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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In 1995, OptImage became a wholy owned subsidary of Philips Media, owning 100% of the
company.
OptImage created the tools with which nearly all of the currenly available CD-i titles were created.
Although other companies created CD-i tools as well (such as ABCD-i from Script Systems),
none of them became as popular and widely used as OptImage's Balboa Runtime Libraries and
MediaMogul. The most well-known company that created CD-i authoring software besides
OptImage was Multimedia Technology Center. Their CDMotion for CD-i and ViaCD-i are fully
Windows-based and need no special hardware nor premastering or conversion software.
7.7 What CD-i authoring tools were available?
A wide variety of authoring tools were available from OptImage alone. The authoring software
was devided in high-level and low-level tools. High-level meaning that a whole lot of the technical
aspects is being taken care of by the system leaving the developer only to concentrate on the
creative part of the development process, and low-level tools which require a lot more technical
knowledge of the programmer but which allow for a much wider variety of possibilities. Besides
these tools, a lot of additional software was available, such as tools for converting PC audio and
video formats into CD-i format.
Some of the best-known authoring tools are:
• Balboa Runtime Libraries
OptImage created the Balboa Runtime Libraries for programmers who use C. Balboa provides lot
of custom written parts of software for CD-i, such as routines for accessing CD-i's video and
audio features, visual effects, and MPEG Digital Video. The libraries could be included in own
developments. Using a combination of a C compiler for OS-9 and the Balboa libraries, the most
advanced CD-i titles (such as highly interactive and complicated games) can be created. Most of
the consumer CD-i titles that were available were made using Balboa.
• MediaMogul
MediaMogul was a high-level authoring tool that was especially designed with the non-
programmer in mind. It runs entirely on a authoring CD-i player like the CDI 180 and the CDI 605,
equiped with a harddisk. No additional hardware or software (besides some video or audio
conversion utilities on the PC) was needed to make CD-i titles with MediaMogul. MediaMogul is
based on a timeline which has rows for audio, video and program commands, so that the user
can build his application using a very intuitive chronological interface, much like Macromedia
Director works nowadays. The software could be extended with a literally unlimited amount of
plug-ins, which were available from OptImage as well as from other companies (of which
Interactive Resources, Inc. of Iowa was the most well-known) to provide for such features as
playing MPEG Digital Video, conrolling other devices like printers or bar code readers, etcetera.
Although MediaMogul does not allow for the same complexity to be used as Balboa, excellent
highly interactive titles could be produced with it. MediaMogul is especially usefull for professional
applications.
• CDMotion for CD-i
CDMotion from Multimedia Technology Center was positioned as a competing product against
MediaMogul. It was entirely Windows-based. No special hardware was required, and all video,
audio and image conversion tools were built-in. Some people claim it was much more powerfull
and easier to use than MediaMogul.
Other programming tools were available (such as Media Show Case from OptImage, HAL90 from
Philips Media Italia and ABCD-i from Script Systems), but they were not widely used.
Besides the authoring tools, OptImage also produced some utilities that could be used in
conjuction with the programming tools, such as the Image and Audio Conversion Utilities for