CD-i (Compact Disc Interactive) was developed by Philips in collaboration with Sony and Microware in the mid-1980s. The interactive multimedia platform was intended as a successor to the successful Audio CD and was similarly licensed to other consumer electronics manufacturers.
Consumer market
CD-i appeared on the US consumer market in 1991 and in Europe in 1992. To ensure sufficient CD-i titles, the software branch Philips Media was founded, which focused on the development and distribution of CD-i titles. Hundreds of deals have been made with game studios, book publishers, museums, record companies, TV channels and film producers. As a result of a collaboration with Nintendo (which also included a later-canceled joint CD-ROM project), Mario, Link and Zelda titles even appeared on CD-i.
Although CD-i can be counted among the most ambitious projects of Philips ever, the system did not become the great success it had been hoped for. This was mainly due to the lack of products from partners such as Sony and Panasonic. But the complex and regularly changing positioning of CD-i as a family device, game console or video player also caused confusion. CD-i disappeared from the consumer market around 1997.
Business market
However, CD-i proved to be very successful in the business market. The system was affordable, offered unprecedented image quality at the time and was very easy to install and use compared to other systems. Thousands of companies, retail chains, medical institutions, governments and schools have had CD-i titles developed. The last business CD-i players rolled off the production line in June 1999. After that, the business market shifted in the direction of online platforms in particular.
CD-i hardware
CD-i players appeared in a large number of forms: separate players of various sizes, CD-i functions in Hi-Fi turrets and TV sets, portable players with and without screen and professional CD-i players with additional functions . In addition to Philips, Sony, LG / GoldStar, Grundig, B&O and a few smaller batches of CD-i players also launched on the market.
The collection
The HomeComputerMuseum contains the complete collection of the New International CD-i Association (ICDIA), compiled since 1990 by Jorg Kennis. The collection consists of over 1,500 discs, including 500 professional titles that have never been available in regular sales.
An overview of all discs in this collection can be found at www.icdia.co.uk/archive
[Thanks, Jorg Kennis, The Home Computer Museum, Helmond, The Netherlands]