LaserActive

The LaserActive (Japanese: レーザーアクティブ, Hepburn: Rēzā Akutibu) is a hybrid LaserDisc player and home video game console released by Pioneer Corporation in 1993. Marketed as a high-end, modular entertainment system, it was designed to combine movies, music, and video games into a single unit. Out of the box, the base unit could natively play standard LaserDiscs and compact discs, but support for video games required optional expansion modules known as PACs. Each PAC enabled compatibility with a specific gaming platform and its media formats. With the Mega-LD PAC, the system could play exclusive Mega-LD discs (a proprietary LD-ROM format), as well as Sega Genesis/Mega Drive cartridges and Sega CD/Mega-CD discs. With the LD-ROM² PAC, it supported exclusive LD-ROM² discs, along with HuCard cartridges and CD-ROM² discs for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. The LaserActive was the only system capable of playing LD-ROM game discs, which were not cross-compatible between PACs. Pioneer released LaserActive model CLD-A100 in Japan on August 20, 1993, for ¥89,800 (equivalent to ¥102,220 in 2024), and in North America on September 13, 1993, for US$970 (equivalent to $2,162 in 2025). An NEC-branded version of the player, the LD-ROM² System (model PCE-LD1), launched in December 1993 at the same price and was fully compatible with Pioneer's PAC modules. The LaserActive was discontinued in 1996, with approximately 10,000 units sold.