Category Archives: News

Seventy7 and Preserve CD-i project

Seventy7 became in a few months (since September 2020) an “incontournable” name of the CD-i scene.
He is a preservationist, witch means he is searching to get the original discs, and with a process using a specific software and hardware, gets the original data from each titles like official realize date, version, ring codes and also an image (ISO or BIN/CUE files).
As the Philips CD-i wasn’t properly preserved, he decided jump into this quest and started this quest… yes… a quest!

We all know the difficulty to complete a collection for this system as it was used for so many professional purpose beside the usual simple consumer, not counting the huge regional variants.

Still, with the growing interactive community and interest into this infamous system, many unknown or very rare titles started appearing from nowhere. Thanks to many of those people Seventy7 is slowly reaching his goal with 960 titles dumped so far.
The most famous pair is without any questions Blazers and Seventy7. In fact, Blazers has a gift to find titles from places nobody would think it could be possible… and Seventy7 is a pure machine when the subject is dumping and scanning… I named this pair, the Dream Team, you will find there names on many titles credits.
But there is more, UnlockerPT, he is a monster, eating more than 60 titles in just one week-end! I can easily confirm that as he is my neighbor here in Portugal (Grande Maluco! És o Maior!).
Seventy7 named a few on his dedicated blog:

Thanks to Blazers, KailoKrya, Landcross, retaliator, r******d, UnlockerPT, omegalfa, Jackal, Maddog, Fireball, Wiggy, Billy and many others for all your hard work!

All the dumps are available at Redump.org but now, all the romset are available on archive.org, thanks to him!

It is now my turn, thank you them, yes, thank you Seventy7, thank you Blazers, thank you UnlockerPT, thank you KailoKrya, thank you retaliator, thank you r******d, thank you Jackal, thank you Maddog, thank you Fireball, Thank you Wiggy, thank you Billy, thank you all!
Keep up the good work!


Share us without cookies and tracking!

You may have notice the addition of the share feature at the end of each post and pages.
This is an improvement to let you share with all the world the CD-i news and information.

Share on Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Telegram by simply clicking on it.

Why we took so long to add it on our website?
We want to preserve the privacy of all our visitors and members, so there is no tracking or cookies from the worldwide companies to monitor your visits here. Your privacy is very important for us, and no one need to know where you use to go on internet.
Like what use to happen on other websites that use the normal sharing buttons, even if you don’t click on “share it”, just by visiting the sites, you are being monitored by the different social websites.

Here this is not happening! Tracking and cookies free! We took a while to find the best.

NOTE:
If you share on the main page of the site, you will always share the main page, and not the specific post.
So, to share the post you want, please 1st click on the news, and then, share it!

Help us to spread the good word!


Shikotei’s The Apprentice Free PC version!

Shikotei, our website member, have just completed a completely insane project!
9 years ago he got this crazy idea to convert a CD-i game into a Windows game… Yes… 9 years of intensive work!
The game selected was The Apprentice of course! This game is for sure one of the best you can find on CD-i and maybe one of the best platform game of the 90’s!

CONGRATULATIONS Shokitei for this amazing work!
You are crazy and we need more crazy guys like you!

Shikotei:

After having started almost 9 years ago in Excel, porting this to PHP, porting that once again to Director in Lingo, and finally porting everything to Unity in C# this game has come a long way!

The Apprentice remade for PC is the project of just me whose idea of a challenge is programming everything from scratch. No black boxes, no bug-free engines, no such thing of any kind. Stupid? Perhaps.. but it got me knowledge beyond what I thought I needed to make a game! Knowledge that should enable me to make another one if I ever finish this one.

My version of The Apprentice requires an ISO of the original CD-i disc to run. It is needed because all the sprites, backgrounds, music, sound effects, and level layouts are stored there. None of them are aboard the game itself because that would be a copyright infringement. It is my way of trying to protect myself against those who hold the rights to the Apprentice.

Every asset I extract from the IMG file is kept in memory and so nothing is actually stored on the hard drive.

Download the PC version game right here!

For more information about how to play it and also other Shikotei projects, please visit his website at www.shikotei.com!

A forum topic has been created so Shikotei can answer your questions!


Some titles require you to set the CD-i clock!!

Sadly, many of our CD-i players no longer have a working timekeeper. Some people have managed to fix this issue with skill and ingenuity (here, here and here), but for those people who are happy to keep their player as it is, without being able to save high scores, please note that certain titles that I’ve identified recently require you to set the time  🙂


I usually play Earth Command at Christmas! 2022 was the first year that my 740 player no longer had a working battery. For some reason, Earth Command wouldn’t play – I just had a blank screen. I realised that the game monitors how long you’re in post as Commander, and displays the date at the top of the screen – and this relates to the timekeeper! So you must set the time before loading the CD-i!!


But without a doubt, the most bizarre aspect relating to the timekeeper is that of trying to play Interactive Video Charts 1995. I first discovered these titles back in the early/mid 2000’s but for some strange reason, no 1995 discs would play on any of my machines – apart from the FW380i. Why? 1994, 1996 and 1997 discs all played fine! In the last month or so, I realised that, to play these 1995 titles, the clock must be set to the year 1995  🙂 So, if the timekeeper is still working, the CD-is won’t play! And if the time is not set, or is set to 2023, they also won’t work. Go back in time to 1995 though and, hey presto, you’ll be able to enjoy fantastic music videos from the ‘club classics’ era  😉

If there are any other CD-i titles that you know of that require setting the clock, please do let us know!


Thank you Topxicemu and good luck!


Our Open-Source responsible Topxicemu, is leaving The World of CD-i team.
Belgian but living in Canada, this CD-i addicted have to say good bye to us.
His job and new projects don’t let him focus into the CD-i scene as much as he would like to.
He was always working on the shadow but did some great work along the years since I meet him 15 years ago.
He is the responsible of the still not concluded “CD-i Repair Guide” in French. We worked together to increase the information on the guide. Some websites and forums share the pictures of the guide, with the original file we will add it on The World of CD-i translated to English.
During the year 2019 he was mostly giving support to our user’s hardware problems.

At The World of CD-i, we are now 6 in the team, I will share with CD-i Fan the Open-Source section.

We wish you the best for your new career!
Thank you Brother!
Stay safe!


The 7th Guest – Remastered


Well, as we are in the middle of Halloween festivities, here is some creepy news!
The Israeli game developer company MojoTouch released the 20th Anniversary of The 7th Guest in a remastered edition!
The game has been released in 2015 for Android, available at Google Play for 4,59€, and game received its latest update on 29th February 2016 for version 1.0.0.8-11.

Number 2 in the USA and Top 10 in more than 84 countries, the success made MojoTouch decide to export it for Windows and made the 25th Anniversary remastered version in 2019 for 8,19€ (this year)!

Released on 14th April 2015 for AndroidReleased on 2nd April of 2019 for Windows

Watch the official android Trailer:

But how did they manage to make it?
They just found the right guy to make this job… Luc Rooijakkers, ex CD-i programmer from SPC Vision company.
The World of CD-i talked to him in exclusivity about his work for The 7th Guest – 20th Anniversary Remastered.

Luc Rooijakkers:

In July 2014 I got contacted by someone from MojoTouch, an Israeli game company.
They were developing the 20th Anniversary Edition with the IP licensed from Trilobyte and he was looking for someone to extract good quality voice tracks, and also German and French versions.
They were basing the Android version on the PC version, using the existing open-source ScummVM game engine.
Unfortunately quality of the PC audio files left something to be desired and it was only available in English.

He had already gotten out most of the videos using online tools but wanted more.
We did some back and forth on it and agreed on a price after I did some analysis of the game.
It turned out that many audio and video assets where in “processed” CD-i formats and thus not readily extractable using standard tools. After a considerable amount of reverse engineering I was able to extract almost anything that he wanted, except for some games that simple weren’t on the CD-i disc for space reasons.

This included all audio in three languages as well as a number of text screens in those same languages.
At the end of August, after I received payment, I delivered all the extracted assets (many hundreds of megabytes).
We had some general correspondence after that but my work was basically done.

I also provided him with all the game videos in CD-i MPEG format, but they ended up not using them.
The PC video files were a bit better resolution, looked somewhat less “blurred” and with less muted colours.
This came out better after upsampling and conversion to the format they were using.

Interestingly, I found out during the reverse engineering that the CD-i game uses a kind of “compiled” game scripts for all the interactivity, with a very general format and functionality.
It did not in any way look like the ScummVM code, not even in the “opcode” list based on the PC version assets.
My guess is that the CD-i makers re-used an existing “script compiler” architecture and/or game engine and wrote or recompiled all the scripts from scratch.

Due to the generality of the script codes, you could create many different “FMV” games using the same engine; the actual game as released is almost completely data-driven.
This could even be a “portable” engine, all the asset manipulation is in the CD-i specific parts outside the basic script engine and called using generic operators.

In January 2015 I got the official beta version of the 20th Anniversary edition for Android as a courtesy, and it is this version that the screen shots I sent you earlier were taken from.

Earlier this year a 25th Anniversary Edition also appeared on Steam, but it seems to be English audio only with subtitles.

Luc provided us with some pictures taken from the original game files, enjoy!


The CD-i Touchpad has a left-handed feature

The Touchpad with reference 22ER9017 is the one based on the Gravis Ultrapad and built by Logitech.

It has 4 buttons:
2 times button #1
1 time button #2
1 time button #3 (#1+#2)

A speed selector is available in the bottom front side, on the right. You can choose between normal speed and double speed for the cursor.

This Touchpad also have an amazing feature, not available on any other CD-i controllers: it is possible to be used by left handed persons. A selector is available in the top front side, on the left.

After activated it, just turn the controller upside down and all the controls will switch. The D-pad will work just like if the controller was in the correct position.

This feature is very similar as the Atari Lynx portable console, also for Left-handed persons.

 

The player’s remote controls (both wireless and the wired one from the 450 model) are also left-handed design, that is why button #1 and #2 are always isometric. But this time, no need to turn them upside down! 😉

And you, have you ever tried this Touchpad feature?


The Crayon Factory – Printable Painting Book


The Big Box version of The Crayon Factory included a 8 Crayola crayon set, and a painting book with the game’s characters and themes.
Thanks to Marco Parisio Java who sent to us the Italian Big Box version, we proudly invite you to download the PDF Painting Book and then, print it to let your children paint it just like in the 90’s!
16 draws ready to be print and paint!

You can download it right here:
The Crayon Factory – Painting Book

It is also available on The Crayon Factory page on the Download tab.


Unknown CD-i player discovered

Back in 2012, Alan_CDiZone found this unit on Digital Press, he posted the news on his now closed Philips CD-i Zone Facebook Page. He explained about the rumours of being a CD-i player used on surgery and medical places.

After our last find with the help of our website forum, Blazers showed his dentistry unknown title.

Now one day later, after sharing this news on Twitter, xsuicidesn0wmanx (@_sn0wX) confirm me his friend used a CD-i 450 placed on a metal box and dentist offices used it.

The CD-i was on eBay for $1000, but as nobody knew what it was, he finished to not sell it.

This unite sold by Intercare uses the 450 external power unit, a touchpad controller, a lock to block anyone to remove the disc and press buttons.

I can confirm we are really talking about a 450 as Alan confirmed the existence of a lateral power on/off like the 450 have. A Digital Video Cartridge is also included.

I have contacted Alan_CDiZone, who found it to let him know he was right!

xsuicidesn0wmanx is going to take better pictures for the site database.

Thank you xsuicidesn0wmanx, and also Blazers (not possible without your pictures)!


Unknown CD-i titles appears


Thanks to our website member Blazers, who post on our Forum pictures of unknown titles, we now know the existence of 2 more titles, even if not published by Philips because created way after the official abandon of the system.

I have two or three CD-i titles from the US that don’t seem to have anything at all online related to them. I may well have the only copies. One is a 4-disc set about Cosmetic Dentistry narrated by Dr. Ross Nash, D.D.S. The Ebay seller I purchased it from last year happens to be a dentist, as does his wife. They ordered it out of a catalogue many years ago. Sure enough, it did indeed play perfectly when I popped it into my DVS VE 200 player. So even though it doesn’t say CD-i anywhere on the packaging, it is indeed a CD-i!

The other possibly new CD-i is a set of 2 discs put together by the Michigan Judicial Institute in 1998 and 2000 to give users an overview of the Michigan Court system. These might be separate titles and not even the only ones in they made. One is a disc and case and the other is still shrink-wrapped. All I can find online that even remotely relates to these titles is a mention over at AtariAge about somebody owning a CD-i player that had a sticker on it indicating that it was once property of the Michigan Supreme Court. These titles flat out say that they are CD-i titles right on them, meant to be played on CD-i players.

Thank you Blazers!
This is a great discover for our community!