CD+G Deck is an application for playing Compact Disc Graphics. In the later 80's, the CD+G format was introduced to embed low bitrate graphics tracks in audio CDs, using the discs' "subcode" fields. A limited selection of CDs have these elaborate but low bitrate graphics tracks embedded in them. You can learn more about CD+G at the CD+G Museum.

This happened contemporaneously with CD Video (not to be confused with Video CD), and a few years before the Philips CD-i. After this initial commercial push, CD+G retreated from public view with the exception of karaoke CDs, which have made continued use of the format. There was also a CD+EG (Compact Disc Extended Graphics) format, but I am not aware of any discs using this standard ever being made. The Sega Saturn may have a reference decoder for the CD+EG format.

This application is focused on playing subcode tracks (doesn't support reading the CD directly) of discs from the CD+G launch. These older discs use more of the features of the CD+G system, including features rarely seen on karaoke CDs, and have the most interesting graphics.

Install vcpkg for dependency management. You must also need CMake and a C++ compiler.

Install the following:

sdl2 sdl2-mixer sdl2-ttf libpng zlib fltk

Note, fltk may need static linking.

Optional decoders:

sdl2-mixer[libflac] sdl2-mixer[mpg123] sdl2-mixer[libvorbis] --recurse

Replace $VCPKG_ROOT with where you installed vcpkg.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake ..
make

This code was originally written around 2012-2013. It was mainly tested against Information Society (the disc I originally learned about CD+G from), and then later against Jimi Hendrix Experience' Smash Hits (probably one of the most technically and artistically developed CD+G discs.) I tested against a few karaoke CDs, and Lou Reed's New York, which may be one of the few discs that uses alternate CD+G channels for translated lyrics.

I think this application is one of the most correct open source CD+G implementations available. Compare to VLC, which as of writing does not play Smash Hits correctly because of an incorrect implementation of BORDERPRESET. This seems to be a common error without having seen a disc that scrolls graphics into view.

The code was somewhat updated in 2020 to use SDL2 and published.

BSD License

Copyright 2020 Isaac Brodsky