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History of video games/Platforms/Vidéoway

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Introduction

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The Vidéoway was an experimental interactive video service that found a strong niche in 1990's Quebec. Due to it's unusual background coming from a telecom company rather then a computer or gaming company, the Vidéoway service was an early console that exclusively played downloaded games on a subscription model. Furthermore, true to its Quebec heritage, Vidéoway is one of the few significant gaming consoles to have French as a primary language, with English as a secondary language, rather than being English or Japanese first like most other video game platforms.

History

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Development

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Montreal in 1989, the year and place the Videoway launched.

The Vidéoway system cost Vidéotron $40 million to develop.[1][2] Notably, Montreal had yet to develop it's now massive game industry when the Vidéoway was developed, making this console a pioneer of sorts for the industry in that area.[3]

Launch

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Dayton, Ohio - a perspective market of the Videoway.
Even the Japanese Are Jealous
—Videoway Slogan, 1993 New York Times Article[2]

Vidéotron launched the Videoway in 1989.[4] While the service offered a number of features such as interactive camera angles, video games were one of it's most popular features.[2] By 1992 Vidéoway had a competitive leaderboard for certain games, with ranks assigned to players and with high ranking players invited to some TV shows to compete for prizes.[3]

By 1993 the Vidéoway was profitable,[1] costing a fee equivalent to $6.50 USD a month to use the service with 160,000 households subscribing to the service.[2] In November 1993 it was announced a plan to expand the Vidéoway service from Montreal to Dayton, Ohio.[5][6] To build a market in Dayton, the service would initially be free.[7] However by 1994 Dayton was not listed as an area where Vidéoway was sold,[8] making the fate of the Dayton expansion unclear.

By 1994 the service had 220,000 subscribers in the Montreal Market alone[1], with 330,000 customers globally, having expanded to the UK.[8] In 1994 the video games offered on the system were considered it's main selling point, rather then the other interactive television features supported by the platform.[1]

By 1995 the number of Vidéoway subscribers in Quebec remained steady at 222,000 with a monthly price of $8.95 Canadian dollars.[9]

Legacy

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The city of Montreal in 2006. Much had changed in the area served by the Vidéoway by the time the system was discontinued.

The Vidéoway service was discontinued in 2000,[10] and shut down in 2006, with the original games having been lost to time.[3] In the 2015 Temporel, Inc was unofficially remade based on using a VHS recording of a play-through.[3]

Despite being poorly documented, this service is notable for being one of the best performing Canadian platforms in console gaming, as well as an early adoption of the game streaming model later seen decades later in the cloud gaming market of the 2010's on.

Technology

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A Motorola MC68B09EP processor, a similar processor the the MC68A09EP used on the Vidéoway.

The Vidéoway has an 8-bit Motorola MC68A09EP clocked at 1.5 megahertz as a local processor.[10][11] The Vidéoway has 8 Kibibytes of static RAM and 256 Kibibytes of dynamic video RAM.[11] The system also has a 16 Kibibyte mask ROM.[11]

System RAM temporarily stored downloaded games for the Vidéoway.[3]

In 1994 a partnership was made with the massive American technology corporation IBM (International Business Machines) to improve the Vidéoway.[8]

Notable games

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Around forty games were available on the Vidéoway.[4] Notably, many games on the Vidéoway are said to have appealed to casual gamers,[2] an underserved market at the time.

  • Temporel Inc.[4] - An adventure game exclusive to the Vidéoway[3] during the life of the system.
  • Jeopardy[2]
  • Blackjack[2]
  • Chess[2]
  • Q-Bert[4][3]
  • Mordicus[4]
  • Burger Time[3] / Hamburger[4]
  • Styx[4]
  • Mr. Chin[4][3]
  • Le fou du Roi[4]
  • Crocomaths[4]

Branding

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Throughout the long life of the system, Vidéotron updated its brand identity twice. Most game platforms see their parent organization update their branding only once, if they do so at all, in their time on the market, making this somewhat unusual.

  •  
    The Vidéotron logo used from 1980 to 2001. This was the logo used by the company during the hayday of the service.
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    The Vidéotron logo used from 2001 to 2004. This was the logo used by the company while the service was being sunset.
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    The Vidéotron logo from 2004 to 2009. This was the logo used by the company during the final years of the service.

References

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Wikipedia has related information at Vidéotron  and Le SuperClub Vidéotron

  1. ↑ a b c d "Videotron Videoway". The Indianapolis Star. 11 April 1994. p. 31. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Tierney, John (20 June 1993). "Will Tomorrow's TV Viewers Sit by the Set, or Ride a Data Highway? (Published 1993)". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/20/technology/will-tomorrows-tv-viewers-sit-by-the-set-or-ride-a-data-highway.html. 
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i "Temporel, inc. and the Videoway system – Hardcore Gaming 101". Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j "Videoway – Montreal Video Game Museum". Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  5. ↑ "GROUPE VIDEOTRON LTEE TO INSTALL VIDEOWAY". Computer Business Review. 2 November 1993. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  6. ↑ "Financial Briefs". Variety. 1 November 1993. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  7. ↑ "NETWORKING". WWD. 16 August 1994. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
  8. ↑ a b c "COMPANY NEWS; Videotron and I.B.M. to Explore Interactive Technology (Published 1994)". The New York Times. 12 March 1994. https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/12/business/company-news-videotron-and-ibm-to-explore-interactive-technology.html. 
  9. ↑ Sandomir, Richard (17 April 1995). "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; California Viewers Getting the Chance to Direct Their Sportscasts (Published 1995)". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/17/business/media-business-california-viewers-getting-chance-direct-their-sportscasts.html. 
  10. ↑ a b "Videoway device". CodeWalrus. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  11. ↑ a b c "The Vidéoway emulation thread - Forums". web.archive.org. 17 January 2018. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
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