Back when the Super Nintendo was in its prime, the good folk at Nintendo Co. Japan wanted to design an add-on unit for the SNES to compete with SEGA's forthcoming CD add-on. Signing a few agreements with Philips (a company known for Televisions and Home Stereo units), Nintendo worked with them for a while on creating a CD-Based upgrade.
Unfortunately for Nintendo Co. Japan, a few years before they had signed a few agreements with Sony. In the various papers, Sony provided Nintendo with muchos help in sound programming and quality. But part of the agreement was that, if Nintendo was to ever work on designing a CD system, they would have to work with Sony. While not a bad thing in and of itself, one of the conditions of this Sony/Nintendo CD system was that Sony would have 100% control over the games created for the system - something Nintendo was not too keen on.
So... Nintendo, in order to save their own butts a load of trouble (and money) wanted to get out of this contract with Sony and back with Philips. In order to avoid a lengthy court battle (which Nintendo would probably have lost, btw), Nintendo convinced Sony that their system would succeed on the market on its own, without Nintendo's help.
Anywhoo, after getting out of their Sony troubles, Nintendo Co. looked back toward Philips and began working once again on a CD add-on that would allow them to have control over the games. But by the time they got back to work, SEGA was working on its next-gen system, not to mention Sony's upcoming power house... With that in mind, and the lack of market performance of SEGA's own CD add-on, Nintendo decided to dump the idea completely and start fresh on its own next-gen system, known as Project Reality.
Now we know what happened with Nintendo (Project Reality - also known as the Nintendo Ultra 64 - also known as the Nintendo 64 - was released with pretty impressive results). Unless you've lived in a cave for the past three years, you're familiar with Sony's current standing in the market place with the Play Station and its new baby brother, the Play Station 2. And, unfortunately, SEGA's next-gen system - the Saturn - (and their next-next-gen system - the Dreamcast) met with about the same fate as their CD add-on.
So that just leaves us with one company left unaccounted for... Philips.
Although unbelievably successful in other markets (later merging with Magnavox to create the totally original company title of Philips/Magnavox), Philips wasn't so successful in the video game market. With some tweaking, Philips released a system that was totally all-in-one. It was a CD player, a Video CD player (VCD), a home video game system, and an educational tool. In many ways, it did set some precedents for the current DVD format.
None the less, the system bombed. Although used by a few companies for training (Did you know may Burger King employees are still trained on a CD-i system?) overall consumer demand for the system was less than the demand for moth balls at a soup kitchen.
Now, the trick to the entire Philips/Nintendo connection was, even though Nintendo backed out of their deal, Philips still had the license to use Nintendo first party trademarks in their games. Philips didn't dive too much into Nintendo's various pool of trademarks, but there were a few games that contained Nintendo characters...
Three of which contained characters from our favorite series of games, The Legend of Zelda.
As I said before, I don't have a CD-i player and therefore can't play the games, nor do I know anyone who ever has, but from what I've been able to research on them is, they're pretty fun games in their own right, but as LoZ games, they suck... badly.
But since many, many people have never had the chance to learn much about these games, I figured I'd pass on some more about them from the packages. If I ever get lucky enough to get a CD-i player (Can anyone out there help?), I'll be able to provide more info about them, but currently this is all I have.
Two of the titles that launched with the CD-i system in 1993 were the two games I obtained. Unfortunately, I have not yet obtained the third game, released toward the end of the system. I do know that it is titled "Zelda's Adventure" and features both animation and live action sequences and is supposed to be a pretty fun game, but as I totally do not have that one, I can't say much more about it.
Link: The Faces of Evil
Ganon and his minions have seized the peaceful island of Koridai and imprisoned Zelda. It is written, "Only Link can defeat Ganon." To do so, he must conquer the hideous Faces of Evil... Each more diabolic than the one before. Against all odds, Zelda must be freed and Koridai returned to harmony.
This fast-paced Action Adventure game features 70 playfields. From the friendliest to the meanest, 90 astonishing characters will talk to you in full animation. Encounter the spear-throwing Moblins, rock-spitting Octoroks and much more.
Zelda: Wand of Gamelon
When King Harkinian vanishes on a mission to save Gamelon, Link takes off to rescue him. But soon, Link is also missing, and Zelda must free them both from their evil Captors.
This fast paced action adventure game features 70 playfields, including palaces, forests, swamps, and a mysterious fairy pool. An awesome array of 90 amazing characters will talk to you in full animation. Con- front sword wielding Stalfos, floating Ghini, dreaded Dodongos, pinching Gohma, and much more. You have a blast smashing your enemies into utter disgrace!
