Philips CD-i emulators

Philips CD-i

Developer	Philips, Sony, Magnavox
Type	Home video game console
Generation	Fourth generation
Release date	1991
Discontinued	1998
Predecessor	Philips Videopac + G7400
Emulated	~

The Compact Disc Interactive (CD-i), is an interactive multimedia CD player and format developed and released by Philips on December 3, 1991. It had a Philips SCC68070 CPU at 15.5 MHz with 1MB of RAM. Notably, it featured intellectual properties from Nintendo, 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	Operating System(s)	Latest Version	Active	Accuracy	Libretro Core	Recommended
MAME	Multi-platform	0.264	✓	Mid	✓	~
TinyCDi	Windows	28-10-09	✗	Mid	✗	✓
CD-i Emulator	Windows	0.5.3 beta 4 (Patched)	✓	Mid	✗	✗
CD-iCE	Windows, Linux	20-08-01	✗	Low	✗	✗

Comparisons

MAME

Has incomplete support but is much easier to control, and it actually emulates better audio than CD-i Emulator in some cases. It is recommended to start the emulation with the game already loaded, either with the game picker or through a soft reset after mounting the disk. Does not emulate the Digital Video Cartridge (DVC) as of January 2019 [1] therefore games which require it like 7th Guest, Atlantis - The Last Resort, Creature Shock, Dragon's Lair, Lost Eden, are unsupported [2].

Has a Libretro core, which makes MAME the easiest (but not the best !) CD-I emulating method by far (for now).

TinyCDi

This is a 'Tiny' MAME build containing the CDi code from MESS as it is on 28th October 2009 using a fixed game list like MAME. Works better than the last official MAME builds especially with some games (for example Zelda's Adventure). This is the best option for CD-I emulation for now.

CD-i Emulator

A payware emulator. Was presumed inactive but got a new beta release in 2018, seven years after the last release. Used to only have mouse movements for control, now has preliminary keyboard support. However, the keyboard control isn't great in some games. The beta has proof-of-concept emulation of the Gate Array MPEG Digital Video Cartridge (DVC) but compatibility may still be an issue [3] (deadlink as of February 2019). Not recommended (obsolete).

CD-iCE

One of the first made CD-i emulators. It doesn't need a BIOS and can only play Rise of the Robots as that's what it was solely developed for.