Hilarious! Thanks for the research and write-up. I enjoyed the read.

I never thought we would talk about VCD's again LOLLL

nice to see something about this technology again. It was pervasive across SE asia for a little :).

Reading the first half or so made me think, "Wow, they should really fix this."

The second half made me think, "Wow, what a gross format. Really glad we have no use for these anymore!" (Not that they should leave the Explorer crash unfixed, of course).

It's bananas to me that a CD-ROM cost like $400 in 1990s money at one point; then I spent $150 on my first CD burner around 2002, and now you can buy a USB Blu-Ray/DVD/CD recorder drive for under $40.

Random anecdote: There was Video Cd, but also CD Video. CD video had both an (inner) CD part with audio, as well as a Laserdisc part which would usually contain a music video. Very weird format, but cool to have both analog and digital storage in one medium.