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The First App Store

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Re: The First App Store

#11

Post by rtpg »

sbierwagen wrote: post #2

The cliffhanger at the end is presumably referring to modern karaoke machines: >In 1992, a scientist named Yuichi Yasutomo created a networked karaoke system for Brother Industries. Called "tsushin karaoke" ("communications karaoke") it served up songs in MIDI format via phone lines to modem-equipped karaoke machines. This new technology swept Japan; by 1998, 94% of karaoke was being sung on networked karaoke machine…

> Funny to read the plaintive note at the end. No prize for second place

I get what you’re saying but Brother is a very large company with a variety of successes, and hitting on 100 years of existing. It is OK to do things, sell them for a while, then to no longer do things. There’s still merit there!

The world turns not on the massive scale of B2C products, but on the myriad of weird bespoke products that are sold to a handful of businesses, whose existence a small fraction of the population even realize, and who sputter out of existence afterwards. Yet those projects still represent something valuable to people for a window of time important enough to matter.

Re: The First App Store

#13

Post by TerrifiedMouse »

goosedragons wrote: post #9
TerrifiedMouse wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo dabbled with it too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom_Disk_System

They did it multiple times. With SFC and Game Boy they had "Nintendo Power" cartridges that were essentially flash carts that could be loaded with games at kiosks.

It's so weird that Nintendo can be forward thinking enough to do something like the Disk System and its successors but fail so hard when it comes to the internet and online distribution.

Re: The First App Store

#15

Post by MichaelZuo »

rtpg wrote: post #11
sbierwagen wrote: post #2

The cliffhanger at the end is presumably referring to modern karaoke machines: >In 1992, a scientist named Yuichi Yasutomo created a networked karaoke system for Brother Industries. Called "tsushin karaoke" ("communications karaoke") it served up songs in MIDI format via phone lines to modem-equipped karaoke machines. This new technology swept Japan; by 1998, 94% of karaoke was being sung on networked karaoke machine…

> Funny to read the plaintive note at the end. No prize for second place I get what you’re saying but Brother is a very large company with a variety of successes, and hitting on 100 years of existing. It is OK to do things, sell them for a while, then to no longer do things. There’s still merit there! The world turns not on the massive scale of B2C products, but on the myriad of weird bespoke products that are sold t…

I agree, Brother did receive 'prizes' for being in second, or third, etc., place. Just that the 'prizes' are 100x smaller then what Apple received.

Re: The First App Store

#16

Post by TopHatHipster »

cubefox wrote: post #10

But was this really the first "app store"? The article mentions that the "Soft Vendor Takeru" was released at some point in 1986 (no exact date is given), but in February of the same year, a very similar system was released by Nintendo: the Famicom Disk System, which apparently worked just like the SVT: > However, possibly the most audacious part of Nintendo’s new scheme was the installation of Disk System Kiosks in…

The Famicom Disk System's diskettes are overwritten by Disk Writer machines with special cartridges made for that machine. See a quick video about it: https://youtu.be/zFl5XK5P2Yo It does not use the internet at all.

The shown cartridges are not the ones that are used with games on them. The actual game carts for the machine were the same size factor as the international NES cartridges with a black & yellow Mario label on it, naming the game.

Re: The First App Store

#17

Post by kizunajp »

cubefox wrote: post #10

But was this really the first "app store"? The article mentions that the "Soft Vendor Takeru" was released at some point in 1986 (no exact date is given), but in February of the same year, a very similar system was released by Nintendo: the Famicom Disk System, which apparently worked just like the SVT: > However, possibly the most audacious part of Nintendo’s new scheme was the installation of Disk System Kiosks in…

Hi! Author here. The first test machines for Takeru were released in 1995. And it doesn't sound like the FDS kiosks had an internet connection from what I can find.

Thank you for the link. It was a very interesting read!

Re: The First App Store

#18

Post by paradox460 »

TerrifiedMouse wrote: post #8
paradox460 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft did a little bit of it during the 360 era. You could download stuff off a store kiosk to a USB thumb drive, take it home, and use it on your home Xbox. Originally the idea was to allow offline gamers to get updates and purchase dlc.

Nintendo dabbled with it too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom_Disk_System

I believe you can actually still download games and stuff to a sd card at Nintendo kiosks, for use in a switch

Re: The First App Store

#19

Post by cubefox »

kizunajp wrote: post #17
cubefox wrote: post #10

But was this really the first "app store"? The article mentions that the "Soft Vendor Takeru" was released at some point in 1986 (no exact date is given), but in February of the same year, a very similar system was released by Nintendo: the Famicom Disk System, which apparently worked just like the SVT: > However, possibly the most audacious part of Nintendo’s new scheme was the installation of Disk System Kiosks in…

Hi! Author here. The first test machines for Takeru were released in 1995. And it doesn't sound like the FDS kiosks had an internet connection from what I can find. Thank you for the link. It was a very interesting read!

Good to know. Presumably you meant 1985. Yeah, the previous commenter also said there was no Internet for the FDS Disk Writers. (Though the NintendoLife article compares the Disk Writer Kiosks themselves with "servers", it is not the same as the Takeru.)
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