In some ways the CD-i can be compared more to the PC, which had numerous different kind of controllers to play games/programs on. Still, the collection of CD-i controllers is remarkable for a format which is a bit more closer related to a multimedia console, next to the PC platform. The consumer CD-i was originally bundled with a thumbstick, the big version. Philips planned a series of different pointing devices, like the mouse, trackball and original Gravis-style touchpad. Of course the very first CD-i system was the CD-i 180, which had its own set of controllers, like a specific CD-i mouse, the graphic tablet and a keyboard. In the years to come, third parties also developed their own kind of CD-i controllers, like the joystick and the Gamester gamepad. Philips not only captured a variety of software applications to work on CD-i, but also a broad spectrum of CD-i pointing devices.
