Specifications

CD-i FAQ 2000 Edition Revised February 21, 2001
Latest version and more CD-i info: http://www.icdia.org
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Philips Interactive Media sold titles that were produced both by internal software studios, as well
as for other software manufacturers, and in this way they handled the promotion, marketing and
distribution for them.
The Philips studios each were specialized in their own area. There was for example the Philips
Sidewalk Studios, which produced excellent children's titles, Philips POV Entertainment Group,
which developed the first games with real actors and Philips Freehand Studios, which developed
titles that took CD-i's technology to the edges, such as Create your own Caricature or Face
Kitchen.
Among the studios that produced software for CD-i were Infogrames, SPC Group, Lost Boys,
Valkieser, NOB, Codim, CapDisc, Fathom Pictures, Spinnaker Software, Microids, Mirage, PIMC,
Epic Interactive Media, Radarsoft, US Gold, AVM and lots of others.
A lot of publishers, TV companies and game developpers licensed their characters and other
material to Philips or its software partners to turn them into a CD-i title. Among them were
Nintendo, Paramount Pictures, Miltron Bradly (MB), MGM, Bertelsmann, Oxford University Press,
Compton's New Media, EMI, NBC, Hanna-Barbera, Virgin Interactive Entertainment, BBC, Manga
Entertainment, Namco, Standaard Uitgeverij Antwerpen, Hachette, Playboy Enterprises, Richard
Scarry, Motown Records, Don Bluth, Warner Bros., Time-Life, Smithsonian Institution, Vivid
Video, American Laser Games, Ravensburger, Psygnosis and many others.
2.3 How was CD-i used in professional areas?
The biggest success for CD-i was in professional applications. CD-i was used in a wide variety of
corporate and instutional environments, in such areas as:
• Point-of-information
• Site-based advertising
• Training
• Educational
• Background Music
Point-of-information applications used a CD-i player in some kiosk-like setup, enabling users to
view information using for example a touchscreen. This allowed them for example to view all
variations of a particular car model in showroom, or to find their ways in a museum. CD-i is an
excellent medium for this kind of applications, because of its low cost, its easy to use interface
and its high quality, TV-like video images.
In another area, CD-i was also extensively used in training environments. CD-i allowed company
work force to train themselves in a particular field, using their own speed, selecting their own
areas of interest, while being given feedback by the system. Also here, CD-i has the main
advantage of the lack of complicated installation procedures or compatibility issues usually found
on PC-based setups.
CD-i was also widely used in schools. Both primary and secondary schools used the system for a
variety of puposed, ranging for training infants to used their eye-hand coordination skills up to
teaching students about the arts of the Renaissance.
2.3.1 Which companies used CD-i?
Since CD-i is an open platform, not all uses of the system have to be reported to a single body
such as Philips. It is known that CD-i was and is used by hundreds of companies all over the
world in dozens of areas. Among them are the following companies: