Chaos Control | 70 Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 I shared this a while back on another Forum and with the CDi community, but also wanted to post it here given the mild CDi interest that the Nintendo connection can sometimes lead to. The earliest CDi releases in the US came in very nice hard plastic longboxes with outer cardboard sleeves. When I realized there wasn't any full list of them to be found, I decided to go for the full set and be the person who would verify them all. As far as I can tell, there's 97 different US longbox CDi releases. This was a surprisingly fun set to go for and to my knowledge I'm the only person to have accomplished this set. In addition to sharing this list and a short guide, I wanted to see if anyone here knows of any longbox releases that I missed. I hope you all enjoy this information! As with any other collection, there are several titles that are vastly more difficult to find than others, rare due to low print runs, poor sales, or some other reasons. The following are the 10 rarest US Philips CDi longbox releases, in order of their rarity. If anyone reading this decides to go for the set, these are the ones that you should be willing to buy entire large lots just to obtain. You will be waiting a very long time for them to come up for sale by themselves, if they ever do. Anne Willan Presents The Food of France. This the rarest CDi longbox title, and one of the rarest US CDi releases period. It did have an overseas release. The ACT College Search '92. US exclusive CDi. This was also released only in longbox format. Easily the 2nd rarest longbox CDi. CD-I Music Book: Classical Guitar Volume 1. This is different than the other, more common Classical Guitar title. Very rare, possibly a variant. David and Goliath. The rarest of several rare religious CDi titles. Fairly expensive, too. Berenstain Bears: On Their Own and You On Your Own. Not tough to find in regular jewel-case format, but rare in longbox format. Sailing: A Guide to Sailing and Seamanship. Still available on Amazon, but it never came up on Ebay in over a year of searching. The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe. Possibly the most expensive longbox title. Cinemassacre has an amusing video of this CDi. While this CDi is possibly the tamest CDi in terms of content, be warned that Googling about the artist will result in some highly NSFW results. DO NOT look this title up on anything other than your personal device. More Dark Fables from Aesop. Sequel to The Dark Fables of Aesop. I only saw two copies pop up in over a year. Moses: The Exodus. Moses: Bound for the Promised Land. Now, those are just the rarest 10 CDi longbox format releases in comparison to all the rest of the longbox releases. About half of the other CDi longboxes only have one or two copies available for sale at any one time on Ebay or on Amazon. It does help to type in the name of the CDi, without adding "CDi" or "Philips" when searching for some of these titles on Ebay. There's a stunning amount of very poorly listed copies for otherwise very rare CDi longboxes, and CDis in general. And at last, the complete alphabetical list of all confirmed 97 Philips CDi US longbox releases: A National Parks Tour A Revolution in Color A Visit to Sesame Street: Letters A Visit to Sesame Street: Numbers A Visit to the Valley of the Pueblo and the Amparo Museum Alice In Wonderland Anne Willan Presents the Food of France Backgammon Battleship Beauty and the Beast Brer Rabbit and the Wonderful Tar Baby Caesar’s World of Gambling Cartoon Jukebox CD Shoot CD-I Music Book: Classical Guitar Volume 1 Children’s Musical Theater Classical Guitar Classical Jukebox Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia Connect Four Cool Oldies Jukebox Dark Castle David and Goliath Defender of the Crown Dutch Masters of the 17th Century Earth Rhythms Escape From the Cyber City Gardening By Choice: Flowers and Foliage Gifts to Behold Girl’s Club Golden Oldies Jukebox Harvest of the Sun How the Camel Got His Hump How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin How to Photograph Nature International Tennis Open James Brown Nonstop Hit Machine Jazz Giants Jazz Guitar Jigsaw Laser Lords Lords of the Rising Sun Louis Armstrong More Dark Fables from Aesop Moses: Bound for the Promised Land Moses: The Exodus Mother Goose Hidden Pictures Mother Goose Rhymes to Color Mozart: A Musical Biography Mystic Midway Rest in Pieces NFL Football Trivia Challenge Noah’s Ark Paint School I Paint School II Pavarotti Pecos Bill Pegasus Pinball Power Hitter Prelude Rand McNally’s America: U.S. Atlas Rembrandt: His Art and the Music of His Era Rhythm Maker Richard Scarry’s Best Neighborhood Disc Richard Scarry’s Busiest Neighborhood Disc Rock Guitar Sailing: A Guide to Sailing and Seamanship Sandy’s Circus Adventure Sargon Chess Stamps: Windows on the World Stickybear Reading Story Machine: Magic Tales Story Machine: Star Dreams Tell Me Why I Tell Me Why II Tetris Text Tiles The ACT College Search ‘92 The Art of the Czars The Berenstain Bears: On Their Own and You On Your Own The Best of Draw 50 The Dark Fables of Aesop The Emperor’s New Clothes The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe The French Impressionists The Palm Springs Open The Renaissance Gallery The Renaissance of Florence The Riches of Coins The Story of Jonah The Story of Samson The World of Impressionism Time Life Photography Treasures of the Smithsonian Video Speedway You Sing Christmas Favorites Zombie Dinos from the Planet Zeltoid 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lago | 217 Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 As someone that has virtually zero knowledge of the cd-I, is this a set of all releases? Or is it like the PlayStation where they switched to regular cd cases after a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted July 24, 2022 Author Share Posted July 24, 2022 https://atariage.com/forums/topic/301340-i-completed-the-entire-philips-cdi-us-longbox-set-or-did-i-plus-general-cdi-collecting-gems/?do=findComment&comment=5093809 Two Years later, it turns out that there are indeed a few US longbox CD-i releases that I had overlooked: the bi-lingual versions of How the Camel Got His Hump and How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin. They have different disc content, different titles, and most importantly different Catalog Numbers. Philips sold them as distinct titles back in the day, per every single Catalog and brochure/booklet included with most retail CDititles. They count as separate titles. They are a bit easy to overlook, as their covers are very similar, but look closely and you will see the differences. It should also be noted that while the bilingual version of Rhino Skin is not terribly difficult to find, it took me almost two years to find a complete with the outer slipcover copy of the bi-lingual Camel Hump. I just this week took delivery of a complete copy, the first one I had seen since putting together this longbox guide. It is a true rarity, and now that I've been able to finally get a copy to verify it and coupled with an additional year or so of data from Ebay and my fellow CDi collectors, an updated version of the longbox guide is in order. In version 2.0, the big changes are the addition of the two US bi-lingual titles mentioned above, the addition to the end of the list of the European exclusive Lenting van Etten (which, mercifully for collectors, does NOT count towards the US longbox set), and an expanded listing of the rarest longbox titles. Pictures will follow soon, and the initial posts will be updated. US CDi Longbox Collecting Guide and Checklist Version 2.0 A National Parks Tour A Revolution in Color A Visit to Sesame Street: Letters A Visit to Sesame Street: Numbers A Visit to the Valley of the Pueblo and the Amparo Museum Alice In Wonderland Anne Willan Presents the Food of France Backgammon Battleship Beauty and the Beast Brer Rabbit and the Wonderful Tar Baby Caesar’s World of Gambling Cartoon Jukebox CD Shoot CD-I Music Book: Classical Guitar Volume 1 Children’s Musical Theater Classical Guitar Classical Jukebox Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia Connect Four Cool Oldies Jukebox Dark Castle David and Goliath Defender of the Crown Dutch Masters of the 17th Century Earth Rhythms Escape From the Cyber City Gardening By Choice: Flowers and Foliage Gifts to Behold Girl’s Club Golden Oldies Jukebox Harvest of the Sun How the Camel Got His Hump How the Camel Got His Hump Bi-lingual How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin Bi-lingual How to Photograph Nature International Tennis Open James Brown Nonstop Hit Machine Jazz Giants Jazz Guitar Jigsaw Laser Lords Lords of the Rising Sun Louis Armstrong More Dark Fables from Aesop Moses: Bound for the Promised Land Moses: The Exodus Mother Goose Hidden Pictures Mother Goose Rhymes to Color Mozart: A Musical Biography Mystic Midway Rest in Pieces NFL Football Trivia Challenge Noah’s Ark Paint School I Paint School II Pavarotti Pecos Bill Pegasus Pinball Power Hitter Prelude Rand McNally’s America: U.S. Atlas Rembrandt: His Art and the Music of His Era Rhythm Maker Richard Scarry’s Best Neighborhood Disc Richard Scarry’s Busiest Neighborhood Disc Rock Guitar Sailing: A Guide to Sailing and Seamanship Sandy’s Circus Adventure Sargon Chess Stamps: Windows on the World Stickybear Reading Story Machine: Magic Tales Story Machine: Star Dreams Tell Me Why I Tell Me Why II Tetris Text Tiles The ACT College Search ‘92 The Art of the Czars The Berenstain Bears: On Their Own and You On Your Own The Best of Draw 50 The Dark Fables of Aesop The Emperor’s New Clothes The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe The French Impressionists The Palm Springs Open The Renaissance Gallery The Renaissance of Florence The Riches of Coins The Story of Jonah The Story of Samson The World of Impressionism Time Life Photography Treasures of the Smithsonian Video Speedway You Sing Christmas Favorites Zombie Dinos from the Planet Zeltoid European exclusive: Lenting van Etten Notes, and the 25 Rarest longbox releases: 1)Anne Willan Presents the Food of France and 2) ACT College Search ’92 were among a few titles that were “de-emphasized” in later Catalogs by Philips. A former Philips VP that helped me with my collection even mentioned that ACT was soon considered outdated. Anne Willan Food of France did receive a release in the UK and Europe in the original “eurocase” format and is slightly easier to find in that overseas version. ACT is a US longbox exclusive. 3)It took me almost two years to find a complete copy of the bi-lingual version of How the Camel Got His Hump once I realized that it existed. It, and the more common Rhino Skin bi-lingual version, is a US longbox exclusive. They have unique content, different titles, different Catalog Numbers, and were advertised as separate titles. 4)CD-i Music Book Volume 1 (there were no other Volumes) is another US longbox exclusive. It’s a real stealth rarity, and many collectors had been unaware that it existed for a long time. 5)Sailing is another US longbox exclusive. Amazon had unsold stock until recently, but that is now all gone. It should not be confused with the similar sailing Cdi title Sail to Win by XDRA, which was also available in the US. The generic name doesn’t help when searching for a copy, so get ready for a lot of motor parts results. You can probably guess how much there was in the way of overlap between sailing enthusiasts and Cdi owners back in the day, which with the passage of time has made it very difficult to locate all these Decades later. 6)More Dark Fables from Aesop was actually sold at the same time as the first Dark Fables from Aesop, and both also received overseas releases. The first Dark Fables title is quite common, and will throw off your search results. Somehow the US version of More Dark Fables just never seems to show up. 7)Earth Rhythms is not actually a US longbox exclusive, as it also had a release as part of the Japanese Cdi set. Unlike most of the music related Cdi titles, it is not believed to have had a UK or European release, though I’d love to be proven wrong on that. It also isn’t just anybody’s cup of tea, but is a very relaxing and pleasant title to just sit back and watch on a proper CRT set with good speakers. I just happened to get my copy in a large lot, and have only seen it about 3 times in the past few Years. 8)David and Goliath is the rarest of several biblically-themed storybook titles aimed at children. All of them are fairly tough to find, but David and Goliath is the toughest. It is possibly a US longbox exclusive, though some of its companion titles did get overseas releases. This particular bit of information is subject to change pending additional research. 9)James Brown Non-Stop Hit Machine. This had releases outside the US, but is still very tough to find. There are many more James Brown fans than there are Cdi collectors, and most of the copies that come up draw their attention. Due to Copyright issues, this is one collection that will never, ever see any sort of re-release. 10)The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe is not NSFW in the slightest bit, and is possibly the very tamest Cdi of them all in terms of the on-disc content. It’s just a slideshow of pictures of flowers. “Oh, what a nice man the artist must be! I should look up his other works…” Don’t. Just don’t. Absolutely do not ever look up anything about this title or Robert Mapplethorpe in general on anything other than your personal device with safe search settings enabled. You have been warned. Flowers of R.M. is another US longbox exclusive, and one that sold very poorly. Like a lot of other expensive Cdi titles, it draws attention from non-Cdi interest groups, in this case the gay art community. I had two extra copies that I put up for sale once and got some very generous offers from some very unusual sources that had been looking long and hard for copies of this particular title. You can expect the next copies that pop up on Ebay to go for large amounts. This is also one of the hybrid Cdi/PhotoCD longbox titles, all three of which are very rare nowadays. 11)A Revolution in Color had releases outside the US, but the US longbox version is still difficult to find anywhere. It doesn’t help that the title will lead to a lot of results that have nothing to do with the Philips Cdi at all. 12)How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin bi-lingual version seems to be much more common than the equivalent Camel Hump, but is still a very rare title. I’ve seen it less than ten times ever. As with the bi-lingual Camel Hump, check your copy of the normal version, as you might already have this one and not realize it. 13)Berenstain Bears had a re-release in the later jewel-case with slipcover format, and is fairly common to find that way. It is the earlier longbox version that you will rarely ever see. It was one of the last longbox releases before Philips switched case formats, and few copies of the longbox version were ever printed. 14)Moses: The Exodus and 15)Moses: Bound for The Promised Land are about equally rare, though both also had releases outside the US. They are often also found together in the same lot, so unless you find a lone copy for a really good price you can probably wait for a lot with both of them in it. 16)How to Photograph Nature is another hybrid PhotoCD/Cdi longbox title, and also a US longbox exclusive as far as anyone knows. There’s absolutely no demand for it besides from fullset collectors, most of whom already have it. 17)Gifts to Behold had releases outside the US (even in Japan!) but the US longbox version is tough to find and does not show up very often outside of random lots. If you see a copy in decent shape buy it! 18)Amparo Museum (full name: A Visit to the Valley of Peubla and the Amparo Museum) was one of the early titles to be developed for the Cdi, and did get a release outside the US. While much more common than a lot of the other titles on this list, it is still very rare compared to other Cdi titles and games in general. There was only one early print run that did not sell well, and nowadays only shows up in a random lot or so. The low numbers that were made make it rare by default, and you won’t have a convenient time finding a copy. 19)You Sing Christmas Favorites- ever hook up a mic to your Cdi? Me neither, but that was the intent behind this title. It was re-named for the equally limited overseas Euro release, and nowadays hardly ever shows up for sale. 20)Girl’s Club did have a fairly large print run and had overseas releases, but a lot of the copies of the US longbox version went to Blockbuster Video stores for rental (see above post) and now complete copies are tough to find, though there’s usally an overpriced BIN on Ebay. There aren’t many other girls dating “games” in general, and it has very much become an unintentional time capsule all these years later. 21)A National Parks Tour is the third and most common of the longbox PhotoCD/Cdi hybrid titles, and while a US exclusive it did get a later jewel-case re-release. Neither version is particularly common, nor will it be an easy challenge to try and find a nice complete longbox copy. 22)Rhythm Maker is an obscure title that seems to have been a US longbox exclusive and which only had a small print run. It tends to only show up in lots and almost never as a lone BIN or open auction. Numbers alone make it rare, but this one is particularly difficult to get by itself. 23)Prelude is a title that had releases in all regions, but the US longbox version is a stealth rarity compared to most of the rest of the set. The complete lack of demand for it apart from dedicated Cdi collectors makes it look deceptively common when it really is not. 24)Gardening: Flowers and Foliage is not a common title to begin with, and is even tougher to find outside of a large lot. The longbox version only had the one print run, though there was an overseas release in the “eurocase” format. While it remains quite a useful and easy to use program to use in planning your garden, nowadays only the most die-hard Cdi collector would want a copy. 25)Rock Guitar is one of several guitar titles for the Cdi, and is by far the toughest of them to find. Part of this is due to the generic title. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodysGameRoom | 2,008 Posted January 15, 2023 Share Posted January 15, 2023 @Chaos Control I picked this lot up from a local store today. According to your guide Food of France is quite rare? Is this the rare version? If so, what kind of value would you give it? I cannot find sold ebay listings and I do not see it on Price Charting. Any other standouts in this lot? Appreciate any information, thank you! 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted January 29, 2023 Author Share Posted January 29, 2023 On 1/14/2023 at 11:17 PM, CodysGameRoom said: @Chaos Control I picked this lot up from a local store today. According to your guide Food of France is quite rare? Is this the rare version? If so, what kind of value would you give it? I cannot find sold ebay listings and I do not see it on Price Charting. Any other standouts in this lot? Appreciate any information, thank you! My apologies for the delayed response, as I never saw any email notifications for it. YES! You do indeed have the rarest of the US CDi longboxes in that copy of Anne Willan Presents the Food of France! Now, I have no idea what it might sell for, but it's definitely something to treasure. If it's still sealed, keep it that way. If it's not wrapped, make sure the included cookbook is still present. You also look to have the Bernstein Bears longbox, which is tough to find in that format. It's also a bit unusual to see BOTH of the NFL Trivia Challenge versions, the original jewel-case re-release and the later updated version. The US version of Dimo's Quest is also not easy to find with the slipcover, as is the jewel-case version of Compton's Encyclopedia. Overall, you've got an above average CD-i lot, a very good one in fact. It's very nice to see that almost all the slipcovers are still present, which is unusual. They're usually missing over half the time any CD-i titles show up. In terms of variety, you've got a solid mix of actual good games, multimedia, and decent Movies. Whoever the original owner was made some good choices! I'd keep it if I were you, but I'm sure there'll be interest in your copy of Anne Willan. No more than a dozen copies of that US longbox are known to exist, though most of the hardcore CD-i collectors have it. Some speculator will probably want it. Depending on whether or not you sell everything together or piece it all out, you're looking at around $500 for everything after the shipping expenses and presumably the eBay fees. And because it always needs to be said, rarity does not always mean a high price. Don't get your expectations up too much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodysGameRoom | 2,008 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 @Chaos Control Thank you for all of the information! I am going to keep everything. I've got another lot and have a nice little starter collection now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RH | 4,895 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 If anyone is interested in a copy of Anne Willen's Food of France, I have one of those few sealed copies. I got it direct from a former Philips employee so I'm the second owner. This also checks out with the community theory that this was never publicly released and was only available to Philip's employees, or maybe it was only available from a Philips catalog that wasn't widely distributed. I do know that the scuttle that everyone who has one and is the second owner seems to confirm that they got these from Philips employees, so take that as it is. Anyway, this is a known copy to the community, so it doesn't add to the numbers of @Chaos Control's assumed 12. I'm ready to part for it to the right buyer and I figured I'd let you all know. I'm hoping to avoid feeBay too, but if that's what it takes, that's what I'll do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted January 30, 2023 Author Share Posted January 30, 2023 36 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said: @Chaos Control Thank you for all of the information! I am going to keep everything. I've got another lot and have a nice little starter collection now. That's awesome to hear, and rest assured that CD-i is a platform like no other. Almost all of the really interesting and rare titles are readily available through the Internet Archive, so just burn them and you're good to go. The longbox set has exactly 99 titles in it, and most aren't too hard to find and are very affordable, unlike pretty much any other system nowadays. Only a truly rough, as noted above, but you've got the toughest one out of the way already. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted January 30, 2023 Author Share Posted January 30, 2023 17 minutes ago, RH said: If anyone is interested in a copy of Anne Willen's Food of France, I have one of those few sealed copies. I got it direct from a former Philips employee so I'm the second owner. This also checks out with the community theory that this was never publicly released and was only available to Philip's employees, or maybe it was only available from a Philips catalog that wasn't widely distributed. I do know that the scuttle that everyone who has one and is the second owner seems to confirm that they got these from Philips employees, so take that as it is. Anyway, this is a known copy to the community, so it doesn't add to the numbers of @Chaos Control's assumed 12. I'm ready to part for it to the right buyer and I figured I'd let you all know. I'm hoping to avoid feeBay too, but if that's what it takes, that's what I'll do. Anne Willan Presents the Food of France was indeed released at retail in the US (and in Europe), but only seems to have had the one print run. It wasn't given a jewel-case re-release like a lot of other longboxes. It also, like ACT College Search '92, wasn't sold in the later big Catalog that came out in 1995. A former Philips VP told me that ACT became outdated pretty quickly but didn't know why Anne Willan was left out of the later Catalog. But it was definitely available at retail and through Philips for a short while. Low sales, niche topic on an obscure system, low print run, early discontinuation, and the passage of time (30 plus years now!) all combine to make it rare nowadays. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodysGameRoom | 2,008 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 @Chaos Control I posted my second lot that I picked up here, with photos: My understanding is that they were all traded in by the same person, and that they used to be their father's stuff. One of the discs has written on it, in Sharpie, "NFM Demo"> Nebraska Furniture Mart is big around here so my theory was that the owner, his father, worked for NFM and got a lot of this stuff directly from them when it came out, and then just hung on to it for years. It's all speculation though. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted January 30, 2023 Author Share Posted January 30, 2023 4 hours ago, CodysGameRoom said: @Chaos Control I posted my second lot that I picked up here, with photos: My understanding is that they were all traded in by the same person, and that they used to be their father's stuff. One of the discs has written on it, in Sharpie, "NFM Demo"> Nebraska Furniture Mart is big around here so my theory was that the owner, his father, worked for NFM and got a lot of this stuff directly from them when it came out, and then just hung on to it for years. It's all speculation though. Very nice haul indeed, and it's especially good that you've got all of the really expensive US titles out of the way! Pace yourself with the rest of your acquisitions, and you'll find CD-i to be a very affordable system to collect for! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackVega | 583 Posted January 30, 2023 Share Posted January 30, 2023 On 3/1/2020 at 11:53 PM, Chaos Control said: The Flowers of Robert Mapplethorpe. Possibly the most expensive longbox title. Cinemassacre has an amusing video of this CDi. While this CDi is possibly the tamest CDi in terms of content, be warned that Googling about the artist will result in some highly NSFW results. DO NOT look this title up on anything other than your personal device. Hm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted February 3, 2023 Author Share Posted February 3, 2023 On 1/30/2023 at 5:10 PM, BlackVega said: Hm? Huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floating Platforms | 713 Posted February 4, 2023 Share Posted February 4, 2023 Thanks for putting this list together. I'm very slowly trying to collect all the games (not general software) for the system and this helps a lot. I recently was able to pick up Girls Club. Glad that most of the other longbox rare titles are not actual games. Is there a good resource, or does someone have a list, of the non-longbox/jewel case software that was confirmed to have been released in the US? I know that there will probably never be a perfect list but the RF Generation starting point is not something I wholly trust. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted February 4, 2023 Author Share Posted February 4, 2023 16 hours ago, Floating Platforms said: Thanks for putting this list together. I'm very slowly trying to collect all the games (not general software) for the system and this helps a lot. I recently was able to pick up Girls Club. Glad that most of the other longbox rare titles are not actual games. Is there a good resource, or does someone have a list, of the non-longbox/jewel case software that was confirmed to have been released in the US? I know that there will probably never be a perfect list but the RF Generation starting point is not something I wholly trust. It's my pleasure to help!:) The very best source is the contemporary Philips CDi Catalog, the last big one that they put out: https://www.ebay.com/itm/134182511191?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=O5nICg2rT7i&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=cssq4zlBQMK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY ...those don't show up very often but 95% of the US retail available to the public titles, games, movies, and multimedia, are all right there with pictures. If you're a CD-i collector I HIGHLY recommend that Catalog. The one thing it won't show are packaging variants, such as longbox and jewel-case, and which jewel-case releases did or not have slipcovers. Most did, but not all. That Catalog also has most of the European releases that Philips sold in the US, but just didn't create US style packaging for. What the Catalog won't have are a few titles that were already de-emphasized by that point, such as ACT College Search and Anne Willan Presents the Food of France; a few extremely rare regional releases (such as the very rarest US CD-i title available to the public: Bell Atlantic Info-Active); and professional titles that were never available to the general public in the first place (such as employee training programs and unreleased titles). I don't know if you're familiar with the ongoing CD-i preservation efforts that I'm a part of: https://preserve-cdi.blogspot.com/?m=1 ...but among the bigger tasks that we're working towards are full and complete checklists by Country, with pictures and details of the packaging styles. In the interim, the most extensive CD-i site has the majority of titles listed and excellently organized: https://www.theworldofcdi.com/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted February 4, 2023 Author Share Posted February 4, 2023 Just as a heads-up, some of the very rarest and toughest non-longbox Titles are every bit as tough to find as the rare longboxes. For example, a copy of Lamb Chop Action Songs complete with the slipcover is one you might only see once per year, but there's one available right now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155385013266?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=6H3aOq6rQqW&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=cssq4zlBQMK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floating Platforms | 713 Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 This is fantastic! Thank you. I've seen a couple sites in passing a while back when trying to figure out my timekeeper problem (which I discovered when Earth Command didn't work). My system still isn't fixed, but I'm still building the collection for when its ready to go. Thankfully I'm not going after the general software, pre-school geared edutainment type games, or movie titles, so I don't have to worry about the Lamb Chop disc, but that's fascinating in its own right. Without having to buy the catalog from ebay I think the world of CDI list should help a lot for now since I see they include catalog numbers and regions when possible. That seems to be confirming that some things that were on RF Generation's list as US released were likely not (Accelerator, Arcade Classics, Asterix - just to site the first page). I'm looking forward in doing a deeper dive on all of this now! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted February 7, 2023 Author Share Posted February 7, 2023 On 2/5/2023 at 3:15 PM, Floating Platforms said: This is fantastic! Thank you. I've seen a couple sites in passing a while back when trying to figure out my timekeeper problem (which I discovered when Earth Command didn't work). My system still isn't fixed, but I'm still building the collection for when its ready to go. Thankfully I'm not going after the general software, pre-school geared edutainment type games, or movie titles, so I don't have to worry about the Lamb Chop disc, but that's fascinating in its own right. Without having to buy the catalog from ebay I think the world of CDI list should help a lot for now since I see they include catalog numbers and regions when possible. That seems to be confirming that some things that were on RF Generation's list as US released were likely not (Accelerator, Arcade Classics, Asterix - just to site the first page). I'm looking forward in doing a deeper dive on all of this now! I'm glad to help!:) Stuff like Lamb Chop, The Best of Baby Songs, Wings Over the Gulf, ACT College Search, Weather Kitchen, etc- those are the actual rarities from the US set of the jewel-cases. If you do try to go for a US collection it's those edu/multimedia/ reference titles that'll be the hardest to find, but usually don't cost much. Rarity definitely doesn't always equal price. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DorkOverlord | 679 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 On 1/14/2023 at 11:17 PM, CodysGameRoom said: @Chaos Control I picked this lot up from a local store today. According to your guide Food of France is quite rare? Is this the rare version? If so, what kind of value would you give it? I cannot find sold ebay listings and I do not see it on Price Charting. Any other standouts in this lot? Appreciate any information, thank you! This post inspired me to start collecting CDi. I just ordered my first three games (Pinball, Defenders of the Crown, and Hotel Mario). 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodysGameRoom | 2,008 Posted February 9, 2023 Share Posted February 9, 2023 @DorkOverlord Nice! I wish I could find more locally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted February 9, 2023 Author Share Posted February 9, 2023 18 hours ago, DorkOverlord said: This post inspired me to start collecting CDi. I just ordered my first three games (Pinball, Defenders of the Crown, and Hotel Mario). It's a very fun and unique multimedia system to collect and experience. Almost all of the retail releases are still fairly cheap and affordable, unlike pretty much every other system. It's only a few that command high prices. There's also a tremendous amount of titles available for burning courtesy of recent preservation efforts: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Control | 70 Posted May 15, 2023 Author Share Posted May 15, 2023 https://www.ebay.com/itm/266258155432?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=31G2cT9IS1C&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=cssq4zlBQMK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY ... for once, a genuine rarity that actually justifies such a price! I have NEVER seen a copy of it prior to now. I had to get mine directly from another collector that got it back in the '90s, and to my knowledge only one other guy has a copy. So with only three copies known, this is as rare as it gets for US CD-i retail titles. Even more Web-i discs are known. The one publicly available US release with fewer known copies is Bell Atlantic Info-Active. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CodysGameRoom | 2,008 Posted July 18, 2023 Share Posted July 18, 2023 Managed to pick up a few more long boxes locally. Nothing outstanding here but I will take any I can find locally for sure. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Link | 2,707 Posted July 19, 2023 Share Posted July 19, 2023 Awesome info, @Chaos Control! Thank you for sharing it here. On 1/30/2023 at 4:10 PM, BlackVega said: Hm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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