The long development cycle of the CD-i format caused a lot of cancelled CD-i projects that were initiated between 1983-1989. It seems like Philips missed the boat sometimes, as with Electronic Arts who gave up CD-i developing in 1989 eventually: It took too long. Even when Philips released CD-i to the market in 1990, they were busy developing the system from 1983 onwards. The introduction of CD-i was planned long before the launch date of 1990, so there were different projects started on CD-i titles. One of these initiators of an early Interactive CD was the Firesign Theatre, a very surreal foursome who produced radio shows and albums starting in the '70s with a "free-flowing, stream of consciousness style" It will surprise you to know that their 1985 album "Eat or be eaten" actually started as an interactive game demo for CD-i. You can still see the reference to this as the framing device of this album is a character stuck in an interactive videogame.
In 1985 The Firesign Theatre was approached by Philips to write two demonstration games for their new CD Interactive machines. Eat Or Be Eaten, was recorded as a 99 track demo and the accompanying graphics made but the actual finished project was never published commercially. Danger In Dreamland, a Nick Danger Hollywood studio back-lot murder mystery game, was written but not recorded. Eat Or Be Eaten (1985) was salvaged and released as the first CD with subcode graphics.
Phil Austin, one of the developers behind this projext, reflects on this: "In 1983, Peter and Phil and I went to work for The Record Group in Burbank and for three years or so, we hung on for several projects, the biggest of which was called "Danger in Dreamland", a Nick Danger interactive game designed for CD-i, a kind of early CD-ROM.
These were the days when the standards of the medium were being argued out between Sony and Philips, for instance. Our company was allied with Philips. "Danger In Dreamland" is a strange project, too complicated for its time, but it was just exactly what eventually happened in CD-i programming. It is a Hollywood backlot kidnapping mystery which features various films, one a kind of John Garfield drama about spud-hunting in the Deep South and another featuring Tex, the (singing) Hassidic Horse. You had to be there. On a backlot filled with intrigue and ... well, danger, Danger roams. The only part of it that was eventually produced was a test sequence in which Andrea Marcovicci, the torch singer, played Lune Chardonnay."
there's some mention that Firesign's movie The Case of the Missing Yolk (1983) was originally meant to be the world's first 'interactive video' with the help of an unnamed Japanese company and Michael Nesmith's Pacific Arts Video - I presume it would have been like Dragon's Lair? "The trio worked with Mattel's Intellivision wing in the development of interactive video games" in 1982, and further explained: "The remaining Firesigners also provided voices for some of Mattel's Intellivison games, including Bomb Squad and B52 Bomber."
In fact, the Firesign Theater seem to have been stymied in many major game projects they produced, except one masterminded by founding member Phil Proctor, who mentioned this in a 1995 interview: a CD-ROM that is "a comedic take on some of the more popular adventure-style games that have been out on the market for the last year or two." And, wait for it - it was Pyst, with John Goodman, the Myst-aping CD-ROM parody.
CD+G (also known as CD-G, CD+Graphics and TV-Graphics) is an extension of the compact disc standard that can present low-resolution graphics alongside the audio data on the disc when played on a compatible device. CD+G discs are often used for karaoke machines, which use this functionality to present on-screen lyrics for the song contained on the disc. The CD+G specifications were published by Philips and Sony in an updated revision of the Red Book specifications. Along with dedicated Karaoke machines, other consumer devices that play CD+G format CDs include the NEC TurboGrafx-CD, the Philips CD-i, the Sega CD, Sega Saturn, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, the Amiga CD32 and Commodore CDTV, and the Atari Jaguar CD. Since 2003, some standalone DVD players have supported the CD+G format.
