Hacker News Reader

Comment by giancarlostoro | Hacker News Reader

Never heard of the CD-i is there an emulator out there? Also is this the last time Nintendo made a game for a console they didn't own?

View on HN

Mario Teaches Typing 2 was released in 1996 for PC and Mac. There are the mobile games for ios/android. And I saw an article that they were going to release some older (emulated) titles for nvidia shield in China.

Up to you how much of that counts.

https://www.mariowiki.com/Mario_Teaches_Typing_2

I remember the CDi as an awful platform. My friend parents got one bundled when buying a big paper encyclopedia that came also with some "interactive content" CDs. Some sort of Encarta precursor.

So, from what I can recall right now, for interactive/video/hypertext content for that "encyclopedia" style stuff wasn't that bad. For games, at least with the selection my friend had at home, was awful, and we rather play with his Nes/Famicom clone.

There is, but Nintendo didn't make these games. As a consequence, they're pretty awful.

However, we did get some of my favorite quotes out of it for the past few decades: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN8-Pdz-ns8

My wife and I often say 'I guess I better get going!' and 'How about a kiss, for luck?' to each other

Then when she leaves the home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBC-2y6C8xU

Squadala we're off!

I mean, they're no end to it. I've played them a minor amount, and couldn't stand them at all (they're in the 2d side scrolling style but just... janky for lack of a better word,) but these cutscenes will live forever for us.

"I wonder what's for dinner."

"I just saved you from Ganon!" "You did not!"

"Oh boy! I can't wait to bomb some Dodongos!"

"Great! I'll grab my stuff!"

Monster: "You killed me!!!" Zelda: "Good!"

has always been one of my favorite. I used to occasionally take audio samples from the game and put them as texting and ring tones on my phone, back when people did such things.

ALSO, look on youtube for the I.M. Meen PC game...the animation is made by the same studio [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.M._Meen

Well, they're making phone games these days, and they made a bunch of edutainment PC games in the 90s (Mario Teaches Typing, Mario is Missing, etc.).

They didn't make the CD-i games. They did license out Zelda for it, though. The CD-i is a bit of a mess. There are YouTube videos of the games, they're quite atrocious :) There's also Hotel Mario [1] and the unreleased Super Mario's Wacky Worlds [2] on the CD-i as well.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Mario [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario%27s_Wacky_Worlds

Nintendo released Pokemon games for the Sega Pico as recently as 2004. https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Sega_Pico

You're better off watching the cutscenes on youtube, the game is truly terrible.

Also the CD-i focused on "interactive media" rather than what most would consider a good game. Hulk Hogan's "Thunder in Paradise" was a companion game to go along with his TV show. Youtuber SuperGreatFriend has a good playthrough of it. It looks awful.

The FMV-era is something that's more fun now than it was in the 90's I think; there seems to be a near-endless supply of these low-budget movie games, and the combination of terrible acting, cheap special effects, and over the top writing actually makes them incredibly fun to play on a so-bad-its-good level.

Honestly, even Thunder in Paradise has its moments if you play it with a group of friends to laugh at. As somewhat of a bad-movie lover, I actually have a more modern appreciation for the crap on the CD-i.

Fun to watch, frustrating to play. That's why I'd recommend the youtube versions of these. There are parts in Thunder in Paradise that look nearly impossible with the Phillips CD-i controller, and I think you'd need the rarer Phillips CD-i keyboard and mouse, or a PS/2 compatible set (but not sure on that)

Despite that, yes the FMV stuff is hilarious, though I think there are better options for DOS/PC rather than trying to bother with the CD-i which seems to be difficult to find in working order.

I mean, the CD-i is pretty difficult to get for a reasonable price legit, but it's not terribly difficult to emulate, and while watching cutscenes on YouTube is fun, you really need to play the game to get the most cringe-enjoyment.

If you emulate, it's then relatively easy to get any controller you want working.

Not sure how much he paid for it, but my brother actually bought one of these travesties online not that long ago, so he could get the "real" experience playing these games on it. It looks like a VCR but feels like a lead brick to lift.

> Also is this the last time Nintendo made a game for a console they didn't own?

Nintendo has released several mobile games in recent years. They didn't develop them—but then, Nintendo didn't develop these CD-i games either.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com