Nintendo has been incredibly protective of its IPs throughout its history, largely retaining control and maintaining exclusivity on its platforms, aside from the occasional arcade machine. That makes the 'Zelda' trilogy on the Philips CD-i particularly fascinating (the system had Mario titles as well), as they're oddities that are almost cult classics despite their various issues. They're not canon, of course!
Those games sprung to mind today when we saw information on Nobelia, a new game for Philips CD-i from TwBurn. You can see its trailer at the top of the page and some official details below:
Zelda meets Bomberman in this homebrew game for the Philips CD-i.
Nobelia is an explosive open world action/adventure game which can be described as a crossover between The Legend of Zelda and Bomberman.
With over 30 unique levels, four power-ups, and four different enemies it is the biggest and most ambitious homebrew game released yet for the CD-i.
Includes an in-game timer with highscores to allow for competition and speedrunning in three different categories.
This is initially being sold on its official website as a physical edition, with assurances that it's been tested on multiple iterations of the CD-i hardware. It costs between €35-40 depending on region, while US consumers can go to Good Deal Games where it's $34.95.
It's always fascinating to see new games developed for retro hardware, giving their own takes on classics while working within system restrictions. It also shows that the collector and enthusiast community for the CD-i is alive and well.
[source qrky.dev]
Comments (13)
I can't think of a comment, I'm at a loss here
Over/under 25 copy’s sold.
I’m going with the under.
Some people enjoy developing for retro hardware. Of course, the CD-I was never intended to be a game console. It was always intended as a then-high-tech multimedia player. Another part of why Hotel Mario, and the 3 Zelda games were less than superb was that Phillips concentrated too much on the presentation of fmv (full-motion video), and not really much time into actual gameplay. They weren't concerned enough about anything, including quality, other than showing off the colorful backgrounds, and fmvs; key marketing features of the CD-I hardware.
CD-i? I'll wait for the 3DO or Jaguar CD ports.
This is already looking like the best game on the CD-i.
Dont have a CDi but i would pick this up for another CD based system if they want to port it later down the line. It looks fun.
Release it on the Atari Jaguar then we're talking.
@zbinks I'm gonna hold out for Atari 2600 version. Probably would be a lot like ET.
@zbinks 3DO FTW!
Nice to see it released... I was expecting Nobelia to be a dutch company, and so it was.. Since Philips is dutch, the system was pushed quite a bit more here, so @blindquarel, i think the city of Eindhoven by itself will amount for more than 25 copies alone...
generally speaking though, it's amazing how people like to make something within those constraints.. just imagine the effort put into this, and admire that...
My little brother had a CD-i.. i'm going to check if it still works, and if it does i might order this..
Developer here! I am indeed Dutch It was a fun and challenging process, but I'm really proud of the end result. Response has been great so far, more than I could have dreamt of, and yeah I did sell way over 25 copies so far, and it's only been released last monday.
@TwBurn any chance for a Switch port down the road?
@malcire Not really, not by me anyway. I never did any gamedev before, I just thought it was interesting to see if I could develop anything for the CD-i, for which I always had a soft spot. That kinda got out of hand and turned into this
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