CD-I KeyControl (FS?)

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jaxed
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CD-I KeyControl (FS?)

Post by jaxed » Sat Apr 29, 2006 6:47 pm

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

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Erronous
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Post by Erronous » Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:25 pm

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.

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Bas
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Post by Bas » Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:29 pm

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?

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Erronous
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Post by Erronous » Sat Apr 29, 2006 7:54 pm

Wasn't it Lingo or some other text game that was compatible?

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cdifan
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Post by cdifan » Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:02 pm

Probably, yes, because it's from the same company as the encyclopedias :-)

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Post by Frustrated » Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:05 pm

wait, what do you mean "online services"?

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Devin
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Post by Devin » Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:05 pm

Frustrated wrote:wait, what do you mean "online services"?
Once upon a time you could connect the CD-i to the internet proper!

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Post by Frustrated » Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:11 pm

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?

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Devin
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Post by Devin » Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:18 pm

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.

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Post by Frustrated » Sat Nov 07, 2009 11:46 pm

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?

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cdifan
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Post by cdifan » Sun Nov 08, 2009 1:22 am

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.

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Erronous
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Post by Erronous » Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:35 pm

So, am I the only one here that has two versions of the CD-i keycontrol? :)

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cdifan
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Post by cdifan » Sun Nov 08, 2009 5:42 pm

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:

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