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CD-I KeyControl (FS?)

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:47 pm
by jaxed
I've got a CD-I KeyControl, which I picked up at a thrift store not knowing that it wasn't a regular old keyboard with a PS/2 connector.

1) Anybody know the pin-outs of this keyboard so that it might be converted to a PS/2 connection?

2) If not, is anybody interested in it?

Thanks,
jaXed

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:25 pm
by Erronous
It can't be converted to PS/2 by changing the connector, it works via a different protocol. IIRC CD-i keycontrols aren't offered for sale that often, so you can probably buy a ps/2 keyboard with the money you'll get. On the other hand not much titles support the keycontrol, so it's use is rather limited.

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:29 pm
by Bas
It was mainly used for the online services. As it is all shut down by now, only a hand-full people will use it to navigate through the encyclopedias. I know the dutch ones (Standaard Encyclopedie & medische Encyclopedie) are compatible, I'm not sure about others like the german, french and Compton's. Anyone?

Posted: Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:54 pm
by Erronous
Wasn't it Lingo or some other text game that was compatible?

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:02 pm
by cdifan
Probably, yes, because it's from the same company as the encyclopedias :-)

Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:05 pm
by Frustrated
wait, what do you mean "online services"?

Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:05 pm
by Devin
Frustrated wrote:wait, what do you mean "online services"?
Once upon a time you could connect the CD-i to the internet proper!

Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:11 pm
by Frustrated
i thought so! via what cabels, and inputs, though...
i noticed a modern day cord will fit in a 450 power switch...
what could you buy or download online?

Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:18 pm
by Devin
No! It didn't go through the power supply socket!

You could browse the internet when it consisted of simple pages, here's an original example...

http://www.cd-online.co.uk/maze/homepage.html

This game came before Atlantis - The Last Resort as a hint of things to come! It allowed for on-line High Score tables and also the download of maps although I'm not certain this was implemented proper. Alas Atlantis had none of these features and was released during the decline of CD-i.

Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:46 pm
by Frustrated
haha, i knew it didnt go in the power socket, just said in noticed that. otherwise nothing would power the system.

anyway, sound intresting. so how was it exactely hooked up?

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 1:22 am
by cdifan
cdifan wrote:Probably, yes, because it's from the same company as the encyclopedias :-)
Well, I was wrong. Just tested Lingo with a CD-i Keyboard (both on a real player and under CD-i Emulator) and it doesn't respond to it in any way.

More details then you ever wanted to know about CD-i keyboards: hop over to the CD-i keyboards post that I just made on my CD-i Bits blog.

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:35 pm
by Erronous
So, am I the only one here that has two versions of the CD-i keycontrol? :)

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:42 pm
by cdifan
If you mean a QWERTY and an AZERTY version, no, I think I have both.

Note that these are actually completely identical internally, the difference between the two is merely a question of swapping keycaps. The Q/A and W/Z swapping needs to be done inside the CD-i application :evil: