• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

NES modem tested in Minnesota

B

biggersmaller

Banned
In 1991 - Nintendo didn't want want crosses in Ducktails, but gambling via a modem?

Alright.

An old article from The New York Times:

In Minnesota, all you will need is a dollar, a dream and a Nintendo set.

The state plans to test a system that will allow people to use Nintendo equipment to play the state lottery in the comfort of their living rooms.

With the growth of lotteries tapering off, industry executives and officials in other states are eager to see whether this approach can draw more people to the games by letting them play without standing in line to buy tickets. Combating a Slowdown

"The lottery industry is looking for ways to expand its horizons," said Connie Scovin, an executive with the Control Data Corporation, the Minneapolis-based company that developed the idea and is designing the test system.

Nearly a third of the nation's homes have Nintendo sets, and if the Minnesota test is successful, Control Data plans to make the system available to other states.

The test will involve 10,000 homes next year. For the test, the state will provide the video game sets and the modem devices that allow them to communicate with a central computer. Participants, who will pay a service charge of $10 a month, will get software that lets them play all of Minnesota's games, including the biggest jackpots.

After players set up accounts with the lottery, they will be able to select their lottery numbers on their television sets at home. The numbers will be stored electronically in the central lottery computer and in a file in the player's Nintendo set.

Small prizes will be credited to the player's account. To collect a large jackpot, winners will have to go to a state lottery office and identify themselves as the holder of the winning account.

It is illegal in Minnesota for minors to play lottery games, and the Nintendo plan has been criticized by the State Attorney General and others who say it will make it easy for children to gamble. The system will have passwords and other safeguards intended to thwart unauthorized playing.

"Kids are gambling now; this will allow them to gamble more," said Tony Bouza, the former Gaming Commissioner in Minnesota. Young people today are well acquainted with technology, and they will inevitably devise ways to bypass the security measures, he predicted. He also said that gambling at home by adults sets a bad example for children. "You can't create safe sins," he said.
Click to expand...
 
it wasn't Nintendo, and it didn't get off the ground.

Also, it's DuckTales.
 
Here is a 9-year-old thread on the matter

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?19735-NES-Minnesota-State-Lottery-Modem-and-cart

"Sometime around September 1991, Minnesota State Lottery director George Andersen released to the press that the lottery was going to test using an NES, complete with a modem and cartridge, for lottery players to play online. However, this idea was met with opposition from Minnesota's elected officials, and in October, the lottery announced they had scrapped the experiment."
Click to expand...

more info
http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=37732

"Nintendo of America was given one last opportunity in September 1991, when it was approached by Control Data Corporation, a company that handled lottery in many states around the US. The company proposed Nintendo would allow the NES to connect to a network giving people from around the state of Minnesota and others the chance to play the lottery. The Minnesota state attorney general however criticized the program saying it gave children too much of an opportunity to gamble and moreover, state-supported gambling would set a bad example. Due to pressure from the state of Minnesota, Control Data terminated its lottery test in Minnesota and as a result, the Nintendo Network took one last breath and then closed its eyes of ebony forever."
Click to expand...

Minnesota ruined Nintendo online for everyone!!
 
51PRY624B3L._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Awesome read about Nintendo's history.
 
In 2012 - Nintendo refuses to release a region free console, but kids smack keyboards before finishing. Well... alright.
 
ah you added the article, was about to say wut


hmmmmm NES modem for the lottery, that sounds kinda awesome, and for 1991 :o

Hell if you didnt mention the date i would have thought it was being done today

*gets my NES ready* :p
 
lol questionable advice for Nintendo existed in 1991

Article Page 3 said:
For Nintendo, the lottery business could help prolong the life of its older model, which has been outmoded by a more powerful Nintendo machine introduced in the United States last month. Also, the introduction of gambling could help combat the general decline in interest in video games.
Click to expand...

The 4-page long article is actually a nice read. :)
 
There was also the online banking and news system on the Famicom.

It's funny how shocking Nintendo doing online gameplay was in 2005, considering they had dabbled in all kinds of online connectivity two decades earlier, not to mention the Satellaview and the 64DD.

The book Game Over also talks about how the world was on the verge of online connectivity, and perhaps Nintendo would be the set top box that brought it into people's homes. Not quite. But that's a major part of the reason of why Sony and Microsoft wanted to get into the biz..
 
BocoDragon said:
There was also the online banking and news system on the Famicom.

It's funny how shocking Nintendo doing online gameplay was in 2005, considering they had dabbled in all kinds of online connectivity two decades earlier, not to mention the Satellaview and the 64DD.

The book Game Over also talks about how the world was on the verge of online connectivity, and perhaps Nintendo would be the set top box that brought it into people's homes. Not quite. But that's a major part of the reason of why Sony and Microsoft wanted to get into the biz..
Click to expand...

maybe they're just not cut for it.

like the guy who fails a medicine admission test repeteadly and he really wants to become a doctor. he's just not cut for it.
 
Yeah, the Game Over book is a great read. I knew about the banking stuff. Weren't they trying to get an online horse racing betting thing going in Japan or am I remembering wrong? I also totally remember reading about Nintendo of Japan's satellite DD system in the SNES days in EGM. It's kind of crazy when you think about how forward thinking they were back then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PS2 arcade based emulation tested; PCSX2x6
19
349
Orionsangel replied
NES Punchout prototype discovered and sold for $45,000
30
577
gundalf replied
  • Poll
Crimson Desert Benchmark: 40 GPUs Tested
Hardware  2
90
2K
Bojji replied
  • Locked
Digital Foundry: Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 Pro modes tested
News Hype 
0
270
Mr. PlayStation replied
Digital Foundry: Over 20 games tested with PSSR 2.0 Upgrade
2 3 4
163
3K
Crispy Gamer replied
Top Bottom