Collection: Philips CD-i Games

The Philips Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was mostly developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips. It was created as an extension of CDDA and CD-ROM and specified in the Green Book, co-developed by Philips and Sony, to combine audio, text, and graphics. The two companies initially expected to impact the education/training, point of sale, and home entertainment industries, but Philips CD-i eventually became best known for its video games.

Philips CD-i media physically have the same dimensions as a CD, but with up to 744 MiB of digital data storage, including up to 72 minutes of full-motion video. Philips CD-i players were usually standalone boxes that connect to a standard television; some less common setups included integrated Philips CD-i television sets and expansion modules for personal computers. Most players were created by Philips; the format was licensed by Philips and Microware for use by other manufacturers, notably Sony who released professional Philips CD-i players under the "Intelligent Discman" brand. Unlike CD-ROM drives, Philips CD-i players are complete computer systems centered around dedicated Motorola 68000-based microprocessors and its own operating system called CD-RTOS.

Media released on the format included video games and "edutainment" and multimedia reference titles, such as interactive encyclopedias and museum tours - which were popular before public Internet access was widespread - as well as business software. Philips CD-i system also implemented Internet features, including subscriptions, web browsing, downloading, e-mail, and online play. Philips's aim with its players was to introduce interactive multimedia content for the general public by combining features of a CD player and games console, but at a lower price than a personal computer with a CD-ROM drive.

Authoring kits for the format were released first in 1988, and the first player aimed for home consumers, Philips's CD-i 910/205, at the end of 1991, initially priced around US$1,000 (equivalent to $1,839 in 2018), and capable of playing interactive CD-i discs, Audio CDs, CD+G (CD+Graphics), Karaoke CDs, Photo CDs and Video CDs (VCDs), though the latter required an optional "Digital Video Card" to provide MPEG-1 decoding. Initially marketed to consumers as "home entertainment systems", and in later years as a "gaming platform", Philips CD-i did not manage to find enough success in the market, and was mostly abandoned by Philips in 1996. The format continued to be supported for licensees for a few more years after.