Google Stadia? Pfft. We had that back in 1983.

In the news 36 years ago, WH Smith (a large retail chain in the UK that got heavily into the home micro market) announced a service “downloading load a range of video games into living rooms through cable television.” Subscribers would receive a console called “The Window” with 64K of RAM. The initial plan was that games would be downloaded to the console and played from memory but apparently, the future promised that “two-way cables systems will allow users to play sophisticated games on a host minicomputer operated by WH Smith”.

An LA company, The Games Network would deliver a rotating selection of “arcade and educational games” (“See Mum. It WILL help me with my homework. Honest!”). There was no price quoted and the product wasn’t expected until the following summer.

Sadly, I can’t find any other mention of the service. I’m guessing it wasn’t a rousing success.

From: Personal Computer News, issue 25, August 1983.