# Philips CD-i emulation



## Langin (May 3, 2016)

I am too lazy to Google and since you guys have accurate info everytime I ask something, I'll ask it here. 

Anyways, I want to emulate the three Zelda games which were made for CD-i. What is the best CD-i emu around and what things do I need to get everything working?

Thx!


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## bananapi761 (May 3, 2016)

http://www.cdiemu.org/
This worked very well for me, but it is time-limited without a license.


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## XavyrrVaati (May 3, 2016)

why would you do this to yourself


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## bananapi761 (May 3, 2016)

XavyrrVaati said:


> why would you do this to yourself


How could you say that about the best Zelda games in the entire series?


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## bobmcjr (May 3, 2016)

Langin said:


> I am too lazy to Google and since you guys have accurate info everytime I ask something, I'll ask it here.
> 
> Anyways, I want to emulate the three Zelda games which were made for CD-i. What is the best CD-i emu around and what things do I need to get everything working?
> 
> Thx!


Last time I checked, nothing can emulate Zelda's Adventure.
There are two CD-i Emulators worth mentioning.
"cdiemu" from here: (Note that development appears to have stopped and technically the following emulator is "expired", you'll need this to run it with some date between 2011 and 2012: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html )
http://www.cdiemu.org/download/cdiemu-0.5.3-beta2.zip

the other emulator is MESS, which is like MAME but for all non-arcade systems. It can be a pain to get working, but has decent emulation, is still in development, and doesn't have any silly expiration nonsense.


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## sion_zaphod (May 3, 2016)

Langin said:


> I am too lazy to Google and since you guys have accurate info everytime I ask something, I'll ask it here.
> 
> Anyways, I want to emulate the three Zelda games which were made for CD-i. What is the best CD-i emu around and what things do I need to get everything working?
> 
> Thx!



Mess/ume all do the job OK.  You need to convert cdi ISO files to chd format.  The mame package comes with a utility to do that (I think).  You can even use the retroarch mess/ume core to play cdi.  My raspberry pi 2 with emulation station/retropi is proof.

If you want to emulate cdi games bit of advicr:  don't bother with the Zelda or Mario games they are absolute pants.  Burn Cycle,  7th guest are the best games on the whole system (still have my 220 with fmv cart).  Also in my opinion those cdi games are better than their PC ports.


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## bobmcjr (May 3, 2016)

sion_zaphod said:


> Mess/ume all do the job OK.  You need to convert cdi ISO files to chd format.  The mame package comes with a utility to do that (I think).  You can even use the retroarch mess/ume core to play cdi.  My raspberry pi 2 with emulation station/retropi is proof.


You can run the iso's  (or at least CUE+BIN) directly with some command line arguments, something like this:


```
mess cdimono1 -cdrom "Link The Faces of Evil.cue"
```


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## sion_zaphod (May 3, 2016)

bobmcjr said:


> You can run the iso's  (or at least CUE+BIN) directly with some command line arguments, something like this:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...



 Don't know about that I use mess through retroarch and pretty sure it doesn't like bin/cue sheets.  Either way try and find a version of mess source with the disclaimers removed and compile it yourself.  Otherwise you'll get annoying messages with every game.


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## Langin (May 3, 2016)

Awesome guys! I appreciate the answers. I'll look into it once I am home.


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## Mtullock (Jun 17, 2017)

sion_zaphod said:


> Don't know about that I use mess through retroarch and pretty sure it doesn't like bin/cue sheets.  Either way try and find a version of mess source with the disclaimers removed and compile it yourself.  Otherwise you'll get annoying messages with every game.




Plllllease can you tell me how to set this up, I am going out of my tree trying to suss it! Have lr-mess2016 installed have a cue and bin file of burn cycle and cdimono1.zip in a cdi folder. Have updated the es_system and created the XML...... But as soon as I try to run it I crash back to the emulation station. Any help you can offer on how to run cdi on a pi3 would be so much appreciated! Thanks


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## sion_zaphod (Jun 17, 2017)

Mtullock said:


> Plllllease can you tell me how to set this up, I am going out of my tree trying to suss it! Have lr-mess2016 installed have a cue and bin file of burn cycle and cdimono1.zip in a cdi folder. Have updated the es_system and created the XML...... But as soon as I try to run it I crash back to the emulation station. Any help you can offer on how to run cdi on a pi3 would be so much appreciated! Thanks


Working next 2 nights.  I'll have a look at my configs after that.


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## Mtullock (Jun 17, 2017)

Cheers man that would be awesome. Like I say I am on a pi3 with emulation station. I have compiled lr-mess2016 put the ROM files and cdimono1.zip into a cdi folder within ROMs. Updated the es_config file as well as the cdi.xml.  but nothing runs. I saw the post about command line but can't rune the mess command (not found). So any help when you get the chance would be superb!


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## DaFixer (Jun 18, 2017)

I really like Lost Eden on the CDi, I think that only the CDi version was the text in Dutch. 
Great music


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## Mtullock (Jun 18, 2017)

I had lost Eden... And I remember being wowed by the graphics but the story left me cold. Secret mission, mad dog, the apprentice, ceasers boxing and above all burn cycle were the ones that caught me. I still think the cd-i could have been so so so much more if Philips played it right......which they didn't lol

Oh and littil divil how did I forget that!


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## The Real Jdbye (Jun 18, 2017)

I've used a cracked version of cdiemu in the past to play Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil, works well enough. Though I could only stand to play them for about 5-10 minutes 



bobmcjr said:


> Last time I checked, nothing can emulate Zelda's Adventure.
> There are two CD-i Emulators worth mentioning.
> "cdiemu" from here: (Note that development appears to have stopped and technically the following emulator is "expired", you'll need this to run it with some date between 2011 and 2012: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/run_as_date.html )
> http://www.cdiemu.org/download/cdiemu-0.5.3-beta2.zip
> ...


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## Mtullock (Jun 22, 2017)

Did you get a chance to look at config files? ... Excited to play cdi again lol Cheers


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## jameythepoet (Jun 27, 2017)

Mtullock, I have an old tinydsl pre-configured to click a game and it plays, if you just want to play them
Zelda Adventure
Zelda - The Wand of Gamelon
Link Faces of Evil
Hotel Mario
Super Wacky Worlds (Prototype)
Alice in Wonderland (English Version) We all know everything above is what people really are looking for 
Alien Gate
Dark Castle
Dimo's Quest
Jokers Wild
Laser Lords
Tetris
The Apprentice



https://mega.nz/#!EBw2STKJ!1gUfab45T9_USkmu41FE0J8aMpakps6-bHgdDZ4_OV0



Mtullock said:


> Did you get a chance to look at config files? ... Excited to play cdi again lol Cheers



--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------



Mtullock said:


> Did you get a chance to look at config files? ... Excited to play cdi again lol Cheers


               Save all the headache, it's ready to go


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## Mtullock (Jun 29, 2017)

Thanks man. Will give that a go. Still really keen to see if it works on pi just because I am a geek who loves to tinker about. But that is great cheers!


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## Tgames (Jun 30, 2017)

I have patched few months ago the CDI Emulator 0.5.3 beta 3 for no limitations (no shareware limits) :

If you want it, it's here :
http://tgames.fr/progs-pc/cdi-emulator-0-5-3-beta-3-crack-complet-t12078.html


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## Futurdreamz (Jul 5, 2017)

You can get nearly the same experience by chugging whisky, beer, and tequila while watching youtube videos of the game.


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## BORTZ (Jul 5, 2017)

Have you looked into what it would cost to get original hardware? I know emulation will probably work, but I just wanted to make sure you examined all possibilities if need be.


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## The Real Jdbye (Aug 5, 2017)

Futurdreamz said:


> You can get nearly the same experience by chugging whisky, beer, and tequila while watching youtube videos of the game.


Having played Faces of Evil I can say that this is mostly true. Actually, you'll probably get more enjoyment out of chugging liquor. And you won't be able to remember any of your playing of the game the next day, which is a good thing.
It wouldn't be a terrible game if it actually controlled properly. It does have some promise to it, but there are certain elements of the controls that just ruin it completely like having to press down+B (IIRC) just to use an item, which if you're standing near a door will make you go through the door instead. But that's not even the main issue, I could look past that if the platforming elements actually worked as intended. But every single part of the platforming feels sluggish, and it really ruins the experience and accuracy.
Not to say I didn't enjoy playing it, it was fun for the first few minutes since I got to experience firsthand a lot of the cutscenes that are commonly used in YTP and similar. And man are they bad 
They are pretty funny though.


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## danyboy666 (Mar 30, 2018)

I know this a old thread but still I found the way to load cdi games true es_systems.cfg on the windows version of es. it's documented here https://github.com/danyboy666/es_systems/blob/master/win/.emulationstation/es_systems.cfg

the bat script isn't needed use 
*<command>%HOME%\.emulationstation\systems\retroarch\retroarch.exe -L %HOME%\.emulationstation\systems\retroarch\cores\mame_libretro.dll %HOME%\.emulationstation\roms\cdimono1\%BASENAME%.txt</command>
*
for linux there is no lr_mame.so core i'm not sure which core is equivalent to mame_libretro.dll version of windows but the syntax should be really similar for linux.


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