This developer built the first CD-i Mastering System 1 year before CD-i was ready/introduced, by connecting the boards of CD-i to an Icon computer system, and was able to show digital video, the first time outside of Bell Labs, USA

A former CD-i developer about starting a joint venture to build the very first CD-i mastering system, even before CD-i technology was ready (experienced @ Bell Labs): "I actually built the very first CDI mastering system, over a year before CDI was introduced or hardware was ready. I used a computer that had both a multi-bus and an IBM pc bus. The multi bus had a 6809e processor running OS-9 - the CDI operating system, and sending the graphics to an advanced graphics card plugged into the PC bus. The computer was from a startup company called Icon. They seem to have self destructed shortly afterwards, so my business plan to sell CDI mastering systems didn't happen because I could no longer get the necessary hardware. I never learned the whole story of what happened to them. My partner and I decided not to sue over our broken contract because we had other things to put our energy into."

CD-I was developed by Philips-Sony to offer an interactive graphics medium based on the CD that could be used for entertainment and education. It ran on a Motorola 68070. I worked for Radio Shack in the early '80s and owned a Model 16, so I was familiar with the 68,000 family. At that time the only graphics cards that could match the color and resolution specs for CD-i ran on the IBM-PC bus. "I became aware of a small computer company getting started in Utah that could run multiple buses and operating systems at the same time, inculding Multibus, which could run Motorola processors, and the pc bus. I realized a couple of years before CDI mastering systems were available that there was a possibility that a Motorola 68000 could run CD-I code and output the graphics to graphics card plugged into the PC bus on this machine. I found a partner with money, got a distributorship for the Icon computer system, and contacted people in the US who were working on CDI development. We plugged the boards into a early sample of the computer, and were able to show full motion digital video - from what I understand, the first time outside of Bell Labs. Unfortunately, the Icon computer company had management issues and fell apart before they really got going, and although we had a technical success, the project fell apart when we couldn't get more machines to market to developers."