cdi

n. Entertainment console by Philips. Pretty much the foundation for those new-fangled multimedia PC thingies that work as a PC, TV, DVD Player, CD Player, etc. Launched in 1992, it never really took off. This was mainly due to the fact that it was so rediculously overpriced. Even now, there's some guy trying to flog them off for £60. Also, there really was no need for something as advanced at the time. It played VCDs (they never took off because there was little advantage over VHS), audio CDs (a very expensive way of doing that) Photo CDs and, of course, CD-Is. The CD-I is mostly known as a games console, to which it did resort to becoming later on. In comparison with other games consoles of the time, it was far more powerful than the SNES or the Sega Megadrive. The games that were exclusive to the CD-I, however, were lame. For instance, the awful Hotel Mario (Nintendo lent Philips the license). In my opinion, the Philips CD-I was best for it's version of Lemmings (second only to the Commodore Amiga's) and the heavy, well built mouse.