Gooday Gaming Guests - Philps CD-I and Amiga 32CD Game Boot Process

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

There were Zelda and Mario Games on the CD-I.

Alright, so I got a later system to do today, but we're going to get going. Which is the Philips CDI, Compact Disc Interactive. Had a unique boot process. Different from traditional gaming consoles due to its multimedia focus. And CD based operating system. So here's how it worked. There's a few different makes and models of those two. PowerZone, CDI hardware, again another Motorola

68000 based CPU and disk drive. The BIOS and boot RAM, CDI also had a built in BIOS. Also called the CD-RTOS. Compact Disk Real-Time Operating System. So that's interesting. Something new I learned.

Stored in ROM. This firmware provides low-level hardware control and loads the system software. It checks the CD-ROM disk in the drive. The CD-ROM disk in the drive. The CD-ROM file system check checks for CD files in the CDI format, which is a CDI-ROM XA, Standard Architecture,

and a primary volume descriptor in CDI application directory. Validation of the CDI boot sector, which is IPL, initial program loader. The disk is a valid title and it executes the game code loading the CDI operating systems which is CD dash CT I mean a dash RT OS its own version and then it goes to the new software kernel the game at main executable file reads with the 6800 CPU most of these games are full motion video language is used so uses assembly written C with assembly for optimization Philips prepared Development tools games had to fall strict CDI Hardware Hit a click there CDI rom extender architecture I lost where I was.

It utilizes a CDI hardware called MCD212 video processor and CD-ROM subsystem. Most games were stored in the CD-ROM XA format.

Meaning the game logic, audio, and full motion video synchronies were encoded in a structured way. Games often included an interpreter to handle interactive consequences and full motion video. YCDI games often failed to boot. Bad sectors, the BIOS RTOS mismatch. Required a newer CD-RTOS version.

Scratches on the disk. CD-i emulators and debugging. Emulators like CD-i emulator with BIOS files. IDA Pro or G Hydra can help just assemble this 6800 base code what was the game game library so we'll take a look at the game library here so it's heavy full motion video educational, trivia, interactive movies and multimedia titles, so there's approximately

200 to 250 titles for the CD-i. Big fan. Legend of the Zelda CD-i's. I have those, but I have copies of them. Really, really expensive to try to find them. Link, The Faces of Evil, 1993. Zelda,

Wand of Galgalan. It's the only time Link actually speaks. He's really silly. And then Zelda's Adventure. Infamous for clunky controls, bad image, and odd voice acting. Yeah, it was really silly. I have a... Oh, and there's the Mario theme.

Hotel Mario. I have that copy. So, and I bought those. I got a copy of those from that seller, which was awesome. Then I have an original copy of the Wand of Galgalon, but it doesn't work. Well, it does up until it starts to play. Burn Cycle. Cyberpunk, full motion video adventure game.

Seven Guests. I have that on PC. Other CD-i games. Mix. Peck. Panic. The Apprentice. A rare well-made platform.

Lucky Luke. Dragon. Of course, Dragon Lair is on everything. Space Aces is another one. Oh, they actually had the Joy of Sex. Adult-oriented education title. who actually had the Joy of Sex adult oriented education title I know there's Interactive

Encyclopedia Who Shot Johnny Rocket Mad Dog McGee International Tennis and Thunder in Paradise starring Hulk Hogan a full action game. Unreleased titles

or prototypes. Mario Takes America would have been a live action scrapped to the budget. Super Mario's Wacky Worlds was cancelled. Never finished, but early prototypes do exist. The Lost Ride and

Atlantis The Last Resort, Unfinished First Person Shooter. Legacy of the CDI system is best known for bad Zelda and Mario games. Homebrew elements exist out there. Interesting. alright so let's go on we'll go on to the oh let's go on to some rare

rare games rare and expensive Zelda of course but it's a silly it's not like the original Zelda Lucky Luke for bad controls The Apprentice

CDI Apprentice the last this is a prototype for the Atlantis. The last resort. Super Mario. There's a copy out there for a few hundred bucks. The Lost Ride. Hotel Mario.

Seven guests. Burn Cycle. Something Garden. burn cycle something garden let's see what else we got here all right so let's go i'm going to cross reference a couple games here what do we want to see if this super rock super and we'll try atlantis the last resort see if we can find that Let's see what that one is. Atlantis to Last Resort. Phillips. Atlantis to Last Resort. They have one in the Netherlands.

$70. not too bad $39 so there's a few of those around and then what was the other one let's see where else

the other one let's see let's see let's see let's see let's see let's see let's see

let's see let's see let's see let's see let's see let's see let's see let's see

let's see let's see let's see let's see let's see what the other one is. It's Super Wacky. Tomorrow's Super Wacky World. super wacky world oh there's a rare prototype burnt so say it's a couple out can find the CDI the apprentice CDI is what I want

the apprentice $163 that one is a little bit more $70 demonstration disc $43 the apprentice so there's lots of those games there so let's see $43. The Apprentice. So there's lots of those games there. So let's see.

Alright, so. Let's see where we're at here. Let's go on to. Amiga. Amiga. Amiga 32 CD. Game. Boot. Amiga 32 CD game boot process. So Amiga 32 came out in 1993. We didn't have it here in the United States.

It's Commodore-based Amiga. I have an Amiga 500 too. Which is pretty cool. It uses Amiga OS based system. Powered on. So that uses a Motorola 68EC02O CPU. Chipset had 2 MB fast RAM and chip RAM let's see what else had kick start RAM version 3.1 or version 3.0 the ROM was the Amiga OS cd32 bootloader has a CD file support system support a CD32 splash screen I had one of those that's a really cool system, real expensive too

the system checks the CD validates it bootloading verifies it's the correct disk I noticed my chat GPT has gotten a little bit brighter adding more things to its answers CD 32 file structure to boot the game you must go through the ISO 966 file system called a rockerage extensions boot information Called a Rockridge Extensions. Boot information. Amiga has an AGA graphics chip.

And a AKIKO chip compatibility. Troublesome. Yeah, it's definitely something that adds a little bit more character to its answers. Process versus a standard American Amiga, rather. Standard Amiga uses a floppy disk which I have running Workbench 32 runs directly from the CD-ROM big difference

I had an Amiga 500 it was real expensive there's would you like to do burn CD32 compact disks or run 32 Amiga emulator so I can run an emulator I want to go to the game library of course Compact discs. Or run through to. Amiga emulator. So I can run an emulator. Now I want to go to the game library.

Of course. Library. Let's see how many games are on there. 170 titles. Official titles. With several unreleased and homebrewed games. Many of the games were. Ported. From the Amiga 12000. unreleased and homebrewed games. Many of the games were ported from the Amiga 12000.

The CD had a strong selection here. Shooters. Alien Breed, Tower Assault, Banshee, Brian the Lion, that's a cool thing,

Zool 2. Racing was... Microism. Lotus Trilogy. Adventure. Beneath the Steel Sky. I have that for... And then you've got to get PS5 Beyond the Steel Sky.

It's a point and click kind of game. But it's really fun. Simon the Sorcerer. Hilarious Lucas style game. Let's look at those in a minute. Super Stardust. Chaos Engine.

Full Motion Video. Defender of the Crowd 2. Rare and expensive ones. Dangerous Streets. Yeah, I'll go get them. Alright, so I had to bring my buddy in here. Alright, so Dangerous Streets.

Terrible game, but rare. A-K-I-R Beavers. Castlevania. Unofficial, but rare unreleased prototype games for the 32 a k are a full motion video canceled but leaked let's see if we can find out honey babe you know the system anymore those of the ones I wanted to get it to know what it was all about.

I have lots of videos of it. And then I sold it. Just recently. To a local guy. Alright, so I didn't say anything about that one. It's Sensible Soccer Prototype Overkill and Lunar. a local guy all right so i didn't see anything about that one sensible soccer prototype overkill and loner so this is cd32 homebrewed and fan made releases so you can get some made amiga cd32

to sc collection so those ones i like a lot of different ones. I want to play through emulators. It gives me emulators that you can get through. Win UAE. Best for Amiga 32 emulators. F-S-U-A-E

Great for Linux. Mr. F-, Burn IOS or CD-ROM to play on real console. Alright, so let's see those. How many Amiga systems are there? So we'll go off track a little bit. Are there? I know I have an Amiga 32 I had, and I have a medium 500. Amiga, Comac, Media, Amiga. All right, so. Which.

So the original one is the Amiga 1000 in 1985. First computer, custom chips. Amiga 500, which is the most popular. I have one of those. Lowest cost. Original chipset. Kickstart 1-2, 1-3. I've got a whole bunch of classic games for it, too always want to get an amiga 2000 was expansion expandable professional desktop

it was amiga 3000 high-end workstation faster 68030 Then there was an Amiga CDTV. First CD based Amiga. Runs OS 1.3. Flopped due to lack of software and high price. Then there's Amiga 1200. The last great Amiga. It had advanced graphic architecture, IDE hard drive support,

and bases of the CD32 system. That came out in 1992. 1993 was your Amiga 32. Two megabytes of RAM. So then there was also Amiga 4000 high-end desktop true Commodore Amiga workstation powerful was 68020 2 megabytes

256 RAM upgradable I think I upgraded it first ever 32-bit CD based console in Europe was the Amiga killed Killed off early due to Commodore went into bankruptcy in 1994. So let's look at that one. Amiga,

what did I say that was? Let's see how much that was. Amiga 4000. They were really expensive. Let's do a quick little crush reference

here. Amiga 4000. Oh, that's just a disc I was going to say in a way oh okay so Amiga 4000 okay so Amiga 4000 I just missed it

let me do that again Amiga 4000 they're really hard to find you probably have to you would have to get it from Europe if you can find one. Lots of accessories for it.

Cards and all that stuff. All the fun stuff. There's one for $4,000. There you go. Not happening. That's why I never got a lot of cards you can get for them. But i got plenty of old vintage computers down anymore because i can't afford to get any more all right so that's kind of

only a level four thousand dollars uh 128 gigabyte solid state drive and it recapped so it's got lots of cool stuff to go with it all right so that's my two systems today i'll have to work on something for tomorrow we'll figure what that'll be It's got lots of cool stuff to go with it. All right, so that's my two systems today. I'll have to work on something for tomorrow. We'll figure out what that'll be. Well, you guys have a good night, and I'll talk to you later. All right, bye.