Philips Media

Philips Media B.V. (formerly Philips Interactive Media B.V.) 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 company also released MS-DOS titles, and also owned several distributors and publishers (including Pathé Interactive, a joint-venture with the Chargeurs group, who held a 20% stake in Infogrames, at the time the largest French game company). The division was sold in two stages, the Dutch division was sold to Softmachine in 1997, while the French division including all remaining subsidiaries, stakes and the entire CD-i library, was sold to Infogrames in August 1997, with the deal closing shortly afterwards.

1st Logo (1992-May 10, 1996)

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• 
  The Philips shield
• 
  The finished logo
• 
  "DISTRIBUTED BY" version

Visuals: Against a black background, there is 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 becomes three-dimensional.

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 thinner.
• 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.

Technique: 2D and 3D computer animation.

Audio: It starts out with a deep bass chord, which leads into a synth fanfare. It was composed using the Roland D-50 synthesizer, with known patches "Breathy Chiffer", "Flutish Brass" and "Oriental Bells" used.

Availability: It appears at the beginning of most 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, including 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.

2nd Logo (1995-1998)

ImagesVideos

• 
  The Philips shield
• 
  The finished logo

Visuals: Fading in 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; the line then fades to red and the logo flashes, changing the colour 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.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: A synthesized fanfare with an electric keyboard section. This is actually a synthesized orchestral rendition of the first logos music.

Availability: It 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.