Philips · 1991–1998 · ~570,000
A multimedia player that gained gaming capabilities almost accidentally — and became notorious for its four officially licensed Zelda and Mario games, widely considered among the worst ever made.
Philips developed the CD-i as a multimedia platform for encyclopaedias, education software, and films. When a failed Nintendo CD-ROM partnership left Philips holding licences to Nintendo characters, they commissioned four games — Hotel Mario and three Zelda titles — from external studios with no involvement from Nintendo. The results were notorious for their poor controls and bizarre animated cutscenes. The CD-i cost around $800 at launch and found no real gaming audience despite years on the market.