could buy a licensed new copy somewhere...my CD-i hasnt seen much play since space ace, gimme something

[Ze_ro]

I also burned a copy of the Super Mario's Wacky Worlds prototype, and I'm very impressed

if you could post or PM me how to do this, uhh and the other mario/zelda games you'd totally make my thursday afternoon!

I put it up on my server over here. It's only about 8MB, and it's in bin/cue format, so you should be able to burn it to disc with just about any CD burning software you want. There isn't anything special to burning CD-i games, as the system has no protection. This is the only image I have though, so if you want the Zelda games, then you'll have to find 'em yourself (I eventually plan to buy these ones, despite how much it'll cost me).

 

It's not really a playable game per se... you can't die, and you can't exit any of the levels as far as I can tell, so once you're bored of a level, you have to reset the machine to try another. Still, it's a nice demonstration of what could have been.

 

--Zero