The technology for optical discs was developed by American engineer David Paul Gregg, who initially named it the Videodisk. Gregg patented the Videodisk in several patents (1962 and 1969), which later served as the foundation for all compact discs.
Throughout the 1960s, James T. Russell, working at Battelle's Laboratories, was developing a series of technologies he referred to as optical digital recording and playback. He created a system to record video signals onto photosensitive plates, one of the earliest digital-to-optical recording and playback systems.
Developed by IBM in the late 1960s, floppy disks are a magnetic storage medium that revolutionized data storage and transfer. Early floppy disks were 8 inches in size, later shrinking to 5.25 inches, and eventually to the 3.5-inch format. A high-density 3.5-inch floppy disk could store 1.44 MB, significantly less than the 650 MB capacity of a CD-ROM. Despite their limited capacity, floppy disks were essential for software distribution and data sharing throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
After several years of developing optical recording technologies, Philips officially launched a project to create the Compact Disc, drawing an analogy to the Compact Cassette. That same year, Philips introduced the first prototype of the CD system: the Philips Pinkeltje.
The first commercial optical disc storage medium, developed by MCA DiscoVision and Philips and based on David Paul Gregg's patents, allowed for the storage of video and audio. However, it was not fully digital and required analog video signals.
Throughout 1979 and 1980, two key industry players, Philips and Sony, held six meetings in Eindhoven and Tokyo to establish the specifications of the CD. These specifications would later form the basis for the unified standard of the compact disc.
The unified standard for all audio discs, developed jointly by Philips and Sony, defines the specifications for compact discs, including dimensions, materials, and more. The disc's diameter was set at 120 mm to ensure it was compact compared to vinyl records and could hold Beethoven's entire 9th Symphony (74 minutes). Standardization meant that any CD could be played on any CD player. The Red Book became the first standard in the Color Book series of standards, which together define various CD formats.
Sony released the first compact disc player, the Sony CDP-101, making it the first commercial CD drive. This launch occurred just a month before Philips released their own drive.
The first commercially available CD was "The Visitors" by ABBA.
The Yellow Book, introduced in 1983, established the official standard for CD-ROMs, defining the format for storing data on compact discs. Developed jointly by Sony and Philips, it enabled compact discs to store any form of binary data (to read- but not to write or erase), allowing data to be stored on a disc and subsequently read by a computer. These technical specifications made CD-ROMs suitable for a wide range of applications, from software distribution to multimedia storage.
Shortly after the introduction of CDs, research began on creating erasable discs. Kees Schouhamer Immink and Joseph Braat presented the first results of their experiments during the 73rd Audio Engineering Society Convention. These efforts marked the beginning of WORM (Write Once, Read Many) systems.
Sony and Philips announced the CD-ROM format. The first CD-ROMs were showcased by Denon and Sony at the inaugural Japanese COMDEX computer show in 1985.
Sony's Discman line introduced a series of portable devices designed to handle a wide range of CD formats, from audio CDs to CD-ROM, CD-i, and later MiniDiscs and DVDs. These devices established a unique Sony standard and focused on personal, portable use. Initially celebrated for enabling private music listening on the go (the so-called "Walkman effect"), the Discman series also included early e-book readers like the Data Discman, and external CD-ROM drives, broadening their utility beyond music to data access and portable information retrieval.
The Voyager Company, founded by Bob Stein and partners, was a pioneering force in the CD-ROM industry. Initially known for the Criterion Collection, which featured classic films on LaserDiscs with added commentary, trailers, and image galleries, the company later experimented with interactivity using HyperCard technology. Their "book-based" approach to video and audio set them apart, promoting a thoughtful engagement with media.
Around 1985, libraries started ordering their first CD-ROMs, primarily for technical services and cataloging purposes. Early examples include "Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory" and major reference publications such as Grolier's Knowledge Disk and Compton's Encyclopedia. Additionally, libraries began to acquire abstracting and indexing journals on disc, further expanding their digital collections.
The Grolier Encyclopedia, released as the first encyclopedia on CD-ROM and arguably the first general-interest CD-ROM overall, was based on the Academic American Encyclopedia with 32,000 entries. Initially, the CD-ROM edition featured only text, without any images, maps, or multimedia content.
Portable CD-DA devices, including models for cars and personal use, were introduced to make CD-quality audio accessible on the go. These devices brought digital music out of the home, making it possible to listen to CDs on the road or while traveling.
The Philips CM-100, announced in 1985, is generally credited as the first CD-ROM drive. Priced at $1,495, it was designed for the IBM PC/XT and required a system with 256K of RAM and an available ISA slot.
A group of industry representatives met at the High Sierra Hotel at Lake Tahoe to create a unified file system format for CD-ROMs. The outcome of this and several subsequent meetings was the High Sierra Format specification, published in 1986. This format organized information in a sequential layout using a hierarchical tree file system, forming the foundation for future CD-ROM file standards, ECMA-119 and ISO 9660.
SilverPlatter Information was a pioneering company in the transition from magnetic tape to CD-ROM for reference databases. Founded in 1983, the company launched its first CD-ROMs in 1986, which included ERIC (the first national bibliographic database of educational literature), PsycLIT (a comprehensive database of psychological literature), and A-V Online (a database of educational audiovisual materials). SilverPlatter also created SPIRS, their proprietary information retrieval software, offering a unified interface for all their databases, which were primarily used by libraries. By 1997, SilverPlatter’s collection had grown to over 200 databases.
Meridian Data Inc. was a significant player in the early CD-ROM industry, known for developing some of the first CD-ROM publishing systems for personal computers. Their technology allowed businesses to store and distribute large amounts of data on CD-ROMs efficiently, contributing to the widespread adoption of this format. Meridian Data's products, including network solutions for CD-ROM systems, were widely used by Fortune 1000 companies, universities, and government agencies.
The LV-ROM ("LaserVision Read-Only Memory") was a type of LaserDisc developed by Philips that could store both analog video/audio and computer software. It was one of the early examples of interactive multimedia storage, combining different types of media on a single disc. With a storage capacity of up to 324 megabytes, LV-ROM represented an innovative approach to multimedia storage during its time.
The BBC Domesday Project was created to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the original Domesday Book. It compiled writings from schoolchildren across nearly 10,000 schools in Britain, documenting their local areas, daily lives, and including photographs, maps, statistics, and videos. The collection was released on two LV-ROM laser discs. However, as LV-ROM technology quickly became obsolete, the Domesday Project has since become a key example of digital obsolescence and the challenges associated with preserving digital content over time.
The First CD-ROM Conference was the beginning of a series focused on CD-ROM technology, sponsored by Microsoft and gathering key players from the computer industry. It served as a trade show, a venue for presenting prototypes, and a hub for exchanging ideas and technologies. A highlight of the inaugural event was the announcement of CD-I (Compact Disc-Interactive) by Sony and Philips.
CD-ROM Review was the first magazine focused on CD-ROMs, aimed at helping consumers navigate this new technology. It laid the foundation for a whole culture of CD-ROM-focused publications, many of which were also distributed on CD-ROMs themselves.
The CD-i format, an extension of CDDA and CD-ROM, enabled the integration of audio, text, and video, thus making interactivity possible. Like previous formats, it was developed jointly by Philips and Sony and specified in one of the Color Books of Standards, this time the Green Book. The standard defined not only the format itself but also the required hardware. Until the mid-1990s, CD-i technology was exclusively owned by Philips.
The Meridian Data CD Publisher, introduced by Meridian Data, was the first machine capable of burning CDs. It was as large as a washing machine, cost nearly $150,000, and burned discs at a speed of 1x, meaning it took one minute to record one minute of audio. Despite its size and cost, it was widely used, with nearly three-fourths of the world’s CD-ROM producers relying on it to create their discs.
Digital Video Interactive (DVI) was the first standard to enable high-quality, full-motion video playback on CD-ROMs, using a special chipset to compress and decompress video. Announced at the second Microsoft CD-ROM conference to great acclaim, DVI allowed up to 72 minutes of video on a single disc and was designed for use with IBM PCs. It posed a significant challenge to the CD-i format, influencing its development and market strategy.
HyperCard, released by Apple, was a pioneering software that introduced a "stack of cards" metaphor for organizing and navigating information. It allowed users to create interactive experiences by linking text, sound, video, and animation, supporting nonlinear navigation and hypertext capabilities. HyperCard became a foundational tool for exploring multimedia and interactive content.
Microsoft Bookshelf compiled several reference works into one digital library. It included a dictionary, thesaurus, quotations, a world atlas, as well as a hypertext engine, making it one of the first personal digital libraries.
The CD-Video (CD-V) format, introduced in the late 1980s, combined LaserDisc and compact disc technologies. It could store up to 20 minutes of audio and 5 minutes of video, making it primarily suitable for music videos. CD-Vs could be played on both CD-V and LaserDisc players. However, the format had a short market lifespan and was considered obsolete by the mid-1990s.
CD-ROM versions of bibliographies, like "Books in Print", were among the earliest content types to exploit the medium’s large storage and advanced search capabilities. These directories, listing available books, showcased the potential of CD-ROMs for managing extensive inventories. At the same time, similar cataloging practices emerged for CD-ROMs themselves, initially published as printed directories and soon transitioning to digital formats on the very same medium.
By 1987, the CD-ROM market was still in its formative years, with just 75 publishers worldwide and around 100 titles available. A true market had yet to emerge, as industry-wide standards were not yet fully established, and CD-ROM drives were only beginning to appear in the consumer space. At this stage, CD-ROMs were primarily used in large libraries and research institutions, focusing on databases and archival content rather than consumer products.
The CD-ROM XA (Extended Architecture) format, introduced by Philips, Sony, and Microsoft, enabled more precise synchronization of text, audio, and video on CD-ROMs. This format could also be used on CD-I players, effectively bridging the gap between traditional CD-ROM and CD-I formats.
The final standardization of the CD-ROM file system enabled its use in markets worldwide, beyond the US.
The "CD-ROM-ROM" (known in the West as TurboGrafx-CD) was released by the Japanese company NEC - a leading player in the computer market at the time. It is the first known CD-ROM add-on released for a console. The CD-ROM drive unit connects to the console via a horizontal stand adapter called the Interface Unit. Intended to compete with major companies like Sega and Nintendo, the console was successful in Japan due to its superior graphics and audio. However, it struggled in the US because of poor marketing, its initial price tag, and a smaller game library.
InfoTrac, a key database for academic research, transitioned to CD-ROM, allowing for quick and easy access to extensive periodical archives. For several years, it was primarily distributed on CD-ROM, with libraries subscribing to the service. This move marked one of the earliest efforts to provide a comprehensive periodical index in digital format.
Apple CD-ROM Explorer was a multimedia software that showcased the capabilities of CD-ROM technology. It provided users with an interactive and engaging way to explore digital content, including text, images, audio, and video. The software aimed to highlight the potential of multimedia applications for education and entertainment. Apple distributed CD-ROM Explorer to schools and institutions to promote the use of CD-ROMs as educational tools.
"Fighting Street" was a PC-Engine (TurboGrafx) CD-ROM version of the original Street Fighter game, released in 1987. It was considered the most arcade-accurate home version of Street Fighter at the time and the only one available on home consoles. Despite lower quality, it featured sounds and voices directly from the arcade. Released alongside the CD-ROM2 add-on for the PC-Engine, it was considered the first game released on a CD-ROM format.
Compton's Encyclopedia introduced by Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. was the first "multimedia" compendium featuring sound, music, and animated images. It included the complete text of New Compton's Encyclopedia, along with a World Atlas, U.S. History Timeline, Topic Tree and Picture Explorer, Idea Search and Title Finder. The CD-ROM was priced at $895.
The "Companion to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9" is a landmark CD-ROM from The Voyager Company, celebrated for its pioneering use of HyperCard software. This early Voyager project combined a printed score, a high-quality recording by the Vienna Philharmonic, and in-depth commentary by UCLA professor Robert Winter. With HyperCard, users could explore the symphony’s musical, cultural, and historical context in a non-linear fashion, navigating through different sections of the symphony, individual instrument parts, and textual commentary. The success of this project paved the way for similar ventures, including a companion to Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring".
Originally released in 1988 on floppy disks, "The Manhole" was re-released in 1989 on CD-ROM for the Macintosh, becoming the first computer game in the CD-ROM format. Created by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller and published by Activision, the game was hailed as the first fully interactive storybook for personal computers, aimed at children. It featured non-linear exploration of a fantasy world filled with secrets, puzzles, and Easter eggs. The original black-and-white version was distributed on five floppy disks, but as Activision enhanced the game with color, music, and video, CD-ROM became necessary, replacing what would have been over 450 floppy disks.
The first CD-ROM edition of the "Whole Earth Catalog" brought Stewart Brand's influential countercultural guide into the digital realm, utilizing hypertext and HyperCard software. While preserving the original catalog's ethos of open-access knowledge, this edition allowed users to navigate the content interactively, marking one of the early transitions of a major print publication to digital format.
In the early days of CD-ROM technology, virtual shopping malls took shape through electronic product catalogs published on discs. These catalogs used visual presentations and navigation features like slideshows, video clips, and audio presentations—bringing the theatrical experience of shopping malls to the CD-ROM format. Customers could browse items electronically and place orders by phone or mail. The range of companies creating these catalogs was remarkably diverse, spanning from fashion brands like OTTO to high-end automobile manufacturers such as Mercedes, Porsche, and Limousine.
In the early 1990s, LucasArts re-released its classic point-and-click adventure games from the late 1980s on CD-ROM, adding features like voice acting, enhanced music, and higher-quality visuals. These updates leveraged the capabilities of the new format to extend the appeal of earlier titles. The shift culminated in 1995 with "Full Throttle", the studio’s first game designed exclusively for CD-ROM.
Treasures of the Smithsonian by Philips Media is a CD-ROM collection showcasing highlights from a dozen Smithsonian museums. This interactive collection allows users to browse by museum, category, date, and theme, offering an immersive exploration of the Smithsonian's vast holdings, with features like sound playback and object zooming. It exemplifies an early collaboration between the tech industry and a major museum, as well as an early example of an interactive art database.
CD-ROM technology quickly became a valuable resource for Big Science, enabling the storage, distribution, and presentation of vast amounts of data.One notable example is NASA's Magellan Mission, which began in 1989 and mapped the planet Venus. The mission's image data was released on more than 100 CD-ROMs, featuring full-resolution mosaicked image data records. This marked a significant step in using CD-ROMs as a medium for storing, distributing, and presenting large-scale scientific datasets to both researchers and the public.
The CD-ROM played an important role in shaping the concept of edutainment, as it became a popular platform for blending education with entertainment. Among the many discs that defined this genre, "Magical Dinosaur Tour", developed for the PC Engine CD by Fun Project, is considered the first. This interactive database allowed users to explore information about dinosaurs by searching and sorting them by name and category. The disc also featured animations that brought the prehistoric world to life, illustrating how dinosaurs hunted for food and roared.
Philips and Sony introduced recordable compact discs (CD-Rs, also known as WORM (write--once and read-many)), allowing data to be written once and read multiple times, unlike the read-only memory of CD-ROMs. This technology popularized disc authoring and CD burning in the 90s. The evolution in data storage also brought changes in the physical medium: while CD-ROMs are made from aluminum, CD-R discs use gold.
The Multimedia PC Standard established the necessary hardware configuration for running multimedia software on personal computers. Formalized by the Multimedia PC Marketing Council, it defined a Windows-based machine with specific requirements, including a certain processor, 256-color graphics, 8-bit sound, and a CD-ROM drive, which became an essential component of the setup. This standard set the minimum technical requirements for multimedia PCs and led to the creation of multimedia upgrade kits that allowed users to transform standard PCs into multimedia-capable machines.
We'd love to hear from you. Please send questions or feedback to the below email addresses.
Before contacting us, you may wish to visit our FAQs page which has lots of useful info on Tiki-Toki.
We can be contacted by email at: hello@tiki-toki.com.
You can also follow us on twitter at twitter.com/tiki_toki.
If you are having any problems with Tiki-Toki, please contact us as at: help@tiki-toki.com
Close