Talk:CD-i

Models

This para removed, having little in common with this list of models:

The Philips CD-i system came in four models: the CD-i 450, which was the "video game CD-i", the CD-i 210, which was the common multimedia version, the CD-i 220, which was the full featured top model and the CD-i 550, which was basically a 450 with the Digital Video Cartridge installed plus it came with an arcade pad.

Dtcdthingy 03:21, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Why not leave it in, still interesting information that you have to come to the discussion to find out.

• Okay, our list is weird and incomplete. My money's on http://www.philipscdi.com/players.htm being the correct list of models. We need to take some action soon to document these models or something. -Dwiki 19:16, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
  • Okay, to answer myself, I have spent some time and updated this entry. The generalization by models doesn't seem to exist elsewhere on the Internet, so hopefully this makes this article a more useful resource. -Dwiki 20:40, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

The Loophole

As far as the loophole, I've heard it numerous times, and when I get home from work I'll take a look into finding a trustworthy source on it, because I don't believe Nintendo willingly let them do it, but they were allowed to based on the language of the contract. --Visual77 20:11, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

• I think you're right, and I didn't mean to imply that the term loophole is blatantly misleading, but we would basically have to see the contract itself if there was a legal loophole that Philips exploited, or at least an article about Nintendo being angry. Most likely Nintendo was placed in a bad position when they went to Philips to get out of their licensing situation with Sony, and Philips was happy to exploit any connection with Nintendo legally allowed. I imagine that Nintendo grumblingly let Philips release Nintendo games but didn't complain too much when the royalty checks started rolling in. This is, of course speculation, which is why I tried to make the language as ambiguous as possible in my revision to your revision. I don't recall Nintendo ever publicly complaining about the situation, although they might have, I was about 10. Dwiki 07:08, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

From what I know from reading old video game magazines, Nintendo and Sony split ways, then Nintendo went to Philips, because the CD-i was already in development. Nintendo then assured, in some random blurt in a random issue of Nintendo Power in 1992, that Nintendo's CD-ROM unit would be 100% compatible with CD-i. Now what does that mean? Nintendo didn't do a damn thing about the four "Nintendo" games released on CD-i, and I remember if somebody called 1-800-255-3700 and asked the rep about CD-i, before Nintendo split with Philips and went with SGI for Project Reality, they were giving info out that those games were approved or whatever. Anyways, it's been too long to really remember. I suggest just getting a bunch of old-ass magazines from the era and carefully reading the news and previews sections, maybe even gossip, and see what and who said what. Coffee5binky (talk) 17:25, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Linking to emulators

Well, the emulator entry sure links to a lot of them. In general, content providers may claim that emulators themselves are illegal, but it's my understanding that at least in the US, distributing emulators is legal, since they don't infringe on copyright. Distributing the ROMs is, however, illegal, which is why [1] doesn't provide any. -- Dwiki 19:46, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Most popular games

I removed the line stating "The most popular games for the system were The 7th Guest and Burn: Cycle." Unless there's a verifiable source, this seems to be inherently biased. Genocidal 01:46, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

That is a biased topic. To me (and I have the system still along with about 30 CDs), I enjoy Dragon's Lair and Space Ace the most, though 7th Guest is ok.

Notion of the CD-i platform as being a game machine.

While Philips did dabble with the idea of expanding into the edutainment market, there was never a presumption that they would compete with Nintendo or Sega. At best there was the idea of competing with the 3DO as a multi-media appliance (or as Pioneer called it, "in­teractive home-entertainment system") in the high-end market, and a limited number of games were presented at tradeshows to round out the platform library. This was a way to sell their video platform to the affluent A/V consumer by adding the pitch tha their video system is better because your children can use it for their entertainment as well. In 1995 the home entertainment market was very segmented with multiple stratas of competition. While it's easy in hindsight to blanket them all into the "video game market", as vertical market players, in reality they were horizontal market players that crossed into the space to increase their feature lists.

These catagories of systems were generally never even marketed on the whole as game machines. They were attempts at driving a home video format/player when it was preceived that the killer ap to sell your video player was including the ability to do other things than play movies. Pioneer attempted to enter this market as well with the model CLD-A100 LaserDisc player which had Genesis/PC Engine AND karaoke expansion capabilities. But even then, that system was marketed as a LaserDisc player with these extra enhanced features. The Nuon was originally planned as an enhanced DVD player that *also* played games and would eventually have internet access. The Pippen was a home Internet appliance that *also* played games. Heck my Palm Pilot plays games but that doesn't make it a game machine.

In 1995 the replacement for VHS was the killer ap everyone was searching for. Everyone wanted to show you how great a movie looked on their player first followed by "oh and by the way it will play games too!" But that didn't make any of these systems video game consoles.

Personally I think that it's questionable having CD-i in the cvg comparison listings, and at best it should have it's own side catagory. BcRIPster 02:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I think it is wrong to describe in the summary that the CD-i was the biggest commercial failure for game consoles, because it was not from the start intended as only a game console. It should be toned down. Andries (talk) 07:57, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Agreed. I just removed the whole sentence. I personally take odds with GamePro's dubious classification for the system. BcRIPster (talk) 15:37, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

One of the first cd based home consoles

If I am not wrong, this console the CDi, was one of the first cd based consoles releaced on the market and this should be included in the article. mcjakeqcool Mcjakeqcool (talk) 17:03, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

No joy? Give us a bell on wether or not the Phillips CDi is one of the first CD based consoles asap. mcjakeqcool Mcjakeqcool (talk) 14:47, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

I believe it was. Andries (talk) 20:57, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Let's not just go on belief though. Someone should confirm release dates. The real challenge here though and what I suspect you're getting at is it being the first cd-based videogame console? If not, then how are you defining console? So with that said, how do we factor in that it wasn't re-purposed as a videogaming console until 1994 at the earliest? If you take it from that approach then it is possibly the last cd based gaming console for that generation. BcRIPster (talk) 15:41, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

I believe the CD-i is the first CD-rom based "console" if you want to call it that. The Sega CD was released two days earlier in Japan, but it is categorically an add-on (a peripheral to the actual system which uses cartridges) and preceded by the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-CD by almost three years (also an add-on). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.145.121.151 (talk) 19:50, 2 December 2013 (UTC)

Removed statements

I've just removed the following unsourced and unclear statements from this article:

"What is little realized or understood is that Philips and Sony made large sums of money of the patents pioneered with CDi, and these patents carried over to many other formats, so all of the efforts were both product centric and also pioneering research to helped us get where we are today."

"What it is important to know is that Philips and others filed so many patents from the CDi development that enormous revenues were generated. For those who actually understand the economics of the compact disc evolution, it is useful to understand that large continuing revenue streams were created that were not calculated into the typical reporting or understanding."

If these statements can be sourced and elucidated, it would be better to place them in the Green Book (CD standard) article. 66.18.219.221 (talk) 13:51, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Removed merge tags

I've also removed the merge tags on this article and on the Green Book (CD standard) article. There was no discussion present about this proposed merge anywhere that I could find, and no reasons were given for it back when the merge tags were added on March 16, 2013. 66.18.219.221 (talk) 17:15, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

Better source needed

The source for this statement:

"The CD-i was also the first console to feature online gaming, including subscriptions, web browsing, downloading, e-mail, and cross-country online play."

appears to be a self-published blog, which usually does not meet with Wikipedia's verifiability and reliability standards as per WP:SELFPUB. And though there is no in-line citation, presumably the entire Philips CD-i#TeleCD-i and CD-MATICS section is sourced from this blog too. Can we not find a more reputable source for the information contained in these sections? Also, though the bare hardware may have been present "first", certain features listed here may have been present first in other consoles. Without proper sources, there is no way of knowing for sure. The Sega NetLink came out in 1996 I believe, for instance, even though that article is lacking a specific date. 66.18.219.221 (talk) 19:52, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

A reputable source? The damn thing has actual sources and pictures, blog or not That shit is not photo shoped. Uou are arguing $1 bills don't exist if someone on a blog posted a picture of an actual dollar bill being spend at a store. It does not workj here.