Author Archives: omegalfa

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!


New CD-i game Nobelia is finished!


This is it!
Jeffrey aka TwBurn has finished his 1st CD-i homebrew game! Congratulations!
The game is now under the test of several persons (including The World of CD-i mates) under the most CD-i players as possible to guarantee a full compatibility.
We are proud of him and proud for being part of it with cdifan knowledge improve a faster development.

This development started 1 year ago, and in May a demo was already available.
For someone that is not involved into the gaming industry… damn…  😎
He started from scratch, and even adapted a level editor specifically for this game.
The lucky ones who joined The Philips CD-i Community got the chance to watch all the evolution of this gem.

What kind of game is it?
You are Nobelia, a female character and will explore several zones in a top view reminding the firsts Zelda’s on NES to defeat enemies using bombs (like Bomberman).
The different soundtracks are wonderfully chosen, movements are fluids and the SFX well done.
Hours of fun will be present for you!

The game is awesome! If you have tested Demo 01, well, you will get surprised!

Jeffrey is now correcting some bugs already detected and at the same time, looking for the best way to release the game. Only a Digital release or a Digital and a Physical one. To define what to do, he has created a poll to know all the different opinions from the possible future buyers you can answer right here.

In addition, and this is something that didn’t happened for so long… Nobelia do have now an official trailer!

Congratulations!


Codes Rousseau – The French driving school way!

We have added more Codes Rousseau titles into our database.
You can see 2 series of discs, one that needs the Digital Video Cartridge, and one that do not need it (based on pictures, text and audio.
We are still missing 1 title from the Digital Video Serie, and we are checking if more titles are missing from the lists.

Digital Video Serie:
88001 – Codes Rousseau – La Conduite dans des Conditions Difficiles (car)
88002 – STILL MISSING
88003 – Codes Rousseau – Conduire dans une Circulation Dense (car)
88004 – Codes Rousseau – Anticiper et Prévenir les Risques (car)
88005 – Codes Rousseau – Diriger le Vehicule (car)

Lessons Serie (no DVC needed):
88160 – Codes Rousseau – Moto – Cours A – AL (motorbike)
88201 – Codes Rousseau – Cours Poids Lourd – C – E(C) – D (Truck)
88431 – Codes Rousseau – CD-i Test nº1 (car)
88432 – Codes Rousseau – CD-i Test nº2 (car)
88433 – Codes Rousseau – CD-i Test nº3 (car)
88434 – Codes Rousseau – CD-i Test nº4 (car)
88511 – Codes Rousseau – CD-i Cours B – Réglementation (car)

Thank you KailoKyra for the pictures!
Thank you DataPro for reminding us those old days 😉

Check the Forum Topic!


Codes Rousseau

DataPro just post on our forum some pictures of a driving school CD-i title.
This makes me remember my youth… damn it… I am getting old… and I am so nostalgic…
All right, let’s go to the subject!
Les Codes Rousseau now known as Codes Rousseau is a French company that still exist nowadays and with more than 80 years of history, focused on teaching you how to drive safely, respecting all the latest regulations.
After your get a driving school subscription, you was forwarded to a room with other students, there, a CD-i player connected to a TV screen and showing a program about a specific driving topic.

This is when Codes Rousseau starts in our story. Many different discs was available, for all kind of licenses stands for many years (until at least 2005) with regular updates.

DataPro showed us a Codes Rousseau – Cours Poids Lourd – C – E(C) – D, a French Truck Driving Lessons.
Other are available like Codes Rousseau – Conduire dans une Circulation Dense for cars B and even motorbikes A.
We have a few to add on our database, this is a question of time.
Other European companies did the same in many countries. In Germany for example, Fahren Lernen did it.

Thank you very much DataPro!


Queensland Australia’s Tourism on CD-i

Queensland – Australia’s Sunshine State takes you to this Australian State and explores the diversity of its six major tourism regions. It includes:

  • Gold Coast
  • Outback Queensland
  • Far North Queensland
  • North Queensland
  • Central Queensland
  • South East Queensland

From clear blue seas surrounding the great barrier reef to the lush rainforests and vibrants cities, Queensland will thrill you!

We can’t confirm yet the year of the release of this title as nothing in indicated on the covers, booklet, nor on the CD of even on the final title credits (this title do not have a credits screen). But we can confirm it has been produced and published by Disctonics, and it do require s a Digital Video Cartridge to be played.
A considerable amount of full screen video footage is available on it.
To define the year release, we should use Isobuster or dump it, but we believe it is around 1994.

Take a look at the Disc Type… it says Data Storage, but in fact it is a more a Video-CD title.
Why? Because when we used the LG GDI 700M CD-i player, it shows VCD on the display.
As I do not own this title, I can’t confirm more than this.

It includes the single Live it up in Queensland from Greville Patterson, that also can be purchased separately as Audio-CD. Listen to this single here:

Queensland – Australia’s Sunshine State is so far the only CD-i title published in Australia.
Do you know or have Australian title?

Pictures credits to Alan_CDiZone.