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Anyone ever have a CDi?

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  • Werewolf
    Inhuman
    • Jul 14, 2003
    • 14606

    Anyone ever have a CDi?

    I've never had a CDi (I had a 3DO) and it's become mostly known for the terrible Zelda games it had. But looking back at it the hardware was pretty impressive for the time. I was wondering if anyone here had one, if they liked it and how it was actually playing games on it.

    The CDi and 3DO were fairly ahead of their time in that they were "multi-media" consoles instead of strictly game machines. That sort of thing is common place now with game systems doing just about everything from games to streaming movies. But in the early 90s that didn't seem to be popular or a big selling point.
    You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...
  • Figuremod73
    That 80's guy
    • Jul 27, 2011
    • 3014

    #2
    Was there films available on the CDi?
    I havent even seen one in person.

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    • raider5gt
      Museum Tree Cutter
      • Nov 25, 2007
      • 1911

      #3
      I had an Amiga CD32 the graphics were smooth and bright,a real cool games machine but sadly not to many games were released,the games i mostly played were Alien Breed/Tower Assault and The Chaos Engine,i am not to sure it could stream movies though,i was just in awe of how good the graphics were for the 90's

      Never stand behind a cow when it sneezes.

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      • Werewolf
        Inhuman
        • Jul 14, 2003
        • 14606

        #4
        Originally posted by Figuremod73
        Was there films available on the CDi?
        I havent even seen one in person.
        The CDi could play movies on CD with an optional digital video cartridge. We have to remember this was pre DVD. I know there weren't many movies were released for it, but I do know the classic Trek movies were at least available for it.
        You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High on a hill top near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One dark and stormy night, a light appears in the topmost window in the tower of the old house. You decide to investigate... and you never return...

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        • cjefferys
          Duke of Gloat
          • Apr 23, 2006
          • 10180

          #5
          I think there were only some Paramount movies available in the CDi format (including some Trek movies, as you mention). From what I remember, the quality was pretty bad though, definitely worse than DVD, probably even worse than VCDs. I remember seeing one on display at a store in Toronto, it was quite pricey but I thought it was cool that it could play movies.

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          • samurainoir
            Eloquent Member
            • Dec 26, 2006
            • 18758

            #6
            CDi never got a toe hold in the consumer market (outside of Japan?), however it was widely used for training and education within the corporate field in the days of pre high speed Internet. Particularly (in my own experiences) within banking and pharmaceuticals, which always has money to burn in these initiatives. It's strength was it's really basic interactivity with both an individual one on one usage, or use in a lecture or classroom setting (despite a slight lag time in selection and loading of video elements). Pharma reps for example, would carry them on their rounds and hook them up to whatever TV might be available, to show Doctor testimony and charts and graphs and other data for drug trials.

            When I first entered the prehistoric field of interactive media production, CDi's were being phased out in favor of PC based CD ROMS. Particularly as laptops were becoming more powerful and affordable, and video playback was the big breakthrough (we used QuickTime) that killed CDi, at least in corporate.

            The most common kind of things we built for the CDi platform were Quiz Show type gaming for corporate training (including one with John Cleese, who did a ridiculous amount of mugging for corporate clients that the general public will never see).

            The consumer gaming selection, other than choose your own adventure style branching story telling, was pretty dismal due to what felt like the lack of immediate real time responsiveness in the remote control (compared to other gaming platforms or your desktop PC) IMHO, they were a slight step up from the early menu driven DVD players of the time.

            Last edited by samurainoir; Mar 4, '12, 7:39 PM.
            My store in the MEGO MALL!

            BUY THE CAPTAIN CANUCK ACTION FIGURE HERE!

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            • Figuremod73
              That 80's guy
              • Jul 27, 2011
              • 3014

              #7
              Bet that things bigger than an Colecovision.

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