Not really a console of such, Phillips’ CDI machine stood for “Compact Disk Interactive”, which basically was a home entertainment system that placed Video CD’s, photo CD’s, music CD’s and games. However, games were really few & far between on the system when it was launched in 1991, with conversions of games such as “Connect 4” were made.
However, it was all to change when Nintendo got involved in 1993.
Nintendo wanted a CD add-on similar to the Mega CD for the Megadrive. After shopping around companies, they decided on two, Sony and Phillips. Sony put a lot of money into the design, construction and development of the SNES CD, which must’ve narked them when they went for Phillips, and there zero plans. Nevertheless, to raise capital, Nintendo allowed Mario and Zelda to make their first appearances on a non-Nintendo console, to bolster sales of the CDI. Whilst it did work a little bit at the time, it didn’t particularly over a longer period, as critically the games were considered to be weak offerings, rushed out and unfinished.
There were some good games for the CDI, mainly board and TV Quiz show games, however the CDI eventually limped along and died in 1996.
An interesting side note from the CDI was Sony. Putting the money invested to good use, it removed the SNES, doubled the power and released the CD based console on it’s own. That console was the Sony Playstation, one of the best selling consoles of all time.
