Category Archives: News

New video on YouTube dedicated to the CD-i !


Check out the Youtube video by Gunhed TV, a video dedicated to the Philips CD-i, in french with 2H30 long! English subtitles might be added soon.
He uses a very special humor, pretty cool on this video.

When I discover his work, two years ago, I sent a mail asking if he knew the Philips CD-i. He said yes… That was the beginning of our exchange around this system. I sent him the French magazines Generation CD-i so he could use to create videos using them. I scanned then put to Abandownware.

When I knew he was at the Hedg’convention at Villejuif in France, I came with a Philips CD-i 450 series and with some titles and offered to him this stuff.
A few months ago, he wrote the script… be sure to watch the video!
@Olivier


Nobelia Demo v0.1 free download

Nobelia, the latest CD-i homebrew game by TwBurn is now available for download!
You will enjoy for sure this incredible game! And the music… oh the music…
Just try and be delighted!

Read TwBurn interview here.
Get more info about the game here.
TwBurn GitHub page.

Download the BIN/CUE Demo 0.1 (09-05-2021)
(Burn it on a CD-R and play on your CD-i player)
Play the 4 levels of the demo!

Controls

Up/Down/Left/Right

  • Move character

Button 1

  • Start game on titlescreen
  • Place bomb (tile in front of you needs to be empty)
  • Activate chests/switches
  • Restart level after death

Button 2

  • Detonate remote bombs (when you have this powerup)
  • Resurrect after death (debug option)

Known Issues

  • Game might not (correctly) run on all NTSC machines
  • There is game/audio stutter in some cases, for example after destroying objects with a bomb or opening chests
  • Titlescreen is unfinished, there is no “exit” function

Othello & Mega Maze catalogue numbers

If you take a closer look at both discs calatogue numbers, you will see they match. But as they are completely different titles, this can’t happen as Philips Media always gave unique numbers for each titles.
But there is more… Othello® and Mega Maze shares the same number twice.

Othello – Testing Phase 1 uses 8100083 (1993/11/26)
Mega Maze final release uses 8100083 (1993/09/13)

Mega Maze – Testing Phase 1 uses 8100163 (1993/03/04)
Othello® final release uses 8100163 (1993/??/??)

We will assume the final release title as the correct catalogue number.

This is not the first time we saw those kind of errors, look here.
Typo from Philips Media? A change of catalogue number in the middle of the way?
That is not a problem as we saw it and defined how to pass through this issue.


Partnership for Live CD-i Streaming Gameplay


CDiArcade is a registered member of this website. He streams CD-i videos gameplay broadcasted other the internet.
His goal is to promote the system and share his passion through the videos. No negativity, he present it in a positive light.
A partnership between The World of CD-i & CDiArcade is now signed to promote his quest and help him to spread the good word all over the world.
The World of CD-i support ideas who can bring new fans to our beloved system.
A Forum section is now available, there you will find announcements of the upcoming streams & support.
Live streaming and Podcasts are already available at Twitch & YouTube.
Each month a live streaming is broadcasted after being promoted under hashtag #CDiDay on Tweeter and then, podcasted to YouTube a few days later.
You can find CDiArcade on:
#CDiDay
Tweeter
Twitch
YouTube

Don’t miss his next LIVE video about Hotel Mario™ Friday day 26th of April at 22:00 EST time on Twitch (04:00 Lisbon; 05:00 Paris).

ll upcoming dates announcements will be done through the Forum!


Philips CD-i advertise

Do you remember?

Do you remember seeing this “Philips CD-i” advertise on all Champions League matches?

After trying Champions League title I remembered very well! I do believe Philips should have done a different logo, using the “CD-i” logo we all know, but maybe it was an obligation for UEFA’s sponsors…


Philips CD-i Backup Guide

We proudly upload our famous Philips CD-i Backup Guide under PDF format! 16 pages full of information in a “Do it Yourself” way.
Written by Blurb69 back in 2004, it is now updated to version 3.0.
The objective of the guide was and still is, to avoid using your original titles. We all know the difficulty to find CD-i titles due to high prices and the rarity of some of them. Using a copy of your own discs, you will protect your personal collection!

What’s new on version 3.0?
– Updated new website logo.
– Updated website links.
– Updated all freeware and shareware download links.
– Updated all tests under windows 7 with new screenshots.
– Added “What’s new?”.
– Translation of the Guide to French.

The French version was asked by so many people that it was impossible not to do it for them.

Download Now!
– English version
– French version


Philips Media typo on Karaoke Volume 1 (Dutch)

In fact, when we inserted Karaoke Volume 1 (Dutch) Long Box version, we noticed an error.
At the back of the box it is written 8100069 but at the side, disc and ring, it is 8140069.
It is absolutely normal to be a 814**** like number as it is a Dutch title.
The jewel case of the same title is just fine, you will see 8140069 everywhere.

With the KLIK unreleased title information, we finally discovered the title that actually use the 8100069 catalogue number.
So, there is a typo from Philips Media with Karaoke Volume 1 (Dutch) Long Box version.

DjKoelkast took some pictures to confirm this fact. I also want to thanks Rosewood and RetroMan for being actively available for any help we may need about this and other subjects.


Philips patents lawsuit against Nintendo


This is not a news due to the fact it is from 2014.

Let’s make a short resume of what happened.
Philips accused Nintendo for violate at least 2 patents from 1996, used on Nintendo’s gaming next generation consoles.
Philips filed a suit against Nintendo back in 2012 in the UK and Germany, then in 2013 in France and finally in the USA in 2014.

The 1st patent said to be infringed describes a virtual body control device that models a user’s body in a virtual environment and lets an animated version of the body follow physical movements of the user.

The 2nd patent describes a user interface system based on a pointing device that lets users give commands to another device by moving it in a particular way.

Philips sent a warning to Nintendo about the 1st patent violation back in 2011, but the Japanese company never tried to get the rights of it, and then with the Wii U, the 2nd patent got also violated.

With this lawsuit, Philips wanted to stop importations and sells of the Nintendo consoles in the 4 countries and get compensation for damages.

In 20th of June of 2014 the Judge Colin Birss from UK patents tribunal ruled the violation of the patents 498 and 650 under the following consoles and systems:
Nintendo Wii, Wii Mini, Wii U and accessories Wii Remote, Wii Motion Plus controllers, Nunchuk, Balance Board and GamePad.

In December of the same year Philips confirmed a settlement with Nintendo that involves a cross-licensing agreement that spans the patent portfolios of both companies. The other terms and all financial details were withheld.

“We are very pleased to have reached this agreement with Nintendo,” said Brain Hinman, chief IPO officer at Philips. “It demonstrates that both companies recognize the importance of intellectual property rights. It also shows the value of our extensive IP portfolio and our commitment to protect our significant investments in research and development.”

This is clear proof of a possible development of a possible CD-i 2 or similar system back in 1996 but unfortunatly, never made.

A definitive proof of being far ahead is time…


Popular Retro with Philips CD-i Massive Special Feature – OUT NOW!

Months ago, I had to left the Console Purist Chronicles to embrace an irrefutable invitation from Darren Randle who runs Popular Retro magazine to cover the Philips CD-i section.
We are proud to present the first of this absolutely gorgeous magazine!
The Philips CD-i is featured with a massive 19 pages out of 56 and I do believe it will be a good read for people who knows and even for just curious people about the system.

This is a quarterly magazine, you can buy them one by one or get all of them (total of 4 every year).
Choose between the Digital Magazine or the Printed Magazine.

Congratulations to the team behind this magazine, without them, nothing would be done!

NOTE:
When I received the Editor’s Digital version, I noticed a few mistakes, probably from the Proofreader text formatting…
But at that time, 1000 copies had been already printed.
I am sure the people will find them.
In the next issue an errata will be added.

Check our forum, answer ur poll and tell us if you are thinking getting a copyof it!


Quizard on CD-i players!

TAB-Austria, as the name indicate was an Austrian company that created a series of arcade games in the late 90’s.
What is important for us is not the arcade game… It is the fact the games were developed under CD-i format.
These games first appeared on MAME version 0.139 (July 30 2010), as you know MAME is a multiplatform system emulator and the people behind it are jointing all games into one single place.
Quizard 1 (version 1.7), Quizard 2 (version 2.2), Quizard 3 (version 3.2) and Quizard Rainbaw 4 (version 4.1) are some of them, but they are not included into the official CD-i catalogue.

Quizard series are Quiz games up to 2 players, with a limited time to answer different questions categories, on each wrong answer, you will lose 1 live, until you lost the game. The objective is to get the most points as possible.

Quizard 1 and 2 worked almost perfectly on MAME and CD-i Emulator thanks to Harmony, but Quizard 3 and 4 wasn’t working at all.
That is when Team Europe entered in action, a dedicated group of people to decap MCU’s from original games integrated chips, they got originals Quizard MCU’s.

What is a MCU?
It is a chip which has inside a CPU + EPROM. This chip can get protected with a FUSE-BIT. When this bit is set, you can’t read the EPROM part from it. This chips were pretty expensive back in the days and the only way to read the EPROM part, is to decap it. (Open the Chip, cover the EPROM area with UV-opaque and put it under UV-eraser, which will then “delete” the FUSE-BIT. After that you can read the EPROM part, like it was never protected.

What is an EPROM?
It is a chip with data on it, it can not get protected and is pretty easy to read with any programmer.

Decapping MCU’s is the way you are able to get into the middle of it and reach the Eprom to unlock it with UV light, then copy to a brand new MCU. You need to place an UV protection on the Eprom to avoid any damage when erasing the lock
Easy right? No… Not at all… This is a very sensitive mission and I do not recommend any of you to try it at home!!!

So back in 2016, Team Europe received Quizard 1 and Quizard 4. They did what they know best… decapping the MCU to erase the unlock and be able to read it in a Eprommer reader, then copy it to a new Eprom.

Then back in 2017, Team Europe received Quizard 3 MCU and did the same.
In the following pictures you can read on the original MCU “DE132D3”, this means:
Language: German (DE)
Version: 1.32 (132)
Revision: D3 (D3)

In 2018, Team Europe received another version of Quizard 3, the “DE132A1” and did the same again!

Remember, there is a least 8 versions of Quizard 1 and many others from Quizard 2, Quizard 3 and Quizard 4!

Now, let’s talk about the 2dn part of the work:
Turn you CD-i player into an working Arcade Machine…

Team Europe didn’t just managed to unlock and copy new Eproms, they also designed a MCU board that connects to your CD-i player (Input 2) that will inform your system it is allowed to play the game.
The reason of decapping MCU is because the new MCU copies will be placed into the board.
This way, if you want to play Quizard 1.xx, you will need to place MCU Quizard 1 on the board, the same thing for Quizard 2.xx, Quizard 3.xx and Quizard 4.xx.

Retrostuff received a complete MCU board from Team Europe ready to be mounted. He did the work and test it for us!
Check it out!

I am waiting to receive one, I will also do my tests, but no needs to post anything unless there is some news.

With people like that… The future of CD-i is promising!
Congratulations to all!