CD-i was so weird, I remember when it came out being like "is this supposed to be a substitute for a PC and console, like a kill-two-birds-with-one-CDi situation??"
I've never even seen a CD-i in person, let alone known that there was anything beyond those god awful Zelda games. I feel like a whole new door of mediocrity has opened to me today. ;)
With respect, I think you have it wrong with Inca. I grant you the flying action sequences aren't the best, but the core of the game is an adventure game with a lot of really creative ideas, interesting visuals and concepts, and an amazing pan flute soundtrack. I'd recommend anyone giving this a chance and play it past the first half-hour. A really memorable, cool experience that you can't get out of 99.9% of the games out there.
I've owned a CD-i since the year 2010. I have 26 games, 20 movies that came on the CD-i format, 3 official CD-i magazines and I own the Phillips CD-i 450 model (that's the one that was released around 1994 when the new person in charge of the CD-i focused more on the video game aspect of the Cd-i and the 450 model came with Burn: Cycle and looks like a traditional console) with the CD-i controller that looks like a Genesis controller. With that said, yes, Inca sucks. Kether could have been better if the flight controls didn't suck. But the controls suck and make Kether a horrible game. I don't have Laser Lords. After seeing this, I don't want it. LOL. Finally, Phantom Express is one of those games where it's definitely horrible, but for me personally it has a weirdness charm to it which makes me pop it into my CD-i for about 10 minutes to experience the weirdness before I shut the console off. LOL. And Dark Castle... holy hell, that's freaking TERRIBLE. I've been tempted to use my copy as target practice. So far I've been keeping to CD-i games I enjoy. Burn Cycle is AWESOME... IF you play it with the light gun that comes with the CD-i version of Mad Dog McCree (Burn Cycle plays so much better with the light gun). Voyeur is an FMV title for CD-i that I enjoy. Apprentice is a fun platformer for CD-i that I really like. Mutant Rampage: Body Slam is a beat 'em up for CD-i which is a lot of fun (it's not as good as something like a Streets of Rage game, but I still enjoy it). Chaos Control is really fun... IF you play it with the light gun that comes with Mad Dog McCree. Chaos Control is an awesome light gun game, but it feels pointless playing it with a normal controller (like most light gun games), but overall I enjoy Chaos Control. The 7th Guest for CD-i is a magnificent game (the PC version won PC game of the year when it came out and the CD-i version is better). Little Devil (Litil Divil) is a really fun adventure game, I really like it. Now, as for more TERRIBLE games not in your video that I've played: 1) The CD-i version of Rise of the Robots (to be fair, this is a horrible game on every console it's on. LOL) 2) Video Speedway (this sucks!!) 3) Wacky World of Miniture golf (this sucks!!) 4) Power Hitter (extra sucks!!!). Meanwhile, I've never liked Dragon's Lair, but I recognize it has it's loyal fans that are in LOVE with the game, so I guess it's in the "okay" category (I at the very least love it's animation, so I'll give it points for that). Mad Dog McCree is in the OKAY category for me (it's not good, but it's not bad, it's just okay. It can get frustrating at times with the stupid timing of when you have to shoot, but it's beatable). There are lots of other CD-i games I've played, but I will stop here.
@@kenterminateddq5311 I own Hotel Mario on CD-i and I have one of the Zelda games (Zelda: Wand of Gamelon) on CD-i. For me personally, Hotel Mario falls into the "This game is ANNOYING" category. LOL. It wouldn't classify it as a bad game (I've played far worse), but it stops being a fun game after a while to the point where it becomes extremely frustrating to the point where I would rather play Mario Bros. (the original Mario Bros that came out before the NES and Super Mario Bros.). Hotel Mario starts off fun... but VERY simple (it's a SINGLE screen game, kind of like the original Mario Bros.) where you have to run up multiple floors in a hotel and close all the doors to get to the next hotel. Meanwhile, Goombas and Koopa Troopas come out and try to kill you. Everything is fun... until those horrible caterpillers (The Wigglers) come out and that is when the game starts to become ULTRA annoying and the game starts to troll you. For example, a Wiggler on the lower floor opens a door. Well, you kill him and close the door and you go to the top floor to jump on another Wiggler. But when you kill the Wiggler on the top floor, ANOTHER Wiggler comes out on the bottom floor and re-opens ALL the lower floor doors. Well, when you go back downstairs to kill that Wiggler, ANOTHER Wiggler shows up at the top floor to re-open ALL the top floor doors. The game keeps repeating this sequence as you run up and down repeatedly and keeps trolling you until you figure out that you can have to jump on the bottom floor Wiggler till it goes down to two pieces (the head and one body part), do NOT kill it, jump over him (which is easier said than done, which I'll explain later) close the doors, then IMMEDIATELY AS FAST AS YOU CAN RUN BACK UPSTAIRS to do the same to the other Wiggler and close all the doors up there to end the level. The problem is that there are Koopa Troopas running around like they are Sonic the Hedgehog and if you jump over a two piece Wiggler, a Koppa Troopa might be waiting around to run right into you and kill you (and they conveniently show up at the worse times. The worst part is that an enemy on the floor above you can KILL you if you jump up too high from the lower floor, which makes no damn sense but it happens. The top part of Mario's hat touches the feet of the enemy on the upper floor and that kills Mario, which I find absurd). The game's difficulty gets MORE absurd after a while (the game's trolling gets WORSE as the game progresses. They severely over do it with the trolling) to the point where you have to take a break from playing or else you will get ultra frustrated. Long story short: Hotel Mario is the Dark Souls of Mario games. NOT something I would recommend to most people. Original Mario Bros is a more fun game than Hotel Mario.However, Hotel Mario is the worst Mario game I have ever played, but it's still better than some other games I've played across multiple consoles. As for Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, that's a game I have owned for 3 years (I was lucky to get it for only $90 complete with the manual and everything else... the damn thing skyrocketed in price to something like $500 during the pandemic, which I find insane). I plan on playing it eventually (I've been backlogged with other games on various console since I got it). I'm NOT expecting the best, but I will give it a fair chance and see how it goes.I did play a little bit of it when I first got it to see if it worked... it worked and I played a bit of it and it was weird. I didn't play long enough to say if it was good or bad, but it just felt weird. LOL.
Inca and its sequel Inca II released a year later had premise and good story line. With its mix of flight, adventure and puzzle gameplay. Originally released on PC and Floppy disc. I only ever played the later multimedia CD release. The one with updated excellent audio, cut scenes and voiceovers on PC and found it very good. The CD-I version is said to be terrible. Not just for its constant slow loading times.
Ouch!!! I’ve been actively collecting for this system recently and yes, there are some stinkers, a lot in fact (IMO). Gameplay was never really great but the visuals were unseen at the time from what I remember as a kid seeing the system on display in my local Fred Meyer in the early 90’s. What model are you using? I just picked up the Goldstar 700M with the actual Goldstar emblem instead of the Philips, a limited released during the buyout of Goldstar by LG. I’d love to see a vid of you reviewing all the accessories that came out from the system. I think I have them all but you would know for sure. My worst out of my collection: Strip Poker Live😑. But I still have a few I need to get around to. My favorite so far: Flashback or Thunder in Paradise.
@@johnhancockretro lol That's pretty funny. Hey I just thought I would mention that I didn't know who you were until I saw you in a Metal Jesus Rocks video a few years ago, so you can thank Metal Jesus for your introduction to me 😅
Kether is one of my favourite CD-i games lol There's far worse on the console, Palm Springs Open springs to mind but each to the own :) Really enjoy your videos John, all the best!
I've never really tried to go after a CD-i. After hearing about the trouble with backup batteries or whatever they are used for being inbedded inside chips, I don't plan on it. Still wouldn't mind getting my hands on a Neo-Geo.
Oh my god… Lazer Lords was my game back in the day. I had 2 weeks off school due to illness back when it came out and I played it constantly! Great memory jog thank you I could never remember it’s name.
I forgot about half of these old games lol! I'm glad I grew up in the 90's and was able to experience the wild video game craziness with endless options while they were transitioning from 16 bit to 32 bit era. Great times cheers!
Of all the games you pick Laser Lords? I disagree. Of all the games of all the systems, Laser Lords is fantastic. Every line of text has dialogue. There's an interesting commerce system (instead of a menu, you must pay a specific number to get the item). Good puzzles. A bit of combat. How far did you get? I got about 75% through before my CDi died. The adventure is expansive. It has a great dialogue system where you can memorise words, like Shadowrun on the SNES! Every planet has its own cultural theme (Egyptians, Roman etc.) I'm not saying this as a CDi fanboy, I'm saying I love Laser Lords having played thousands of games over my 40 years. The design is fantastic. Do you not enjoy adventure games? This is comparable to Below the Root, or the King's Quest games. Shame on you Hancock.
Enjoyed the video. Those looked like some real stinkers. I was in collage at the time the CDI came out and remember being shocked at the price. I felt if I could afford that much on a game system, I would have gotten a Neo Geo. I did play Dark Castle on a Macintosh in the mid eighties but outside of what was cool graphics for that time, I didn't really like the mouse aiming mechanics. Trying to adapt what was already awful controls to a controller is probably what made it so bad on the CDI.
A game that wound me up was "Voyeur". An interactive movie about spying with a video camera on a house. But regardless of what you do the ending is the same. You get killed at the end. So basically. The game is a complete waste of time. You don't save anybody and you get bumped off yourself. I rage quit as a kid thinking perhaps there is something I missed. Decades later I watched a full play through on RUclips. Nope. The ending is always the same. "This tape proves nothing" and then later someone knocks on tbe door to shoot you. What a wind up. (Nes Manga)
Great video John but can we get a top tier list for CDI games like you have been doing with EA Sega games? That would be really fun to watch. the CD-i doesn't get enough love.
I own the following Philip CDi’s 210, 450 & 470. With all the various remotes and 40+ games and film also. I love the novelty but also my Panasonic 3DO’s. Get burn cycle on!
I have a rare 1200M Goldstar Portable that I love. I have some other models but the small factor of the 1200m makes it easy to get out can capture footage.
I remember barely seeing the big clunky controller thingy in a store when I was about 6 and my mother told me we shouldn't get it, but if I had asked for a snes , n64, mega drive, or something she would have given me one... But kid me didn't remember the names back then... But one of my earliest memories is playing super Mario World at a cousin's house...
Only can remember seeing the cd I in a furniture store back then and it was playing the palm bay golf game. Didn't look that bad back then, but they also had tvs showing off sega games and went with that instead
I had the orignal Philips branded North American CDi machine, the one that looked like a standard CD player. Even got the MPEG video cartridge add on to play VideoCD's, which were sold at BEst Buy for a short period, predating DVD by several years as the first consumer digital video format Used to demo Top Gun playing to a Pro Logic Pioneer receiver with Bose 5.1 surround Acoustimass system and Sony 27" Trinitron circa 92-93 or so. Wish I had kept that Philips 220, with the beefy swing down door- awesome build quality. Nice collector's item for retro gamers Pricing for working units way out of control
I never knew that the DC-I even existed until now so I’ll have to agree with your list. I checked eBay and they are not badly priced for how rare these are.
I would have been shocked if Dark Castle was NOT on this list. Seeing it here reminded me of some classic AVGN quotes from his review of this game. Love this series. Some of the games that show up here are ones that have a bunch of bad points but some redeaming qualities, and whether they're the worst of the worst or just an ordinary bad game is more subjective. Then you have games like Dark Castle that just, to quote the AVGN, "flip that shit switch and crank up that diarrhea dial" and are objectively the worst of the worst and everyone can agree on it.
Peeyouuuuuuuuuu! That’s what John Hancock seems to be saying in the title screen shot when he sees a lot of stinky turds on the floor. I haven’t even seen the video, but I know that a lot of turds came out on that system like the Zelda games.
I had Inca for DOS. It's pretty much the same as the CD-i port. The original DOS game was released in 1992 (a very polarizing year for Latin America and the Caribbean because of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World). It's an interesting concept that is poorly executed. The only thing it has going for it is that some versions feature dialogue spoken in the indigenous Peruvian Quechua language.
Yeah as you mention in the end, the Zelda CD-i games might be "bad" Zelda games, but I really enjoyed Faces of Evil, the soundtrack kicks ass and the cutscenes are hilarious, I enjoyed it way more than Ocarina of Time.. and yes I even played OoT back in the 90's, I never managed to get into it or understand the appeal, Link's Awakening is my favorite Zelda game.
Thanks for not wasting time talking about the Zelda and Mario games for the system. I think we all know how bad they are, maybe they can be put to rest now.
I got my CD-i way after the fact. And there's some cool games on it! But man, there's also some crazy games on it too for sure! Also, my disk spinner broke at one point because its pretty weak. But I was able to get it working again by pulling it up so it was free to move. (It was one where you insert disk from a top lid)
Mystic Midway: Phantom Express reminded me of Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood. Both are game sequels that change to an on the rails shooter at a carnival. Seems like little effort was put into both IMO.
Inca is pretty odd but at least it has production value, something about ancient societies and multimedia kept coming together in the 90s for some reason. Could have been fun if they had prioritized that at all. Kether is a great example of that CD-i developer syndrome of I don't know what I'm doing, I've seen a video game but I don't know how to make them. Take for example the HUD bar at the bottom, you put game stats there, it's not just there to take up screen space. :\ At least Laser Lords has aliens, there's another game by the same studio about the middle east or something where they could have just used real people. Could have been a good Zelda2 clone but it's no Faxanadu. Phantom Express definitely lost track of what it was doing, think they were trying to step things up a notch in their sequel but derailed the train the process. True, some kind of crappy trauma simulator lol. Funny I was going to say that about Inca, at least it isn't Dark Castle. ;) It does work better with a mouse but I still don't know how you make a game this bad, just terrible across the whole spectrum of features. Even on Genesis, I still don't know why EA published it on that platform. Idk I guess Effacer would be hard to describe as fun and Tetsuo Gaiden and Alien Gate seem like wasted potential for a good shmup on CD-i. Hard to separate the boring from the truly awful heh.
If they released "Jack Sprite Vs. Crimson Ghost" as a mascot, it may have changed the Cd-i's outcome. Has any one played "The lost ride" for cd-i? (looks interesting) also that christmas platform game didn't have sound unless you had the video card expansion (which should've been included in hardware)-lastly that "portable" cd-i is worth $$$ and very collectible!
I'm watching this just before going to bed but I'm scared the image at 4:55 will legitimately keep me awake. It looks terrible but in a way that's unsettling. It has an uncanny valley effect while also looking like someone's hands were melted in a furnace or something. The CD-i is a rare system where if I was given one for free I wouldn't know what to do with it. If you gave me a 32X or a Jaguar I would be thrilled even though there are only a few games I would want for it but with a CD-i I would probably be more concerned about how much space it would take up in my house. Still would pick it over the Game.Com though.
Cdi was meant as a multimedia console. A pc back then was very expensive and complicated. It was also an era where multimedia was very hot, hence why there were cd add-on, sega cd. Well wouldn’t it be great to release a system where people can access multimedia content on them. That is where the cdi and 3d0 came in. If you look at the library, they are multimedia content.
You're right. I _did_ wonder about the Zelda games, and yes, everything you showed here is way worse 😂 So glad I got a CD-i, can't wait collecting for it! I even think CD-i is worse than N-Gage (btw is your collection complete now?)
The CDi is such a weird platform. It was capable of good games, and there are a few on it that are perfectly good - but for the most part they've been ported over from other platforms. Phillips made some cardinal errors, like mandating that every disc be playable with all CDi controllers. That's fine if you're talking about navigating a copy of Compton's Encyclopedia or a Video CD with your standard infra-red remote control. But it's absolutely hopeless if you're trying to play Flashback: The Quest for Identity with the same remote control. They would have been better bundling once of the two proper game controllers with each CDi, and that would have avoided a lot of criticism. Secondly, they desperately needed to have some quality control when it came to the software. They should have gotten on board with more established game developers, which could have seen more decent titles, instead of some of the really lacklustre efforts that the did put out.
One of the worst libraries in gaming. Lazer Lords is beautifully horrific. Perfect fodder for AVGN. One of the best 'worst games' episodes. Every one is nightmare fuel and could've truly been utilised on one of the worst nights at Guantanamo Bay
I definitely understand why you didn’t put the zelda games on the list. As bad as those are these crapsterpieces somehow manage to be worse. That’s downright impressive
CD-i was so weird, I remember when it came out being like "is this supposed to be a substitute for a PC and console, like a kill-two-birds-with-one-CDi situation??"
Is John's regular job a popcorn salesman? He seems obsessed with people eating popcorn? Great video as always.
Getting to the point where you're sitting down to eat popcorn when you start with none is a pretty big ordeal for a 10 minute video...
I'm putting on alotta weight here
Maybe he has stock in Orville Redenbocker
Was going to leave a witty comment but I gotta go and grab some popcorn.
He is really into popcorn. Nothing wrong with that though. I ate a 6 pound bag of gummy bears over the last week watching youtube
I've never even seen a CD-i in person, let alone known that there was anything beyond those god awful Zelda games. I feel like a whole new door of mediocrity has opened to me today. ;)
Same. I was more ps2/ps3 era myself and only knew the CD-i from the notorious memes. Really cool to see good footage of other bad games
u gotta check out the Mario game.
Oh man, seeing those live action puppets in Laser Lords makes me want to see Nintendo make a big budget Star Fox game with those! Lol
🤪
With respect, I think you have it wrong with Inca. I grant you the flying action sequences aren't the best, but the core of the game is an adventure game with a lot of really creative ideas, interesting visuals and concepts, and an amazing pan flute soundtrack. I'd recommend anyone giving this a chance and play it past the first half-hour. A really memorable, cool experience that you can't get out of 99.9% of the games out there.
This "so bad you've got to see them" series is my favorite! Tempted to microwave some 6 years out of date popcorn just for this!
I've owned a CD-i since the year 2010. I have 26 games, 20 movies that came on the CD-i format, 3 official CD-i magazines and I own the Phillips CD-i 450 model (that's the one that was released around 1994 when the new person in charge of the CD-i focused more on the video game aspect of the Cd-i and the 450 model came with Burn: Cycle and looks like a traditional console) with the CD-i controller that looks like a Genesis controller. With that said, yes, Inca sucks. Kether could have been better if the flight controls didn't suck. But the controls suck and make Kether a horrible game. I don't have Laser Lords. After seeing this, I don't want it. LOL. Finally, Phantom Express is one of those games where it's definitely horrible, but for me personally it has a weirdness charm to it which makes me pop it into my CD-i for about 10 minutes to experience the weirdness before I shut the console off. LOL. And Dark Castle... holy hell, that's freaking TERRIBLE. I've been tempted to use my copy as target practice.
So far I've been keeping to CD-i games I enjoy. Burn Cycle is AWESOME... IF you play it with the light gun that comes with the CD-i version of Mad Dog McCree (Burn Cycle plays so much better with the light gun). Voyeur is an FMV title for CD-i that I enjoy. Apprentice is a fun platformer for CD-i that I really like. Mutant Rampage: Body Slam is a beat 'em up for CD-i which is a lot of fun (it's not as good as something like a Streets of Rage game, but I still enjoy it). Chaos Control is really fun... IF you play it with the light gun that comes with Mad Dog McCree. Chaos Control is an awesome light gun game, but it feels pointless playing it with a normal controller (like most light gun games), but overall I enjoy Chaos Control. The 7th Guest for CD-i is a magnificent game (the PC version won PC game of the year when it came out and the CD-i version is better). Little Devil (Litil Divil) is a really fun adventure game, I really like it.
Now, as for more TERRIBLE games not in your video that I've played: 1) The CD-i version of Rise of the Robots (to be fair, this is a horrible game on every console it's on. LOL) 2) Video Speedway (this sucks!!) 3) Wacky World of Miniture golf (this sucks!!) 4) Power Hitter (extra sucks!!!).
Meanwhile, I've never liked Dragon's Lair, but I recognize it has it's loyal fans that are in LOVE with the game, so I guess it's in the "okay" category (I at the very least love it's animation, so I'll give it points for that).
Mad Dog McCree is in the OKAY category for me (it's not good, but it's not bad, it's just okay. It can get frustrating at times with the stupid timing of when you have to shoot, but it's beatable).
There are lots of other CD-i games I've played, but I will stop here.
Did u also get a rare awful Mario game or a rare awful Zelda game?
Was there even one good cdi game? lol
@@kenterminateddq5311 I own Hotel Mario on CD-i and I have one of the Zelda games (Zelda: Wand of Gamelon) on CD-i. For me personally, Hotel Mario falls into the "This game is ANNOYING" category. LOL. It wouldn't classify it as a bad game (I've played far worse), but it stops being a fun game after a while to the point where it becomes extremely frustrating to the point where I would rather play Mario Bros. (the original Mario Bros that came out before the NES and Super Mario Bros.). Hotel Mario starts off fun... but VERY simple (it's a SINGLE screen game, kind of like the original Mario Bros.) where you have to run up multiple floors in a hotel and close all the doors to get to the next hotel. Meanwhile, Goombas and Koopa Troopas come out and try to kill you. Everything is fun... until those horrible caterpillers (The Wigglers) come out and that is when the game starts to become ULTRA annoying and the game starts to troll you. For example, a Wiggler on the lower floor opens a door. Well, you kill him and close the door and you go to the top floor to jump on another Wiggler. But when you kill the Wiggler on the top floor, ANOTHER Wiggler comes out on the bottom floor and re-opens ALL the lower floor doors. Well, when you go back downstairs to kill that Wiggler, ANOTHER Wiggler shows up at the top floor to re-open ALL the top floor doors. The game keeps repeating this sequence as you run up and down repeatedly and keeps trolling you until you figure out that you can have to jump on the bottom floor Wiggler till it goes down to two pieces (the head and one body part), do NOT kill it, jump over him (which is easier said than done, which I'll explain later) close the doors, then IMMEDIATELY AS FAST AS YOU CAN RUN BACK UPSTAIRS to do the same to the other Wiggler and close all the doors up there to end the level. The problem is that there are Koopa Troopas running around like they are Sonic the Hedgehog and if you jump over a two piece Wiggler, a Koppa Troopa might be waiting around to run right into you and kill you (and they conveniently show up at the worse times. The worst part is that an enemy on the floor above you can KILL you if you jump up too high from the lower floor, which makes no damn sense but it happens. The top part of Mario's hat touches the feet of the enemy on the upper floor and that kills Mario, which I find absurd). The game's difficulty gets MORE absurd after a while (the game's trolling gets WORSE as the game progresses. They severely over do it with the trolling) to the point where you have to take a break from playing or else you will get ultra frustrated. Long story short: Hotel Mario is the Dark Souls of Mario games. NOT something I would recommend to most people. Original Mario Bros is a more fun game than Hotel Mario.However, Hotel Mario is the worst Mario game I have ever played, but it's still better than some other games I've played across multiple consoles.
As for Zelda: Wand of Gamelon, that's a game I have owned for 3 years (I was lucky to get it for only $90 complete with the manual and everything else... the damn thing skyrocketed in price to something like $500 during the pandemic, which I find insane). I plan on playing it eventually (I've been backlogged with other games on various console since I got it). I'm NOT expecting the best, but I will give it a fair chance and see how it goes.I did play a little bit of it when I first got it to see if it worked... it worked and I played a bit of it and it was weird. I didn't play long enough to say if it was good or bad, but it just felt weird. LOL.
@@johnpenguinthe3rd13 You just got to find the Fire Flower power-up in Hotel Mario (hidden behind closed doors). Makes the game much more manageable.
I genuinely want to play Laser Lords now, and that's on you. What have you done?
Inca and its sequel Inca II released a year later had premise and good story line. With its mix of flight, adventure and puzzle gameplay. Originally released on PC and Floppy disc. I only ever played the later multimedia CD release. The one with updated excellent audio, cut scenes and voiceovers on PC and found it very good. The CD-I version is said to be terrible. Not just for its constant slow loading times.
I got 3 out of the 5 bad games in my collection. Way to go me!
For the Extreme gamer. The Flowers Of Robert Maplethorpe.
Avgn
I have to say I really enjoy watching your content you have a very calm and very welcoming atmosphere
5:22 "But if they are nice strangers, they'll get down on one knee." WHAT?!!
Ouch!!! I’ve been actively collecting for this system recently and yes, there are some stinkers, a lot in fact (IMO). Gameplay was never really great but the visuals were unseen at the time from what I remember as a kid seeing the system on display in my local Fred Meyer in the early 90’s. What model are you using? I just picked up the Goldstar 700M with the actual Goldstar emblem instead of the Philips, a limited released during the buyout of Goldstar by LG. I’d love to see a vid of you reviewing all the accessories that came out from the system. I think I have them all but you would know for sure. My worst out of my collection: Strip Poker Live😑. But I still have a few I need to get around to. My favorite so far: Flashback or Thunder in Paradise.
I captured this video using my Goldstar GPI 1200M with a Serial number #38.
It's videos like these that make me realize I wasn't missing much 😂
@@johnhancockretro lol 38?
That's it? xD
@@PANZERFAUST90 yep, the model I have is very rare.
@@johnhancockretro lol That's pretty funny.
Hey I just thought I would mention that I didn't know who you were until I saw you in a Metal Jesus Rocks video a few years ago, so you can thank Metal Jesus for your introduction to me 😅
Kether is one of my favourite CD-i games lol There's far worse on the console, Palm Springs Open springs to mind but each to the own :) Really enjoy your videos John, all the best!
the CD-i excels in one thing: it is the ultimate vapourwave machine :)
I've never really tried to go after a CD-i. After hearing about the trouble with backup batteries or whatever they are used for being inbedded inside chips, I don't plan on it. Still wouldn't mind getting my hands on a Neo-Geo.
Good video! I don't remember seeing the CDI system in any of the game stores or department stores back in the 90's. These CDI games are not very good!
I live for seeing your thumbnail faces. I love these series.
Great work as always dude, love the top 5s 👍🏼
Oh my god… Lazer Lords was my game back in the day. I had 2 weeks off school due to illness back when it came out and I played it constantly! Great memory jog thank you I could never remember it’s name.
There is a CDi emulator there that can finally play the FMV games. Apparently, you can use a controller with it, but it does not let you set one up.
Man, that roller coaster game *is* traumatic! I’ve already blocked out the name of it, and now way I’m gonna check the video, I don’t wanna relive it!
John calls the cdi obscure, wow that’s being too kind😂
Not anymore it isn’t.
I forgot about half of these old games lol! I'm glad I grew up in the 90's and was able to experience the wild video game craziness with endless options while they were transitioning from 16 bit to 32 bit era. Great times cheers!
Of all the games you pick Laser Lords? I disagree. Of all the games of all the systems, Laser Lords is fantastic. Every line of text has dialogue. There's an interesting commerce system (instead of a menu, you must pay a specific number to get the item). Good puzzles. A bit of combat. How far did you get? I got about 75% through before my CDi died. The adventure is expansive. It has a great dialogue system where you can memorise words, like Shadowrun on the SNES! Every planet has its own cultural theme (Egyptians, Roman etc.)
I'm not saying this as a CDi fanboy, I'm saying I love Laser Lords having played thousands of games over my 40 years. The design is fantastic. Do you not enjoy adventure games? This is comparable to Below the Root, or the King's Quest games.
Shame on you Hancock.
Enjoyed the video. Those looked like some real stinkers. I was in collage at the time the CDI came out and remember being shocked at the price. I felt if I could afford that much on a game system, I would have gotten a Neo Geo. I did play Dark Castle on a Macintosh in the mid eighties but outside of what was cool graphics for that time, I didn't really like the mouse aiming mechanics. Trying to adapt what was already awful controls to a controller is probably what made it so bad on the CDI.
Inca got a 9 out of 10 from the Dutch magazine Power Unlimited! They also gave a 10 for Escape from Cyber City. Go figure : P
CDI was such a rubbish game device, nothing really worthwhile on the system at all, if you ask me.
The Apprentice, Christmas Crisis, and the other Christmas game were all good platformers.
A game that wound me up was "Voyeur". An interactive movie about spying with a video camera on a house. But regardless of what you do the ending is the same. You get killed at the end. So basically. The game is a complete waste of time. You don't save anybody and you get bumped off yourself. I rage quit as a kid thinking perhaps there is something I missed. Decades later I watched a full play through on RUclips. Nope. The ending is always the same. "This tape proves nothing" and then later someone knocks on tbe door to shoot you. What a wind up. (Nes Manga)
Lol John, I'm genuinely surprised you found only 5.
I could of done 20, but narrowing it down to 5 is a challenge.
Great video. I wanna see some more Phillips CDi lists.. Its just a weird system.
Great video John but can we get a top tier list for CDI games like you have been doing with EA Sega games? That would be really fun to watch. the CD-i doesn't get enough love.
I own the following Philip CDi’s 210, 450 & 470. With all the various remotes and 40+ games and film also. I love the novelty but also my Panasonic 3DO’s. Get burn cycle on!
I have a rare 1200M Goldstar Portable that I love. I have some other models but the small factor of the 1200m makes it easy to get out can capture footage.
I remember barely seeing the big clunky controller thingy in a store when I was about 6 and my mother told me we shouldn't get it, but if I had asked for a snes , n64, mega drive, or something she would have given me one... But kid me didn't remember the names back then... But one of my earliest memories is playing super Mario World at a cousin's house...
Laser Lords is actually legit.
I'll be waiting for at least three sequels to this video. 😆
Only can remember seeing the cd I in a furniture store back then and it was playing the palm bay golf game. Didn't look that bad back then, but they also had tvs showing off sega games and went with that instead
I was a kid and my dad bought me a CDi after I played with one in Sears . It kept my young attention, but looking back, man it was an odd system.
I really like the direction this channel has gone in over the last year, keep it up John because this is a great gaming channel :)
Thanks, will do!
I had the orignal Philips branded North American CDi machine, the one that looked like a standard CD player.
Even got the MPEG video cartridge add on to play VideoCD's, which were sold at BEst Buy for a short period, predating DVD by several years as the first consumer digital video format
Used to demo Top Gun playing to a Pro Logic Pioneer receiver with Bose 5.1 surround Acoustimass system and Sony 27" Trinitron circa 92-93 or so.
Wish I had kept that Philips 220, with the beefy swing down door- awesome build quality.
Nice collector's item for retro gamers
Pricing for working units way out of control
Those Laser Lord characters are actually terrifying.
I never knew that the DC-I even existed until now so I’ll have to agree with your list. I checked eBay and they are not badly priced for how rare these are.
I had great fun with Laser Lords at the time. Though there was a lot of walking going on.
I would have been shocked if Dark Castle was NOT on this list. Seeing it here reminded me of some classic AVGN quotes from his review of this game.
Love this series. Some of the games that show up here are ones that have a bunch of bad points but some redeaming qualities, and whether they're the worst of the worst or just an ordinary bad game is more subjective. Then you have games like Dark Castle that just, to quote the AVGN, "flip that shit switch and crank up that diarrhea dial" and are objectively the worst of the worst and everyone can agree on it.
Always love the energy in your videos man. So cool to see your success grow through the years.
Thank you!
Awesome picks John! Thanks for saving me some money; a few of those titles I was planning on buying to check out. Glad I don't have to now haha.
Peeyouuuuuuuuuu! That’s what John Hancock seems to be saying in the title screen shot when he sees a lot of stinky turds on the floor. I haven’t even seen the video, but I know that a lot of turds came out on that system like the Zelda games.
I had Inca for DOS. It's pretty much the same as the CD-i port. The original DOS game was released in 1992 (a very polarizing year for Latin America and the Caribbean because of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World). It's an interesting concept that is poorly executed. The only thing it has going for it is that some versions feature dialogue spoken in the indigenous Peruvian Quechua language.
Yeah as you mention in the end, the Zelda CD-i games might be "bad" Zelda games, but I really enjoyed Faces of Evil, the soundtrack kicks ass and the cutscenes are hilarious, I enjoyed it way more than Ocarina of Time.. and yes I even played OoT back in the 90's, I never managed to get into it or understand the appeal, Link's Awakening is my favorite Zelda game.
Thanks for not wasting time talking about the Zelda and Mario games for the system. I think we all know how bad they are, maybe they can be put to rest now.
The Mario game is the best and average. The rest are pretty bad but not terrible.
I got my CD-i way after the fact. And there's some cool games on it! But man, there's also some crazy games on it too for sure! Also, my disk spinner broke at one point because its pretty weak. But I was able to get it working again by pulling it up so it was free to move. (It was one where you insert disk from a top lid)
My 7 yearold son gets so excited for your bad game videos, thanks for enhancing our rainy Sunday!
The development team of Laser Lords were smoking something when they designed character pics.
I'd rather play any CDI Zelda over these 5 games you listed.
Can you do a video with 5 of the best games? Would be pretty interesting to see some good obscure stuff on the CD-I.
I love your videos man! Always put me in a good mood! keep it up!
Mystic Midway: Phantom Express reminded me of Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood. Both are game sequels that change to an on the rails shooter at a carnival. Seems like little effort was put into both IMO.
The question would be "there was REALLY a good, or at least, DECENT CD-i game?" I really don't remember none of them...
Laser lord. Sounds like what taser face would name his offspring.
The cream of the crop of the Ohhhhh Boy tops
No CDi play session is complete without taking a crack at The Wacky World of Miniature Golf starring Eugene Levy
Inca is pretty odd but at least it has production value, something about ancient societies and multimedia kept coming together in the 90s for some reason. Could have been fun if they had prioritized that at all.
Kether is a great example of that CD-i developer syndrome of I don't know what I'm doing, I've seen a video game but I don't know how to make them. Take for example the HUD bar at the bottom, you put game stats there, it's not just there to take up screen space. :\
At least Laser Lords has aliens, there's another game by the same studio about the middle east or something where they could have just used real people. Could have been a good Zelda2 clone but it's no Faxanadu.
Phantom Express definitely lost track of what it was doing, think they were trying to step things up a notch in their sequel but derailed the train the process. True, some kind of crappy trauma simulator lol.
Funny I was going to say that about Inca, at least it isn't Dark Castle. ;) It does work better with a mouse but I still don't know how you make a game this bad, just terrible across the whole spectrum of features. Even on Genesis, I still don't know why EA published it on that platform.
Idk I guess Effacer would be hard to describe as fun and Tetsuo Gaiden and Alien Gate seem like wasted potential for a good shmup on CD-i. Hard to separate the boring from the truly awful heh.
The immortal!!
Was there even a single good CDI game? I don't think so. Nice video man, great content!
GEX? And I think thats it. Wait, or was that 3do.
3DO
The Apprentice was a great platformer! It was vertical scrolling rather than horizontal. Kinda like Rainbow Islands or something similar to that.
If they released "Jack Sprite Vs. Crimson Ghost" as a mascot, it may have changed the Cd-i's outcome. Has any one played "The lost ride" for cd-i? (looks interesting) also that christmas platform game didn't have sound unless you had the video card expansion (which should've been included in hardware)-lastly that "portable" cd-i is worth $$$ and very collectible!
I'm watching this just before going to bed but I'm scared the image at 4:55 will legitimately keep me awake. It looks terrible but in a way that's unsettling. It has an uncanny valley effect while also looking like someone's hands were melted in a furnace or something.
The CD-i is a rare system where if I was given one for free I wouldn't know what to do with it. If you gave me a 32X or a Jaguar I would be thrilled even though there are only a few games I would want for it but with a CD-i I would probably be more concerned about how much space it would take up in my house. Still would pick it over the Game.Com though.
John rules!! And yeah I think he may have a popcorn side business.
I remember wanting a CD-I as a teenager. Why? Because CNN had a feature where they said it was going to be the next big thing. Wow! Were they wrong!
We had cdi in computer shop where I worked when it first came out..loads of truly rubbish games. Most looked terrible .played terrible
Cdi was meant as a multimedia console. A pc back then was very expensive and complicated. It was also an era where multimedia was very hot, hence why there were cd add-on, sega cd. Well wouldn’t it be great to release a system where people can access multimedia content on them. That is where the cdi and 3d0 came in. If you look at the library, they are multimedia content.
Great video, John. Thanks!
You bet!
I remember playing Inca on the PC back in the day. Much easier with a mouse. I thought it was just OK and actually finished it.
Would love to see your top 20 worst cartridge games list. No cd's or discs, just cartridges. So thats atari to N64 I guess?
I was surprised the Zelda games were *not* on this list, although the CD-i Zelda games are also low hanging fruit.
What the hell series. That should be a regular feature
I thought John was about to go Coryxkenshin on me with that intro🤣😂🤣
You're right. I _did_ wonder about the Zelda games, and yes, everything you showed here is way worse 😂
So glad I got a CD-i, can't wait collecting for it!
I even think CD-i is worse than N-Gage (btw is your collection complete now?)
I'm surprised the ZINO (Zelda In Name Only) "games" didn't make the list.
The CDi is such a weird platform. It was capable of good games, and there are a few on it that are perfectly good - but for the most part they've been ported over from other platforms. Phillips made some cardinal errors, like mandating that every disc be playable with all CDi controllers. That's fine if you're talking about navigating a copy of Compton's Encyclopedia or a Video CD with your standard infra-red remote control. But it's absolutely hopeless if you're trying to play Flashback: The Quest for Identity with the same remote control. They would have been better bundling once of the two proper game controllers with each CDi, and that would have avoided a lot of criticism. Secondly, they desperately needed to have some quality control when it came to the software. They should have gotten on board with more established game developers, which could have seen more decent titles, instead of some of the really lacklustre efforts that the did put out.
I'm not sure if this is a list that needed to be made
Surely a list of bad CDI games cannot be complete without the infamous Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties!👨🏻🔧
Wrong console, 3DO
Oops my bad. Felt like a very CDI’ish game in my head if that makes sense.
Dark Castle seems to be terrible no matter what platform it’s played on.
Must’ve been hard to narrow it down to only 5 bad games lol
2:07 So this whole "race" section of Inca is just "So remember that scene where they blow up the Death Star? Let's rip that off!" right?
One of the worst libraries in gaming. Lazer Lords is beautifully horrific. Perfect fodder for AVGN. One of the best 'worst games' episodes. Every one is nightmare fuel and could've truly been utilised on one of the worst nights at Guantanamo Bay
Beautiful Horrifying game at the same time, that's Lazer Lords 😂
Video Speedway for CDi deserves to be on the list. Horrible horrible game...
I played through most of the CD-I library, there’s more then several terrible games 😆
Even the best games are hard to like due to the horrid controller. Did anyone vent test this nonsense before deciding on the design???
Let me guess; you tried to make a best of video for the CD-I but it would of been WAY too short 😂
Even though I have like 15 different versions of Lemmings, the CD-i version is still my favorite
I only clicked on this video to tell you that your Thumbnail looks like you're trying to pinch off a wicked loaf.
lmao inca is always the one i recommend as a hidden gem. i agree on kether though. the perspective makes it impossible to dodge the meteors
Did somebody really put Shelly Duvall in a videogame?
5:23 Holy nightmare fuel Batman!
I definitely understand why you didn’t put the zelda games on the list. As bad as those are these crapsterpieces somehow manage to be worse. That’s downright impressive
Oh, man...Atari 2600 has more fun and deeper games than thia consol.
Nice video.
Shelly Duvall at 5:22
Hmmm. I think the developers of Inca had some Star Wars thoughts in mind while putting that together.
How are you liking your game room expansion? How long has it been done? Do you like it?
the Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe. :)