CDi 210

The Philips CD‑i 210, launched in 1993 as the most affordable member of the CD‑i family, was a compact, beige‑plastic console that played interactive CD‑i discs, standard audio CDs and, via its built‑in MPEG‑1 decoder, full‑motion video titles. It used a 16 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU, 1 MB of RAM (expandable with a memory card) and a custom graphics chip capable of 352 × 240 pixel video with up to 16 million colours. The system shipped with a single‑handed controller featuring a directional pad, four action buttons and a small joystick, and it could be connected to a TV via composite video or RF output. Priced around £399 (about $600) at launch, the 210 was marketed as an “edutainment” device with a library that included games like Hotel Mario, educational titles and video‑karaoke discs. Despite its low cost, the CD‑i platform’s high price relative to competing consoles and a limited game catalogue kept sales modest, and the 210 was discontinued within a couple of years.