
THOR-CD is a breakthrough even if it never makes it to the market (1988) - brudgers
http://www.technofileonline.com/texts/thorcd88.html
======
mdip
I can probably guess they ran into several issues with their desire to make
their erasable/writable CDs compatible with normal disc players as one of the
principal reasons that they didn't make it to market. I'm more curious about
the specifics, though.

I found this: [http://www.hughsnews.ca/cd-e-call-it-erasable-call-it-
rewrit...](http://www.hughsnews.ca/cd-e-call-it-erasable-call-it-rewritable-
but-will-it-fly-0046064)

Considering I purchased my first CD burner around 1995 for the hefty price of
$1,000 (A Plextor external SCSI drive if memory serves), the $500 price tag
for a burner that could also use erasable discs and be compatible with normal
CD players was a lofty goal, particularly in 1988! At the time, my burner
could only use CD-R discs at 2x speed that generally played back in
everything, but were Write Once (with $30 discs, no less, don't underrun that
buffer when burning!). By the time I got my first re-writable, I found that
rewritable discs were far less reliable (a problem that plagued DVD burners
from Day #1 as well with their +R -R +RW -RW nonsense -- you'd think that
would have been something figured out before the release of the first player
since CD burners were popular by then).

------
pronoiac
Going by Wikipedia, the "vaporware" label from the addendum is accurate.

