Is it still worthwilde to invest in the Digital Video Cartridge for your CD-i player, especially if you are not a movie fan? It was cool for its time. Some CD-i members wonder: "Now, buying the add on seems like a waste of money. But then, it was another feature you could show off!".
And with the add on we mean The Digital Video Cartridge? It was more than just a capability for CD-i to play the Video CD format. Philips was struggling at the time how to use the universal slot that is now used for the DVC add on. Next to MPEG playability, Philips was seriously considering other options like improving specs for gaming, like adding more memory or co-processors. In the final design moments, Philips added an extra 1 MB of memory to the cartridge, which could be used by programmers to improve performance of their CD-i software. Keep in mind, the base-case CD-i player only offered 1MB, so this was doubling the amount of memory! So next to offering a capability of playing movies on CD-i, the current DVC was kind of a game cartridge as well: Several games make use of the extra memory and on top of that some games incorporate full motion video to enhance backgrounds or cutscenes, improving the whole gaming experience as well. For me, the Digital Video Cartridge is an essential upgrade to fully enjoy the potential of CD-i titles (and not just the movies ;) !)
[Thanks, Dutch Game Boys, Dorian McCann]