Philips CD-Online - The Service Time Forgot

The CDI is a console that many collectors only know of due to the mockery its gained throughout and beyond its life-cycle. The never ending series of unplayable FMV based games is what keeps most collectors or gamers away from the system. But sometimes, those who endeavour into the realms of the Philips 90s creation can re-discover interesting history that time forgot.

The CDI was a console that was set to redefine the way we game. Sadly it was poorly executed and priced far too high to catch the general publics interest. Because of this not many people invested in the system and it was soon to fail and be taken off the market after just a few years.
It gained most of its attention due to its FMV games that are basically what we see as DVD games in todays market. Ground breaking at the time, but sadly the word "Interaction" wont really spring to mind when you think of the games playability. It was hard for people to see the potential the system had when games were overshadowed by the never ending releases of FMV games or even Product Catalogs. The system was a new format and a playground for development, but sadly this is what helped cause its demise.
Despite its eventual failure, Philips had a good vision for the CDI system and a number of things had been planned to help expand the usage and necessity of the console. One of these was the Online web browser bought to us by CD-Online. A service that claimed to connect over 10,000 subscribers, yet not many owners of the system remember its existence.

The CD-Online service first started on the 25th Oct 1995 and offered users the ability to further interact with certain web compatible games or titles. A special internet access cd was obtained to grant full internet access with the ability to surf the web and compose/read emails amongst other things. It was first a creation prototyped by SPC Vision, but then later on The Lost Boys development team (who had close connections already with Philips) who were given the task of bringing the WWW to the home consumer market.

To access the web portal users would need the following accessories for their CDI system:

    14.4K modem with power supply
    Modem-to-CD-i cable
    15-metre telephone cable
    Telephone splitter
    CD-i disc Internet on TV Issue 01
    CD-Online user manual
    CD-i splitter cable (required for model 450 and 470 CD-i players)

The main domain for CD-Online UK directed users to the homepage of Daves Place which was a collection of bizarre tongue-in-cheek news posts made by the webmaster. The website was very basic and followed suit in humor of many other mid 90s UK based websites, and not exactly what you'd imagine today as the front page of an internet access provider. The Dutch site however contained a lot more detailed information and was more user friendly, orientated and populated.

The CD-Online UK service was setup in London and web connectivity was provided by PIPEX who at the time had over 30 UK access points granting most of the subscriber base access at local call rates. (for those not old enough to remember the days before freeserve then ill need to point out that we had to pay by the minute to use the web). This was a promising collaboration which allowed users affordable access to the www and an attempt to promote this was made with the following comparison:
" The total cost of equipment is under £500 (compared with the approximate cost of a computer for Internet access of around £1500) and for that you get a first rate multimedia CD player for music, games and films in addition to full internet access. With CD-Online, all this can be enjoyed from the comfort of a living room rather than huddled around a PC. ".  
By winter 1996 the service had rolled out into BeNeLuX and everything seemed good. It was now dependent on the titles which would support the web feature, and the accessible content offered from the CD-Online subscription service.

"The combination of the huge multimedia storage capacity of the CD disc with online communication to host computers means that very attractive hybrid services can be offered. This disc holds numerous up-to-date film clips and other media surprises. Here, for example, is a preview of Desperado. Okay? And click here to register your applause! Home shopping is a further possibility: the shopping catalogs are stored on the CD with the prices, availability and order confirmation updated through the online link. Another option is multi-player games, with the game on the disc and the selections, scores and other features transmitted online. "RAMRAID", on Disc Issue 02, is just such a game. As you can see, with a hybrid format the only limit is your imagination! " .
As you can see, there was a vision for what this functionality could do. But unclear howto accomplish it, and imagination may of been a step further than the system was capable of.  Ideas were left to developers and experimental costs for a new format were not very enticing, so it was more common for companies to ignore this online functionality altogether.
Subscribers to the service would receive updates every quarter issued on CD format which would help address issues and serve as an upgrade to the interface. Certain games would also be included that used the online functionality. The European market were announced to receive bi-monthly disc updates, though throughout the lifespan of the company its believed only 6 CD-Online discs were released in total.

As the vision for online functionality grew, the long awaited CD-i KeyControl by Philips was released during 1996. This was a full qwerty keyboard for the CDI system priced at £47.99 delivered. Its functionality however was limited and CD-i models 450 and 380 were incompatible until the 3rd installment of the CD-Online disc.

During December 1996 the 3rd subscription cd was released and the first CD-Online chat room was launched giving users the ability to connect with each other in a friendly place. Attempts were made to bring users together with a series of subjects based around popular topics.
" Right...it's the weekend before Christmas, the missus (or mister) is out shopping and what do you do? Well how about checking out the all new CD-Online chat page and swop a few pre-Chrimbo experiences."
Competitions were also available to enter with the chance to win prizes like a 007 triple movie set. RAMRAID T-shirts were on sale as well as the optional Daves Place T-shirts on request.

In Autumn 1998 subscribers were sent the latest CD-Online disc which contained the online multiplayer Connect 4 game. The ability to create your own webpage was also made possible and a handy online html generator created by The Lost Boys was offered for those who had no HTML experience. Over 400 homepages were created using the tool showing that the online services were actively being used. Many of these pages were based around displaying basic contact or business information and seem to of been mainly created by Dutch users. Once your webpage was created you could access it by following the following address in the url bar  http://www.cd-online.nl/cdo/home/xxxxx.htm (replacing xxxxx with your unique username). A new web browser was also introduced that fixed a few previous issues and an updated GUI for ease of use.
It is thought that this was the final disc to be released.

By December 1998 the London office had redirected to the Netherlands and the UK website lay dormant until its closure in mid 2000. During this time the website had become a collection of useful WWW links featuring search engines and movie/music databases, and a strange main page entry that displayed the report of independent counsel Kenneth Starr, which contains the detailed information of the famous Monika Lewinski court case.

Going forward into 1999 the company announced via its Dutch website that the CD-Online service would be expanded and made available to the PC market. This gave Home Computing users the ability to connect to the www via any 486 or higher spec machine. The service was a collaboration between CD-Online and World Online, a Dutch online super provider setup by Nina Brink and served in over 15 countries from 1996 until 2001 when its total stocks were purchased by Tiscali and the 2 companies merged. (This is a story that contains much controversy and can be researched more from the wiki page linked below)
It was also announced that from Jan 1999 call points across Europe would disappear and users would now need to connect via VISP which would offer a guaranteed local connection at the cheapest possible rate.
Although the UK domain had ceased, the Dutch website continued to be updated until December 2000. It then lay dormant until mid 2006 when the website was hacked by the SpyKids group and the front page was modified to advertise their services. This remained for a few months until Jan 2007 when the site was restored and by Jan 2008 the website was finally taken offline.

Its led to believe that the service was abandoned in 2000 and no more updates would follow. Shortly after, The Lost Boys development team had merged with its parent company DigitasLBi which is still run today by Dave. (We did try to contact dave though no reply has yet been received, but updates will follow if he responds).

CD-Online were the first company to offer internet access on your tv. And just like the CDI itself it was out of its depth due to technical limitations. Though im sure we can all agree that it paved the way for how we live today. For what was once a dream ahead of its time is now an under appreciated reality.

In 2005 the CD-Online main domain was purchased by the CDInteractive network in order to preserve is historical importance to the CDI system. Hopefully we can expect to see more information on the service in the future.

(Images thanks to gearforgames)

Further detailed info on Daves Place at Interactive Dreams website.

Detailed info on the RamRaid CD-Online Game.

Info on Nina Brink and the World Online Controversy

Check out the CDInteractive Network.