Early CD-i documentation refer to an official Philips CD-i accessory: The Philips CD-i 22ER9014 Joystick (which remained unreleased, but was shown in early CD-i games like Tangram)

Browsing through old CD-i documentation, specifically in the amazing archive of the ICDIA documents, sometimes some interesting CD-i facts pop up. We've seen an official CD-i joystick in this document before, which remained unreleased. In the early CD-i manuals, Philips printed the accessories that were compatible with it. In this CD-i 205 manual, we see the 22ER9014 Joystick, with a different design as what was printed in this article. The design printed in the manual looks more like the official CD-i joystick which was released by Tecno Plus. As all other Tecno Plus CD-i products were licensed Philips products, I wonder how the development of the CD-i joystick went; perhaps it was an idea and design by Philips which they didn't release in the end, but licensed it to Tecno Plus who took an opportunity? It sounds not logic for a company like Tecno Plus to build/design/produce the CD-i joystick all by themselves, but of course this is pure speculation. We find it interesting to see quite some hints to an official Philips CD-i joystick and the fact a third party actually released one, while most of us are not aware a true joystick on CD-i actually exists.

 

Interesting detail is that in early CD-i games like Tangram (developed by Eaglevision in 1991-1992), they included a screen where you can choose your controller. Included is this very joystick, by the looks of it the exact unreleased version by Philips. (As the only one released is by Tecno Plus, which has a different design). It looks like they were pretty clear it would happen, although in the end, the Philips joystick remained unreleased.  (picture below made by Retrostuff)