Philips Media

Credits

Descriptions by
mr3urious and EnormousRat

Captures by
mr3urious and EnormousRat

Video captures courtesy of
Pepsi9072 and magermunson

Background

Philips Interactive Media was a division of the titular Dutch conglomerate that created the CD-i, an interactive multimedia CD player that could play games and movies. The system came out of Philips aiming to get into the gaming market, and attempting (and failing) to produce a CD-based add-on for the Super Nintendo; Sony also attempted this prior to Philips, but the deals fell through, which eventually led to the creation of the PlayStation. Despite heavy marketing, the system failed critically and commercially, largely thanks to a mediocre game library as well as poorly made controllers. It is also particularly infamous nowadays for four games based off of the Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda series of games, all thanks to a mutual agreement between Nintendo and Philips. They are notorious for their poor quality and for being heavily featured in YouTube Poop videos. 136 games were released for the system (in contrast to 1,850 games on the PS1), and 570,000 units were sold worldwide (in contrast to over 100 million units of PS1s sold worldwide). Philips Interactive Media was sold to Infogrames in 1996, and in 1998 the CD-i was discontinued.

1st Logo (1991-1995)

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  Part 1

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  Part 2

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  "DISTRIBUTED BY" version

Nicknames: "The Phillips Shield", "Cheesy Philips Shield", "YouTube Poop Shield", "The CD-i Zelda Logo"

Logo: Against a black background, we see a dark blue Philips logo, which consists of a shield with "PHILIPS" at the top in white, with a dark blue circle containing wavy lines and some stars at the bottom. The circle transforms into a CD and flips around as the shield morphs into a brighter blue rectangle, with "PHILIPS" left intact. The CD inserts itself into the rectangle, forming a white line. The words "INTERACTIVE" and "MEDIA" appear above and below the line, respectively. The logo then goes "3D" at the end.

Variants:

• A still version exists with "DISTRIBUTED BY" over the logo. This can be seen on VCDs of movies distributed by Philips Media.
  • Sometimes on the still version, "INTERACTIVE" is dropped from the logo. "PHILIPS" is closer to the line, and the rectangle is skinnier.
• On some Philips Funhouse games, more effects can be shown.
  • For example, the closing version in Labyrinth of Crete grows eyes inside the P's and licks itself.

FX/SFX: The transformation effects.

Music/Sounds: It starts out with a deep bass chord, which leads into a synth fanfare.

Availability: Rare. Appears at the beginning of games for the Philips CD-i console. The full logo (with music) was even shown on an episode of G4's Icons chronicling The Legend of Zelda. It is also shown on earlier games published for DOS, like International Tennis Open. The still, "INTERACTIVE"-less variant can be seen on movie VCDs released for the system; movies released with a green logo on the cover and spine can be played on most computers and DVD players without owning a CD-i console.

Editor's Note: This logo is one of the more "memed" on the wiki, thanks to it appearing before the aforementioned and infamous Nintendo-based games for the system, all of which have been repeatedly featured in YouTube Poops.

2nd Logo (1995-1998)

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  Part 1

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  Part 2

Nicknames: "The Philips Shield II", "The Waves", "The Not-So-Cheesy Philips Shield"

Logo: On a black background, the Philips shield is seen all in dark blue, including the text. The shield zooms in as the stars and circle inside it zoom away first and the waves move at different paces. The word "PHILIPS" in a thin font rises up from the waves as they shrink to reveal "MEDIA" in the same font. The waves thin out to form a line and shrink which then fades to red and the logo flashes, changing the color to white with a blue outline. The line gains a phaser-like light that shifts from left to right and disappears when the last note is played.

Variant: A still version exists.

FX/SFX: The shield zooming in, the waves, the light on the bar.

Music/Sounds: A synthesized fanfare with an electric keyboard section.

Availability: Rare. Can be seen on games from 1995 to 1998, like the PC CD of Lamb Chop Loves Music and the DOS version of Asterix: Caesar's Challenge. The still version can be seen on the CD-i port of Myst.

Editor's Note: Despite not being as well-known as the previous logo, this is still a major step-up with a fantastic fanfare and good animation (one that is often sadly presented in compressed, skippy video, due to the limitations of the time, though it was occasionally shown in better quality).