CEI Laserdisc

The CEI Laserdisc was a prototype showtape format created by Creative Engineering in 1983 for the Dr. Juke Rock-afire Explosion Show Selector, featuring interactive touchscreen video elements when showtapes were not playing.

Despite Laserdisc's video capabilities, the need to provide four audio channels for a Grey Box showtape meant the video needed to be taken up by PCM audio signals. Video was still possible when a show was not playing, being the main use for the format alongside using Random Access Memory to grab frames of the video.

Only one Laserdisc was produced for the format, the Dr. Juke Test Tape, being made by Pioneer.

Format
As the only CEI Laserdisc has not been ripped, and its accompanying software has not been documented, it is unclear the exact formatting, however there are multiple clues throughout its showcase and descriptions from Creative Engineering.

The disc starts with all the frames used for the interactive Show Selector screen. Dr. Juke is presented next to artwork of the segment, where a variety of frames of differing facial expressions, pointing fingers, and other animations are visible. This cycles through every segment, presumably in the same order as played on the disc. Next is individual frames of fullscreen art for each segment.

Then frames for an Uncle Klunk cartoon with a similar format is presented, possibly something that would be cut to during inactivity. Curiously, a show segment similar to the Dr. Juke section is presented during the cartoon, which isn't shown anywhere else. It is unclear if this was a secret selectable option only when watching the Klunk cartoon, or some sort of visual unrelated to show selection.

Following the Klunk segment are all the showtape segments. The show audio is encoded into PCM audio signals displayed on the video, with the signals being used as the actual audio in stereo. Each segment presumably plays back to back until the end of the disc.

Potential Tape Media
Due to the Laserdiscs not being able to independently play audio and video, there would be no way of having audio play during the show selection segments. Due to the Rock-afire Explosion tape decks having to go unused in the Dr. Juke system was implemented, the decks could have potentially been made to host the show selector audio, with the entire format consisting of a Laserdisc and a CEI 4-Track Reel for each showtape. Due to the limited information on Dr. Juke, it is unclear if this was the case or another solution was implemented.