A-Z of Philips CD-i Games , livre ebook

Andrews UK - Kieren Hawken

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107 pages

English

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The A-Z of Philips CD-i Games: Volume 1 features reviews of three different games for each letter of the alphabet. The games range from the very earliest releases in the early 80s to the modern homebrew games of today. This book shows you just how diverse the library of titles is for the CD-i range and how it led the multimedia revolution.

Sujets

Indoor games and sports

Informations

Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	03 septembre 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781785389153
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

The A-Z of
Philips CD-i Games
Volume 1

Kieren Hawken

Published in 2018 by
AG Books
www.agbooks.co.uk
Digital edition converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
© Copyright 2018 Kieren Hawken
The right of Kieren Hawken to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
The opinions expressed herein belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of AG Books or Andrews UK Limited.
Game screenshots are included in this publication legally under applicable fair use law which allows such material for the explicit purposes of commentary and criticism.

Introduction
In 1982 Philips and Sony changed the way we listened to music forever with the invention of the compact disc. Of course it wasn’t long before they started to explore other possibilities for this media such as Video CD, Photo CD and, of course, data storage. This would lead on to a further collaboration between the two companies as they explored the possibilities of creating a CD based multimedia machine, which would be the first of its kind. They christened this the Compact Disc Interactive, or CD-i for short, with development starting in 1984 and the first previews of the system arriving in late 1986. While the Japanese company got cold feet fairly early on and took a back seat on the project, the Dutch electronics giant ploughed ahead with development and finally, after years of delays and technical issues, the first model of the Philips CD-i was finally released in 1991. Other models would follow as well as numerous add-ons including the must-have Digital Video Card and even a modem so you could connect to the internet. In reality the CD-i was way ahead of its time and the multimedia revolution didn’t kick off as soon as they hoped leading to sluggish sales. Other models of the CD-i included units built into a Bang & Olufsen TV, portable models and they even pulled Sony back onto the fold who produced a range of CD-i consoles in Japan to little success, yes there was a Sony console before the PlayStation! The CD-i eventually became to be promoted as a games console rather than a multimedia device, with a new model produced to reflect this, and was eventually discontinued in 1998 after sales of around 1 million units.

In this book I take you through the life of the Philips CD-i looking at a varied cross section of the 2000+ games available with a small review and screenshot of each one. This is not a list of the best games, a list of the worst or indeed a complete guide to what’s available. The A-Z of Philips CD-i Games is just that, a detailed look at a selection of CD-i games and multimedia discs in alphabetical order. There are three titles featured for each letter and these range from the earliest released in the 1991, to the last range of releases in the late-eighties and even modern homebrews. Hopefully this book gives you some inspiration to try games you’ve never played before or bulk up your own Philips CD-i collection. You might even find it that brings back happy memories of unwrapping Christmas and birthday presents or inviting your friends round after school to show off the latest game you bought. Most of all though I hope you enjoy reading it and remember what makes the Philips CD-i such an interesting machine to own and collect for.
Kieren Hawken
Author

#
7th Guest (The)
Virgin Interactive - 1993

Originally produced by Trilobyte in 1993, The 7 th Guest was one of the first PC games to only be released on CD-ROM, showing what the then very new storage medium could really do With sales of over two million it was widely regarded as the killer app needed to get people to make the switch from floppy disks. This Philips CD-I version came pretty close behind (around 6 months) and was heavily pushed by Philips as a reason to buy their machine as it was the only console it was available on. I can’t personally compare this version to the PC original but from what I have heard its far more impressive graphically than the home computer effort and was one of the first CD-i games to really impress people back in the day. You need the digital video cartridge to play this fine adventure game and you will see why when you get a look of the super smooth and highly impressive rendered graphics that are mixed in with FMV. Everything about The 7 th Guest oozes class - it’s one of those titles where you even find yourself aimlessly looking at stuff just because it looks good! What you actually have to do here is explore the mansion, solve puzzles, listen to the spirits talk and try not to get too scared! If you like these big adventures games then you will absolutely love this and even if you don’t it’s still worth owning because it’s just so stunning to look at. The only negative is that I can’t imagine it having much replay value once you’re done with it, that doesn’t change the rating however!
9 /10
3rd Degree
PF Magic - 1992

Interesting fact to start with here - PF Magic was a company owned and operated by one Rob Fulop. If you don’t know who he is then he started off at Atari, where he did home versions of both Space Invaders and Missile Command , before moving on to Imagic where he created classic games such as Cosmic Ark and Demon Attack , eventually ending up at Digital Pictures where he was responsible for the legendary FMV cringe fests that are Sewer Shark and Night Trap ! His CD-i offering are very unique and quirky and 3 rd Degree is no exception to this. In essence this is a multiplayer party game where the goal is to earn points by correctly predicting how other people would behave in an array of embarrassing situations. Each player takes turns being in the hot seat and then game displays a narrated slideshow of an amusing but awkward situation. It then asks how the player would like to respond to this. You then enter the response secretly before and another player, known as the challenger, tries to predict what it was you said. The situations are drawn from the categories of love, career, money and family. Correct guesses earn points, but there’s an element of bluffing here too as you can probably imagine. The game contains a lot of adult content, so this certainly isn’t one of the many kid’s titles for the CD-i! If you can find some friends to play with 3 rd Degree can be a lot of fun.
7 /10
13 Brain Dead
Readysoft - 1997

Brought to us by the same folks as Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace, Brain Dead 13 also uses the same animated cartoon style. Like those other games, nobody can fault the graphics, but when said games were also known for having very little gameplay you might be starting to wonder. The plot of this game follows Lance, a young computer expert, who is called to fix a computer at a scary, dilapidated castle. After repairing a large super-computer, Lance learns of a diabolical plan to take over the world. He quickly finds himself in all sorts of trouble being chased around the castle by Fritz, a psychotic servant of Dr. Nero Neurosis who is the main villain of the story and takes the form of a disembodied brain. The player must guide Lance through the castle in order to defeat Dr. Neurosis and escape with his life. In Brain Dead 13 rather than just pressing the right button at the right time you are presented with sets of crossroads, this leaves the route for finding the Brain Chamber up to the player and makes the game much more varied. This said, much like in Dragon’s Lair , the player still has to react quickly. If the player fails to do so, either Fritz or something in the room will kill Lance. Brain Dead 13 is as abundant in humour as it is in gory deaths and certainly manages to be a lot more entertaining than both Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace ever were, although admittedly that isn’t particularly hard!
8 /10

A
Alien Gate
SPC Vision

From the screenshots I had seen of this and the blurb on the box I thought this vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up was going to be right up there with the CD-i’s best but after playing it I couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. It’s not that Alien Gate is a bad game it’s just not what I hoped for. Each level starts with a floating head at the top of the screen and your ship at the bottom the floating head spits out a long wave of continuous enemies which must be destroyed, he then spits out some points and the level is over. The enemies are the same but the type of enemy changes with each level, one is even like Centipede ! On some levels the enemy spits out a power up for you and you start with three lives, die and you start the level again. The graphics do look really nice with a lovely scrolling backdrop and detailed sprites that really look the part. The sound is a real let down though, especially for a CD based system, with some really weak effects and a noticeable lack of music. This really lets the product down, although the laugh when you die is a pretty nice effect. Shoot ‘em up fans will probably enjoy Alien Gate a little bit, but I just couldn’t help thinking this game should be so much more than it is and I got a pretty bored after a sh