From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: Nintendo/Mitsubishi horse-racing system goes online.
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1991 06:00:54 GMT
Organization: Human Interface Technology Lab, Univ. of Wash., Seattle



Is this the future of VR?  From an article in the WALL STREET JOURNAL,
by Quentin Hardy, on October 3, 1991:


	JAPANESE TROT OUT A SYSTEM TO PLAY THE HORSES WITHOUT 
	LEAVING HOME

	    TOKYO -- And it's Super Mario by a nose.

	    The 16 million Japanese households that have Nintendo
	Co.'s game systems will soon be able to bet on horse races
	from home.  By year's end they'll be able to wager on
	nationally televised bicycle races too, using software 
	that turns their home video screens into boards, complete
	with the latest odds.
		...
	    Mitsubishi and Nintendo, which sells its own remote
	transaction systems, have already come in winners in per-
	sonal investing.  About 100,000 Japanese homes trade
	stocks in the same system where they play Dragon Quest.
	Since August, Mitsubishi has hooked up hundreds of home
	players for metals trading on the Tokyo Commodities
	Exchange.
	    "Stock trading is our best product, but home gambling
	will be bigger," predicts Masahiko Kai, manager of
	Mitsubishi's Future Office Products Projects Team, which
	sells the 20,000-yen home gaming package.  He predicts
	his company will sign up 10,000 homes within three months
	of its introduction next month, and 50,000 more the
	following year.  [In the U.S., anything that attracts 
	fewer than 500,000 users is accorded a failure...which is
	why so few systems succeed. -- B.J.]
	    Home financial transactions have been the most impor-
	tant application for interactive computing in Japan, Mr.
	Kai says.  Mitsubishi also sold home shopping systems.
	Of all the applications Mitsubishi has tried to sell,
	says Mr. Kai, "all the best ones are related to making
	money.  Or losing it, I don't know."
	    ...
	    The graphics of the existing systems are somewhat
	less satisfying than in games like Final Fantasy or
	Tetris....  The metals-trading system boots up with a
	rather fetching image of King Tut, however, along with
	a glittering ingot pyramid.  Trading commands are also
	accompanied by video arcade-type music.
	    ...
	    But how does a living room turf artist watch his
	race if the television is hooked up to a Nintendo 
	home video-game system?  "That's no problem," says
	Mr. Kai.  "Everyone has lots of televisions."  [END]

	Nah, it couldn't be.  It just couldn't be....

Bob Jacobson
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