Difference between revisions of "Philips CD-i emulators"
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::An unofficial build of [[MESS]] from 2009 made by one of MAME's active developers, Haze. This build is named such that it only focuses on the CD-i. It uses a fixed game list. Some games have more issues than they have on the official MAME build. | ::An unofficial build of [[MESS]] from 2009 made by one of MAME's active developers, Haze. This build is named such that it only focuses on the CD-i. It uses a fixed game list. Some games have more issues than they have on the official MAME build. | ||
;CD-i Emulator | ;CD-i Emulator | ||
| − | :This emulator by CD-i Fan is currently closed-source donationware, with vague plans to move to [[Licensing#Open-core software|open-core]] at a future date.<ref>https://github.com/cdifan/cdiemu</ref> The public beta releases unfortunately handle free trial timing in a way that makes them unusable (without cracking, anyway) after set calendar dates; for the latest beta, 0.5.3 beta | + | :This emulator by CD-i Fan is currently closed-source donationware, with vague plans to move to [[Licensing#Open-core software|open-core]] at a future date.<ref>https://github.com/cdifan/cdiemu</ref> The public beta releases unfortunately handle free trial timing in a way that makes them unusable (without cracking, anyway) after set calendar dates; for the latest beta, 0.5.3 beta 7, this will be at 2025/01/01. The current betas do have proof-of-concept [[#Digital Video Cartridge|DVC emulation]], although compatibility may still be an issue.<ref>http://www.cdiemu.org/site/relnotes.htm</ref> Despite the long time between releases, this emulator is still in active development as of April 2023, with work being done on the next version (likely called 0.6) that reportedly supports most of the DVC games and also has several other improvements.<ref>https://www.theworldofcdi.com/cd-i-emulation/cd-i-emulator-053beta5-titles-compatibilities/</ref> |
;CeDImu | ;CeDImu | ||
:A much newer independent project being actively developed by Stovent, largely based on an unofficial documentation set written by CD-i Fan (the creator of CD-i Emulator).<ref>https://github.com/cdifan/cdichips</ref> As of July 2021, it's progressing quickly but still in pre-alpha, so don't expect it to boot any games just yet. | :A much newer independent project being actively developed by Stovent, largely based on an unofficial documentation set written by CD-i Fan (the creator of CD-i Emulator).<ref>https://github.com/cdifan/cdichips</ref> As of July 2021, it's progressing quickly but still in pre-alpha, so don't expect it to boot any games just yet. | ||
Revision as of 05:20, 1 January 2024
| |
| Developer | Philips, Sony, Magnavox |
|---|---|
| Type | Home video game console |
| Generation | Fourth generation |
| Release date | December 3, 1991 |
| Discontinued | 1998 |
| Introductory price | $799. |
| Predecessor | Philips Videopac + G7400 |
| Emulated | ~* |
CD-I (Compact Disc Interactive), is a disk format and media player developed and released by Philips. The Main system ran on Microware OS-9 and had a Philips SCC68070 CPU at 15.5 MHz with 1MB of RAM. Some Third-Party manufacturers made their own media players based on the CD-I format & technology.
The CD-I was never meant to be a video game console, it was designed to be a "Interactive Multimedia" CD player, an expensive toy that people with money don't mind buying, using it a few times and forgetting they even bought it when something new catches their attention. When the system started to show signs of being a major flop for Philips, they pivoted the direction of the CD-I into the uncharted territories of video games.
CD-I is mainly known nowadays for having games based on Nintendo IP, such as Mario and Zelda, due to previously having tried to develop a CD add-on for the SNES. Their takes on Nintendo intellectual property were so infamously terrible that you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't think of them when you mention the CD-i. However, there were a few cult classic games for the system.
Emulators
| Name | Platform(s) | Latest Version | DVC | libretro | Retro Achievements |
FLOSS | Active | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PC / x86 | |||||||||
| Same CDi same_cdi_libretro |
   
|
libretro core | ✗* | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| MAME |
|
0.265 | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓* | |
| CD-i Emulator |
|
0.5.3 beta 7 0.5.3 beta 4 (Patched) |
~* | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ~ | |
| TinyCDi |
|
2009-10-28 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| CeDImu |
|
None (pre-alpha) | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ (WIP) | |
| CD-iCE |
|
2001-08-20 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Mobile / ARM | |||||||||
| Same CDi same_cdi_libretro |
 
|
libretro core | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Comparisons
- MAME
- This multi-system emulator includes a driver for the CD-i, although support is incomplete as it still has no DVC emulation.[1] Starting the game from disc is recommended; this can be done with the built-in frontend by picking the specific game or through a soft reset after mounting the disc. MAME is also currently the only program to provide CD-i emulation through a libretro core, which makes it the easiest and the most stable method of emulating the CD-i for now. Compared to CD-i Emulator 0.5.3 beta 4, MAME is generally easier to control and can better emulate the audio for some games.
- Same CDi
- SAME CDi is a S(ingle) A(rcade) M(achine) E(mulator) for libretro, just like NeoCD (neocd_libretro) forked from MAME libretro, which is in turn a fork of MAME. It includes only the Philips CD-i driver, and simplifies the loading of CD content to provide a 'plug and play' experience.
- TinyCDi
- An unofficial build of MESS from 2009 made by one of MAME's active developers, Haze. This build is named such that it only focuses on the CD-i. It uses a fixed game list. Some games have more issues than they have on the official MAME build.
- CD-i Emulator
- This emulator by CD-i Fan is currently closed-source donationware, with vague plans to move to open-core at a future date.[2] The public beta releases unfortunately handle free trial timing in a way that makes them unusable (without cracking, anyway) after set calendar dates; for the latest beta, 0.5.3 beta 7, this will be at 2025/01/01. The current betas do have proof-of-concept DVC emulation, although compatibility may still be an issue.[3] Despite the long time between releases, this emulator is still in active development as of April 2023, with work being done on the next version (likely called 0.6) that reportedly supports most of the DVC games and also has several other improvements.[4]
- CeDImu
- A much newer independent project being actively developed by Stovent, largely based on an unofficial documentation set written by CD-i Fan (the creator of CD-i Emulator).[5] As of July 2021, it's progressing quickly but still in pre-alpha, so don't expect it to boot any games just yet.
- CD-iCE
- One of the earliest CD-i emulators. It doesn't need a BIOS, but it was only developed to be able to play Rise of the Robots and does not support anything else.
Accessories
Digital Video Cartridge
The one and only expansion card officially sold for the CD-i was the MPEG Digital Video Cartridge (DVC), a hardware MPEG-1 video decoder which enabled CD-i Digital Video and Video CD playback as well as enhanced FMV capabilities for games that support it (similar to the Sega Saturn's Video CD Card). As of April 2023 there is no emulator that fully supports the DVC, and several games that rely on MPEG-1 video decoding will be pretty much unplayable without that support. To know whether your chosen games require the DVC, either check the "DVC status" column of Wikipedia's CD-i game list, or check MAME's CD-i hash list for games where the list includes <sharedfeat name="compatibility" value="DVC" />.
- See this dedicated page for more information about home media playback support for emulation softwares.
