New Old Game for CD-i "Skyways"
Some excellent news for the poor homebrew starved Philips CD-i fans out there. They are starved for any good games in general really, let’s be honest… Although there were a scant few little gem’s scattered throughout the CD-i game’s library, it was very few. However there are talented and dedicated homebrew developer’s out there that are keen on changing that like TwBurn. His latest CD-i homebrew game will be the second game he programmed for the underdog system. The new CD-i game is called SkyWays and it actually isn’t 100% new as it is based on SkyRoads released on DOS. Although the idea isn’t original this game is being designed from the ground up as a CD-i game, so that it runs well on the system. If the video of the gameplay demo is something to go by then I must say it does look very good. It is sort of an advanced futuristic space racer type deal like F-Zero or WipeOut but more abstract. Have a look at the gameplay footage of the game in development below.
The game was announced 3 years ago when development started however the new gameplay footage has come out less than 2 weeks ago which means that the game is progressing to the stage of being playable and a finished product. You can also download a playable demo of the CD-i game on the TwBurn itch.io SkyWays webpage (link at the end). So I think it’s fair to say that this game will be finishing development soon and then printed, distributed and sold like TwBurn’s previous CD-i release Nobelia.
The Old New CD-i Game "Nobelia"
The other game by Tw-Burn is now an old game, as it was released back in March of 2022. However as far as homebrew games go, you could still call this one a new game. It’s much newer then the rest of the CD-i games library anyway that’s for sure. According to TwBurn the game took about a year to program from start to finish. I asked Tw-Burn about what the inspiration behind the video game was:
"I wanted to see if I could make a game for the CD-i, as I wanted to start with something simple I figured bomberman would be a good fit. As I'm a horrible artist, I used an open-source graphics set, and couldn't really find one bomberman themed. I really liked this one, but it reminded me more of Zelda, so I kind of combined the two into Nobelia."
The game only takes about an hour or so to complete however it shows how graphically pleasing neatly drawn sprites can be, even when using open-source graphics sets. There is also replayability in finding all the hidden coins as well as using the speed-run timer. I also asked TwBurn about why he chose the CD Interative platform to create a game for:
"I grew up with the CD-i, and thought it would be a good challenge to see if I could make something for it. The homebrew scene is pretty much non-existant so that was nice as well."
There is a homebrew scene actually but it seems like it’s only a one-man homebrew scene, however with nearly two games under his belt in three years, that is a good effort. Nobelia is available from TwBurn itch.io Nobelia webapage you can find linked below. The game only costs $15 USD excluding shipping and comes in a very nice profesionally printed case on a profesionally pressed CD-i disc.
Relevant Links
- TwBurn itch.io SkyWays for CD-i Project Webpage [https://twburn.itch.io/skyways] Download SkyWays for CD-i Demo Here
- TwBurn itch.io Nobelia for CD-i Webpage [https://twburn.itch.io/nobelia] Purchase Nobelia for CD-i Here
- YouTube Gameplay Video of SkyWays for CD-i [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUFtyM0pLCE] Gameplay Footage Looks Great
- YouTube Nobelia for CD-i Game Trailer [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISqvzJca8qg] Official TwBurn Nobelia Game Trailer
