Author Archives: omegalfa

Watermarks removed from The World of CD-i

It is now known that the Interactive Dreams blog run by Bas is closed, and the Twitter and Facebook page accounts related to it seem to have disappeared as well.
Of course the disappearance of a CD-i website is always negative for the whole community, ALWAYS.
It is also known that we have added watermarks on all our images due to them being used without asking or any references to their origin (this site, the forum and our Facebook Group), and we weren’t the only ones asking for such as we have now figured out. Information not verified was also asked to be confirmed before published.

I predicted right after our come back in April 2019 about the possibility of the Community losing sites, with the fact of trying to be everywhere and get every day’s posts. Maintaining a website seen by most part of the Community takes a lot of personal time (time many times taken from family) and responsibilities. We (The World of CD-i) left the CD-i scene 12 years ago for some reasons not needing to be discussed again, and also for the wear and tear it gave us.

We now believe the problem is not relevant anymore. In our “team room” we discuss everything that is done on the site, we all hate the watermarks. When they were implemented, I made it clear we were going to remove them when things would become normal (about crediting). We are people of our word, and that is why we will be removing the watermarks.
This affects more than 7000 images, watermarks need to be removed one by one manually. We believe one week will be enough, but some watermarks might remain for a while as they were added directly on image editing. After the initial watermark removals, we will do our best to also restore these remaining ones.

We do not know if Interactive Dreams will come back or not, under the same or a different name, we are all sad with the loss of a reference CD-i site, but we are still worried about the credits of this site, of our work, of our time spent on it. If we have to re-implement watermarks in the future, we will not hesitate.


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!