When I was younger I remember seeing a CD-i in a UK store named Comet. It was running an interactive encyclopedia on the demo unit and I remember navigating around and seeing videos of Whales and various other things. It seemed like magic at the time considering my other encyclopedia was a set of books with photos in it. After seeing this in the store I begged my parents for a CD-i for ages but they were not exactly cheap.
I never did get one back then but mainly because the PlayStation came out and my parents purchased one of those for me for my Christmas and Birthday present (Thank you!!!). But today this changes and I took delivery of a Philips CD-i 210. This is the unit that was less like a games console and more like a piece of Hi-Fi equipment.
The unit is in pretty good condition with just a few light scratch marks here and there. It also came with a selection of CD-i titles and some video CD’s which it can play since it has the optional Digital Video module (MPEG 1).
The only issue with it was the tray wasn’t ejecting but upon opening it I could see the drive belt for the drive was stretched and had come off the wheel. So I replaced this with a similar size belt and now all is good.
So I am fully aware the CD-i isn’t the best machine in the world but it’s an interesting one to have a play around with non the less. I will be on the lookout next for the peacekeeper light gun for the CD-i which is actually an interesting device since it is one of the few light guns that will actually work on modern TV’s. That is because it’s not technically a light gun, it’s actually closer related to a WiiMote where it has an infrared module that sits on the top of your TV and the gun uses that to track its relative position. I have actually come across a DIY project which looks like it will let you use WiiMotes as a controller on the CD-i so I may go down that route as it looks like a fun project.
Anyway I will do a full write up on the system after I have had some experience using it. I was also do a write up of the controller mod if I go down that route.
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