Author Archives: omegalfa

School 2000 project

The School 2000 was a Philips Media project for the future of education at schools. With the idea of modernising classes with new technology, a TV screen and a CD-i player.
Helping teachers with new methods of teaching and students new methods of learning.
Many titles were specifically developed for this project. Some of them can be easily recognised as they have this beautiful logo on the cover.
Other titles including edutainment (kids titles) and multimedia, usually used on Philips Media consumer catalogues also became available for the School 2000.

We deliberately haven’t added more than 20 titles into this list, as they still haven’t been found and preserved. To avoid any pricing speculation (rarity), we will only add them here after being preserved.

I asked Mr Data and Anata to create this School 2000 vectored logo from an old and used scanned one.
It took Anata 2 hours to complete this artwork.
Thank you for this amazing work!

Anata is the same person who also vectored the Digital Video Cartridge logo.
Most of the DVC titles have this logo on the box.

TITLES:

  1. A Child is Born
  2. AIMS CD Instructor – Temperature, Pressure and Humidity
  3. AIMS CD Instructor – Photosynthesis
  4. AIMS CD Instructor – Learning About Ecology
  5. AIMS CD Instructor – Insects: Reproduction and Metamorphosis
  6. AIMS CD Instructor – How We Classify Animals
  7. AIMS CD Instructor – How Animals Survive
  8. AIMS CD Instructor – Frogs and How They Live
  9. AIMS CD Instructor – Evolution: Change Through Natural Selection
  10. AIMS CD Instructor – Exploring our Solar System
  11. AIMS CD Instructor – Civil War: 4 Years of War and Its Aftermath
  12. AIMS CD Instructor – Civil War: The South Secedes and War Begins
  13. AIMS CD Instructor – Animal Communities
  14. AIMS CD Instructor – A First Look at Birds
  15. AIMS CD Instructor – Bees and How They Live
  16. AIMS CD Instructor – Beavers and How They Live
  17. AIMS CD Instructor – Animal Life in a Tidepool
  18. AIMS CD Instructor – Wind, Fronts and Storms
  19. AIMS CD Instructor – A First Look at Trees
  20. AIMS CD Instructor – A First Look at Mammals
  21. AIMS CD Instructor – Ecosystems: Nature in Balance
  22. CD-i in Schools
  23. European Party
  24. In the Wake of Captain Cook
  25. Interactive Math – Whole Numbers
  26. Interactive Math – Percentages
  27. Interactive Math – Decimals
  28. Interactive Math – Fractions
  29. Journeys Through Victorian London
  30. Leren Leren
  31. Muzzy™
  32. Routes to Reading
  33. Shipwreck
  34. Soundtrap
  35. Space Safari
  36. Stickybear® – Math
  37. Stickybear® – Preschool
  38. Stickybear® – Reading
  39. “The Great Art Series” – A Revolution in Color
  40. “The Great Art Series” – Dutch Masters of the 17th Century
  41. “The Great Art Series” – Harvest of the Sun – Van Gogh
  42. “The Great Art Series” – The Art of the Czars
  43. “The Great Art Series” – The French Impressionists
  44. “The Great Art Series” – Rembrandt
  45. The Number Factory
  46. The Smithsonian Presents – The Riches of Coins
  47. The Smithsonian Presents – Stamps
  48. The World of Number – Disc 1
  49. The World of Number – Disc 2
  50. The World of Number – Disc 3
  51. The World of Number – Disc 4
  52. Tim & Bear® at the Hospital
  53. Tim & Bear® at the Airport
  54. Tim & Bear® at the Harbour
  55. Tim & Bear® at the Movies
  56. Treasures of the Smithsonian

CDi2SNES Splitter Adapter!

Robert Dale Smith, from controlleradapter.com the usual suspect, is now making the final tests with his new CDi2SNES splitter adapter!
We all know the price nowadays of a CD-i gamepad or touchpad, so if you want to play a 2 player game, just image the investment you will make…
With this new adapter, you will be able to connect two SNES (Super Nintendo) controllers and enjoy playing against your friends!

This time, Robert Dale Smith didn’t worked alone to design and develop this adapter. He worked with Fragol Tech, specialised in Consoles Mods, both are making a strong team with a great future for more upcoming CD-i stuff!


New Homebrew CD-i splitter!

Robert Dale Smith from controlleradapter.com developed a very tiny CD-i Splitter for 2 player games!
Located in Austin, Texas (USA), I followed all the development of this homebrew adapter and I am happy to share some pictures with you.

He designed the PCB, mounted the 8 pins connectors and created a box using a 3D printer.
You can order your CD-i Splitter directly at Controller Adapter that includes a 3 feet (approximately 90 cms) cable.
The price is 25USD plus shipping.

Absolutely easy to use, just connect the 3 feet cable into the CD-i Splitter, plugin to the CD-i player, then connect your 2 wired controllers and enjoy the 2 player games (Head-to-Head) available on CD-i!

We are in touch to make possible more adapter options for more accessories.
Stay tuned!


Clean Air System Informatie CD-i – Presentation discs

When you think you have seen enough obscure CD-i titles… more appears!
Jos van den Berg from our Facebook Group gave us the privilege to show 2 titles from his collection:
Clean Air System Informatie CD-i 1993 and Clean Air System Informatie CD-i 1994, both produced by Merlin Interactive and do not need the Digital Video Cartridge (DVC).

We are talking about Dutch titles, also called Philips Luchtreiniger which means Philips Air Purifier.

Seller used this titles to let consumers watch the different models available in an interactive way, possibly using a portable CD-i player.
We can see 2 discs but, more might exist.

Take a closer look at the CD-i logo on the disc from the first one… the “i” is upside down “!”. Maybe the image got flipped vertically… intentional? We don’t know… But the same logo from the second disc is the correct.

Two new additions to our Professional titles list.

Thank you Jos van den Berg!


The Green Book


I like to share my CD-i experience with people. Talking with my friends, people registered on this site, Facebook group or Twitter.
RetroMan is a person who do have an impressive collection of titles, hardware and accessories. But what I really love about him, is the fact he shares with me in a very natural way what he owns, just like if we was neighbours. I can see it is something he really enjoy to do: Discover CD-i stuff and share it with us, and I can’t thank him enough for that.
A few weeks ago, he was excited about a deal he was about to conclude… and what a deal…

He got the Green Book. Maybe for some of you it is nothing special, a green book is a green book, we can find so many coloured books in any stores… right…? NO!
I am talking about THE GREEN BOOK, the CD-i Holy-Grail, with all the specifications you need to create a CD-i related work.

When Philips and Sony defined the Audio CD specifications, they gave to it a name, the Red Book, in June 1980. This was the 1st colour from a long collection…
In fact, more books followed as Yellow Book (CD-ROM), Green Book (CD-i), Orange Book (CD-R and CD-RW), Beige Book (Photo CD), White Book (Video-CD), Blue Book (Enhanced-CD), Scarlet Book (Super Audio CD) and Purple Book (Double Density CD).

Any company interested in developing CD-i titles or release his own branded CD-i player had to get a paid licence from Philips to get the CD-i Full Functional Specification (Green Book).

The CD-i player is able to read the following Specification:

Red Book
Audio CD, CD-Text, CD-MIDI, CD+Graphics
Green Book
CD-i titles, Digital Video on CD-i (Movies & Music Videos)
Beige Book
Photo-CD
White Book
Video-CD (Movies & Music Videos), CD-i Bridge

That is why we call the CD-i player, a Multimedia player.

Coming back to RetroMan item, what can he do with this Green Book if he is not a programmer? And we can’t forget Philips did turned the Green Book accessible to anyone recently.
Well, that is simple, just like many of us, he is a collector, and every time something shines with a CD-i stamped on it, we try to get it.
The case sizes are 25.7cm x 8.8cm x 21.2 cm.

Now, there are more versions out there to collect…
– 1st version
November 1989
– 2nd version
September 1990
– 3rd version
March 1993
– Final version
May 1994

cdifan, our CD-i Titles Development responsible owns an Electronic Green Book.
So, before Editorial Green Book became available, Electronic Green Books was used.
You can access the specification through Read Only files.

On the Change Log from this Electronic Version, we can read:
In that CHANGE_LISTS directory are revision documents for “Revision 3” from July (no year is stated), “revision 3.3” and “revision 4” (no months or years stated), and a final document that states:

This list has been compiled of corrections, additions, clarifications and editorial amendments since the introduction of Revision 4 (dated 14 November 1988).
The CD-i Full Functional Specification (Green Book) will achieve here with the status which will be further referred to as release 1.0.
This list is dated and complete up to 15 October 1989.

Congratulations RetroMan you’ve got the latest version!
This version seems be in a plastic finish style. The older ones are made in Paper Box.
I am sure you will find more CD-i related things for your collection!