• Laserdisc Game Console Tables
• Laserdisc Arcade Games List
• Laserdisc Video Game Console

By itself, it is just a LaserDisc movie player (and a very barebones one, not even S-Video output). But with the help of optional modules, it would run Mega Drive, Mega-CD, TurboGrafx-16 and TurboGrafx CD games. Why even count it as a separate console, then? Because the same modules also allowed it to run LD-based games.

1. The Halcyon is a home video game console produced by RDI Video Systems.The system was planned to be released in January 1985, with initial retail price for the system being US$2500. Fewer than a dozen units are known to exist and it is not generally believed that the system ever reached retailers.
2. Mar 22, 2013  News package about RDI Video Systems' failed Halcyon laserdisc gaming console from 1985. The technology may have been state of the art at the time but the outrageous $2500 pricetag doomed it from.

The LaserActive (レーザーアクティブRēzāAkutibu) is a converged device and fourth-generationhome video game console capable of playing Laserdiscs, Compact Discs, console games, and LD-Gkaraoke discs. It was released by Pioneer Corporation in 1993. In addition to LaserActive games, separately sold add-on modules (called 'PACs' by Pioneer) accept Mega Drive/Genesis and PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16ROM cartridges and CD-ROMs.

Pioneer released the LaserActive model CLD-A100 in Japan on August 20, 1993 at a cost of ¥89,800, and in the United States on September 13, 1993 at a cost of $970. An NEC-branded version of the LaserActive player known as the LD-ROM² System, or model PCE-LD1, was released on December 1993, which was priced identically to the original system and also accepted Pioneer's PAC modules.^[1] The LaserActive has no regional lockout, allowing software from any region to be played on any system.^[2] However, it is considered a commercial failure.

• 1Accessories

Accessories[edit]

PAC modules[edit]

In the headings below, the Japanese model number occurs first, followed by the North American model number.

Mega LD PAC (PAC-S1 / PAC-S10)

Pioneer Electronics (USA) and Sega Enterprises released this module that allows users to play 8-inch and 12-inch LaserActive Mega LD discs, in addition to standard Sega CD discs and Genesis cartridges, as well as CD+G discs. It was the most popular add-on bought by the greater part of the LaserActive owners, costing roughly US $600. It comes with a LaserActive-branded version of Sega's 6-button control pad (CPD-S1).

LD-ROM² PAC (PAC-N1 / PAC-N10)

Pioneer Electronics (USA) and NEC Home Electronics released this module that allows users to play 8-inch and 12-inch LaserActive LD-ROM² discs, as well as CD-ROM² and Super CD-ROM² discs, HuCards and CD+G discs. The Japanese version of the PAC can also run Arcade CD-ROM² discs through the use of an Arcade Card Duo. The retail price was US $600. It came with a LaserActive-branded version of NEC's Turbo Pad (CPD-N1/CPD-N10). An NEC branded version of the LD-ROM² PAC known as the PC Engine PAC (model PCE-LP1) was also released. Due to the unpopularity of the TurboGrafx-16 in North America, very few PAC-N10 units were produced, resulting in their scarcity compared to its Sega counterpart.

Karaoke PAC (PAC-K1 / PAC-K10)

This PAC allows the CLD-A100 to use all NTSC LaserKaraoke titles. The front panel has two microphone inputs with separated volume controls, as well as tone control. The retail price was US $350.

Computer Interface PAC (PAC-PC1)

The Computer Interface PAC has an RS-232 port, enabling the CLD-A100 to be controlled by a custom software developed for a home computer. The PAC came with a 33-button infrared remote control providing more functionality than the 24-button remote included with the CLD-A100. It also included a computer program called LaserActive Program Editor on floppy disk for DOS and classic Mac OS. The floppy disks had some sample programs created with the editor for use with the first five LaserDiscs in the Tenchi Muyo!anime series.

LaserActive 3-D Goggles[edit]

The LaserActive 3-D Goggles (model GOL-1) employ an active shutter 3D system compatible with at least six 3D-ready LD-ROM software titles: 3-D Museum (1994), Vajra 2 (1994), Virtual Cameraman 2 (1994), Dr. Paolo No Totteoki Video (1994), Goku (1995), and 3D Virtual Australia (1996), the last software title published for the LaserActive.

The goggles are also compatible with the Sega Master System, and are interchangeable with the SegaScope 3-D Glasses.^{[citation needed]} They can also be used to view 3-D images from autostereograms.^[3]

A goggle adapter (model ADP-1), packaged and sold separately from the 3-D Goggles, enables the user to connect one or two pairs of goggles to the CLD-A100.

Games[edit]

The standard LaserActive games were on Laserdisc encoded as an LD-ROM. An LD-ROM had a capacity of 540 MB (where digital audio would have normally been stored) with 60 minutes of analog audio and video.

Contemporary devices[edit]

In the early 1990s, a number of consumer electronics manufacturers designed converged devices around CD-ROM technology. At the time, CD-ROM systems were expensive. The LaserActive was one of several multipurpose, multi-format, upmarket home entertainment systems with software stored on optical discs. These systems were premised on early conceptions of multimedia entertainment.

Some comparable systems are the Commodore CDTV, Philips CD-i, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, and Tandy Video Information System.

Reception[edit]

Computer Gaming World in January 1994 stated that although LaserActive was 'a better product in many ways' than 3DO, it lacked software and the NEC and Sega control packs were too expensive.^[5]

Not available in all countries. Nintendo.com/switch-online.Additional games, systems and/or accessories may be required for multiplayer mode. Marvel ultimate alliance online game. Sold separately. Internet access required for online features.

It makes currency by selling adobe flash that permits media makers to build Flash apps and video. You just need to install one of that and save in to your PC, if necessary otherwise review that only on Net.WSW600-9-15092Adobe is reporting remarkable revenue numbers. Adobe cs6 key generator. Recently adobe claimed up to $3.6 billion profit from that software, so you can imagine about the worth of that.Benefits of Purchased adobe Flash CS6 serial keyThere are many benefits, if you purchased adobe flash cs6 keygen,actually this one is newly flash software, so very rare chance for accessibility of videos tutorial on youtube. Flash player is for running online video like if you want to see videos from You-tube than you will need this software on the other hand flash cs series is completely different from that used for web animation or carton ads.Isn't very difficult to learn that, there are many online tutorials available of adobe Flash CS6 serial key.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'International News'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 54. Sendai Publishing. January 1994. p. 94.
2. ^'LaserActive is Compatible'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 54. Sendai Publishing. January 1994. p. 22.
3. ^'Pioneer LD in 3-D'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 57. Sendai Publishing. April 1994. p. 60.
4. ^See [1] for history of the LaserActive MYST prototype
5. ^Miller, Chuck; Dille, H. E.; Wilson, Johnny L. (January 1994). 'Battle Of The New Machines'. Computer Gaming World. pp. 64–76.

External links[edit]

• Pioneer LaserActive at Computer Closet
• Pioneer LaserActive at laserdiscarchive.co.uk

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/LaserDisc

Go To

LaserDisc (originally a trademarked term invented by Pioneer Electronics) is an optical recording medium primarily used for video recordings. In fact it was the first optical recording device to be made publicly available. The technology first began development in The ’50s; however, it didn't debut until 1978. The disc resembled a Compact Disc the size of a vinyl record album. The similar appearance is because it was a precursor to CD.

The format originally didn't have a proper name. It was called many different things, but was first marketed as MCA DiscoVision (or simply 'DiscoVision'), with MCA^note and Dutch electronics company Philips having significantly contributed to the development of the format. Moreover, Jaws was the first movie to be released on it. In 1980, Pioneer Electronics bought out the rights and patents to the format, and subsequently renamed it 'LaserVision', with the format introduced in Japan in 1981. Although they would later use 'LaserDisc'^note as a brand name, LaserVision was the official name of the format until the early 1990s, when Pioneer finally began to use 'LaserDisc' as the format's official name.

Despite superior sound and picture quality LaserDisc never caught on like VHS, but had a 5% market share until it was phased out completely by DVD in the year 2000. It was more popular in Japan with 10% of households owning a LaserDisc player (which weren't discontinued until 2009). The LaserDisc's quality came with some flaws. Storage capacity was quite low, and depending on the format would range from 30 to 60 minutes per side. Any movie that was over two hours would require multiple discs. The size of the disc also required a fairly noisy mechanism. In addition, the type of glue used to attach the two sides together was known to rot, slowly turning the discs black and affecting playback and picture quality (this was called 'laser rot'). Perhaps more importantly, in the days before Tivo and other DVR devices, the LaserDisc couldn't tape your favorite shows.^note That plus a steeper retail price for both the player and discs gave the VHS a decisive advantage. That said, in the '80s, the discs were significantly cheaper to buy than VHS tapes, which were largely intended for the rental market, which made LaserDisc popular with collectors. In the heyday of the medium the difference in quality between LD and VHS was significant enough that when LD aficionados bought a new disc, they would sometimes invite their (non-LD-owning) friends over to watch it at a 'LaserDisc party' (as seen in a third-season Friends episode). Dropping prices for VHS tapes eroded LD's advantage when Hollywood began to focus on video sales and studios targeted LaserDiscs for expensive Limited Special Collectors Ultimate Editions aimed at film buffs.

With the exception of the Japanese Hi-Vision discs (which could only play on selected players from the same region and required a matching television set), LaserDisc was an uncompressed medium. If the disc was made from good master copies, this means that it had a better image than many DVDs, and will almost always have theater-grade sound quality. (DVDs by default use a lossy compression scheme, and often have inferior soundmixes designed for the home.) LaserDisc data could be burned onto the disc in two different ways, Constant Angular Velocity (CAV) and Constant Linear Velocity (CLV). On CAV discs^note , once around the disc was one frame of image. The advantage of CAV was that freeze-framing, scanning forward and backward, etc., could be done by a simple mechanical variation of the motor speed. The disadvantage was that it wasted space; the data recorded towards the outside of the disc was spread out relative to the data close to the center. CLV discs^note , by contrast, wasted no space, but showing the picture while pausing, fast-forwarding, and such required mildly complicated math on the fly. Cheap LaserDisc players couldn't do it. Those that could were referred to as having 'the chip'. Note that one physical disc could have CLV data on one side and CAV data on the other. The Fugitive has the first side encoded CAV, and the other two sides are CLV. Thus, if you had a cheap LD player, you could freeze-frame the movie only on the first side.

Laserdisc Game Console Tables

The LaserDisc format also 'pioneered' the practice of supplementing films with special features, such as DVD Commentary, which first appeared on The Criterion Collection LaserDisc release of King Kong (1933) in 1984. Some of these releases had extra features that can't be found anywhere else, and some are highly sought-after by collectors. The 1993 LaserDisc boxset of the original Star Wars trilogy is still sometimes said to be the best release the series has gotten, since future DVD and Blu-ray releases don't have the unaltered versions of the films or the extensive extras and giant hardcover booklet that came with the set (the masters used for the original unaltered trilogy in the 2006 DVDs as extras were sourced from these discs).

Laserdisc Arcade Games List

LaserDiscs are also perhaps best known among the video game community for being the format used to created well known arcade games such as Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, which pioneered the use of full motion video in video games. There was even a laserdisc-based console system called the 'Halcyon', which was discontinued after only two games were released for it: Thayer's Quest and NFL Football. In the mid-1990s, Pioneer released the LaserActive, a game console that was more of a high-end all in one solution that, aside from LaserDisc-based titles, could also play Sega Genesis, Sega CD, TurboGrafx-16, and Turbografx-CD titles; however, two different modules were required to play them. While lasting longer than the Halcyon, the LaserActive was also short lived with only several games released for it in Japan and North America.

In North America, LaserDisc found more acceptance in institutional settings like schools and businesses. The ability of players to connect to computers made them a popular way to implement promotional video kiosks in stores, convention booths, or interactive museum exhibits as early examples of multimedia computing. Before personal computers had video codecs, educational multimedia programs used LaserDiscs for the video portion. An innovative use of LaserDisc was the BBC Domesday Project, which allowed users to nagivate the streets of British cities, predating Google Street View by about 30 years.

One thing that contributed to the longevity of the LaserDisc player in Japan was that it was the preferred media for Karaoke in the country. While the west frowns upon Karaoke and many other countries in Asia switched to the more compact (albeit inferior image-wise) VideoCD format, Japan stuck to LaserDiscs until it was finally discontinued in 2009 for no other reason than being an analog format. LaserDiscs are capable of carrying two distinct audio tracks- an analog stereo track and a digital stream which can pretty much be used for any type of audio- in the west, this was usually used for 5.1 Dolby Surround on premium releases and sometimes Spanish SAP in stereo PCM, but in Japan, Karaoke discs used them as PCM stereo tracks that carried a minus-one version of the song to be sung along to.

The LaserDisc's popularity in Japan meant that it was the preferred home video format for anime, especially OVAs. This carried over to anime's nascent popularity in the West in the '80s and '90s.

Aside from that there were also High Definition LaserDisc players in Japan starting in the early 90s. These 'Hi-Vision' discs carried 1035i video compressed in the MUSE format (a Japanese analog HD compression scheme) along with the usual 5.1 Digital Dolby Surround track and Stereo Analog track. However they required a Hi-Vision capable player, and the monitor, projector or TV must also be Hi-Vision compatible and capable of decoding the MUSE signal, although the option to purchase an external decoder that decodes Hi-Vision to 1080i component video does exist later in the format’s lifeline. A MUSE capable display paired with a 5.1 kit was considered to be the ultimate in home cinema experience of the time, and would be perfect if it wasn't for the fact that one had to get up and change the disc every hour or so, two hours or so if you own an uber-expensive auto-reverse Hi-Vision player.

Laserdisc Video Game Console