Power Match

It's always neat to discover an unknown (or at least very obscure) game, and Power Match fits that bill. However, obscure games are often obscure for a reason - and can be boring / broken. At first glance, I assumed Power Match was some boring flip-the-top-half-and-the-bottom-half-until-they-match game - but it's not.

In the top half and the bottom half are individual interactive clues that lead you to match themes to the other half - until a match lands. Then you'll unlock interactive media for that theme. It's a neat little title that capitalizes on the multimedia angle - rewarding you for successful matches. Another gem from the Blazers collection.

Dumped with Redump.org. Scans are available on archive.org.

Weather Kitchen

 Among the gems Blazers sent over for preservation is the CD-i Ready edutainment release "Weather Kitchen" (Notated on the spine as "The Weather Kitchen"). The play tells us what types of "ingredients" go into different types of extreme weather - such as a blizzard or a tornado. It's a short playthrough with jammin' music to go along with it.

Scans at archive.org. Thanks to Blazers for the loan!

Preservation Loan #002

Another treat filled box of rarities has arrived from Blazers for preservation!

One of my favorite aspects of the CD-i platform is the grab-bag multimedia variety of releases, and we sure see them here!

A mix of edutainment and multimedia oddities:

The Demonstration Discs will often match retail, but it's important to verify them to help identify possible revisions.

This batch now preserves the US version of The Food of France, along with the business-minded Photo CD series "Getting Ahead", and the remote tourist viewing experience of Great Britain.

 

Thanks again to Blazers for this loan out #002.

Paint School I

Bust out those trackball controllers, it's time to to make beautiful artwork!

Paint School I contains several bordered backgrounds to choose from to make your masterpiece on.

Once you've got one selected, choose fill, or three paint brush widths for broad strokes or fine detail.

I found a surprising amount of colors and patterns to choose from - some of which were used in the artworks displayed below.

Fine Art.

Abstract Art.

Watch this masterpiece being made on Twitch!

 Bonus: I recently preserved a Swedish copy of the game at redump.org - scans are now available on archive.org here.

Arf! arf! woof woof arf! arf arf arf woof! (Hondenliefde)

Aaarf woof woof The World of CD-i.

Aarf aaf woof aaarf arf woof woof arf. Aaarf woof arf woof woof woof arf. Woof woof arf wof aaaarf woof woof arf. Aarf aaf woof aaarf arf woof woof arf. Aaarf woof arf woof woof woof arf. Aaarf woof woof arf wof aaaarf woof woof arf. Aarf aaf woof aaarf arf woof woof arf. Woof arf woof woof woof arf. Aaarf woof woof arf wof aaaarf woof woof arf. Aarf aaf woof aaarf arf woof woof arf. Aaarf woof arf woof woof woof arf. Aaarf woof woof arf wof aaaarf woof woof arf.

Woof aarf aaf woof aaarf arf woof woof arf. Aaarf woof arf woof woof woof arf. Aaarf woof woof arf wof aaaarf woof woof arf.

Extracting Video from CD-i Digital Video (CD-i DV) and Video CD (VCD)

 This is a pretty quick and easy guide.

First you'll want to download IsoBuster (free version) which is capable of reading the Philips CD-i filesystem (required for CD-i DV, but not for VCD).

 CD-i Digital Video

Here is the "RTF" folder on the disc.rtf is an extension commonly used for "rich text file", however for CD-i sometimes it is used to store video files (sometimes .rtf files on a CD-i are NOT video files). You can rename the .rtf files to .mpg and whichever ones are movie files should play in VLC (or other video apps). Note the "CDi" icon underneath "Track 01" - this identifies the disc as CDi format and not VCD.

Additionally, you can find a table of contents plain "films.txt" text file here.

Video CD (VCD)

Video CD has a Windows-compatible filesystem, so using IsoBuster isn't necessary (you can just copy the files over with File Explorer). However, here's a look of the location from IsoBuster if you prefer to extract with it.

Copy over those .dat files to your computer drive and rename them to .mpg. They should now play fine for you in VLC. Additionally VLC has an option to play VCD discs in your drive:

1. Open VLC
2. Media -> Open Disc
3. Select "SVCD/VCD" bubble.
4. Choose the proper "Disc device".
5. Hit "Play".

"Philips" - a CD-i Digital Video disc

 

Ambiguously "Philips", with a title so generic this one could be a mean one for collectors to track down - thankfully it's preserved via Preserve CD-i's better half Blazers.

Contents

The disc contains 9 CD-i DV videos - a few of the uploads were immediately flagged for copyright violation, so here's what's left on YouTube:

Scans are on archive.org.