Minitel

Blisterman · 21-12-2005 2:45am #1

Does anyone remember this? It was like a cross between the Internet and Teletext, launched around 1993. We used to have one. It was a monitor, which the keyboard folded up over, when you're not using one. We must have been the only house in Ireland to have one, because noone I've talked to remembers it.
I found it again recently, but unfortunatly it seems to have been discontinued. I remember seeing it a few years ago in France, where I believe it was quite popular.
I can't remember anything you could look up on it, other than the lotto numbers.

KTRIC · 21-12-2005 2:48am

Sounds very familiar, are you going to make me google it or do you have any links ?

KTRIC · 21-12-2005 2:50am

This is it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel

Orion · 21-12-2005 11:53am

We had one too. It's still in the attic I think

nachos · 22-12-2005 4:35pm

I remember this alright, yer man Antoine de Caunes did the ads for it.
"get a life, get a minitel"

I don't remember them being too popular at all. the mobile phone was starting to pick up a bit iirc which gave it serious competition

aidan_dunne · 22-12-2005 10:31pm

Think you're a bit confused there, nachos. That's the Minicall ("Get a life, get a Minicall") you're thinking of, which was basically a sort of pager thing, if I remember correctly.

The Minitel was a small computer thing, as others have referred to here already. A kind of precursor to the Internet, you used it to view pages of information (similar to teletext, a bit) and you could also use it for ordering things like tickets through it. I remember it very well. Wasn't much of a success here but it was very popular in France where it originated.

Happened to spot one being used in some crappy film I stumbled upon one night when flicking through the telly channels a few years ago. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw it was "Jaysus, a Minitel! Now there's a blast from the past!"

Can't remember the name of the film but Hugh Grant was in it and, I think, Kristen Scott Thomas.

Something to do with some guy in a wheelchair as well, telling them about his kinky adventures with some French chick or something!

Anyway, if you ever happen to see it, keep an eye out for the Minitel in it.

dazberry · 22-12-2005 10:58pm

They seemed pretty nifty in the days of the BBSes (that's another thread altogether) in that you could have loads of ppl on (MUDs etc) instead of 1 or 2. Beyond that I have a vague recollection of taking the p1ss out of some pre-Eircom (TE) dude at a computer tradeshow because it worked at 1200/75 baud (like Prestel I guess). Even in those days the norm I'd say was 2400, and probably what 8/10 years too late? - TE just trying to cash in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel
The development of Minitel spawned the creation of many start-up companies in a manner similar to the later dot-com boom of Internet-related companies; and, similarly, many of those small companies floundered and failed, because of an overcrowded market or bad business practices (lack of infrastructure for online retailers).The messageries roses and other pornographic sites were also criticized for their possible use by under-age children; however, the government chose not to enact coercive measures, claiming that regulating the online access of children is up to their parents, not the government; it also enacted a tax on pornographic online services.

That's actually interesting because the place my mother worked sub-let some office space, and this dodgy english bloke rented it for a minitel adult chatline thingy. As I was in college at the time - he was always waving the carrott of some programming work - but anytime I went in he just had me moving (heavy) crap around and I never got paid. However apparently he wasn't paying alot of ppl, and did a runner, leaving a huge HP(?) unix box behind. It was of course on lease, and I remember it sitting there for months before someone finally came and took it back (I think it was threatened with being left outside

).

D.

Capt'n Midnight · 22-12-2005 11:46pm

Found one at work , now in the shed.

Big use here was foreign exchange and other financial info.
But priced out of the market, compared to places like France. Too little too late, bit like Eircom Broadband really,

BobTheBeat · 23-12-2005 11:20am

I remember seeing it in the ****e french books we had in secondary school. I always figured the french were pretty naff because of it:v:

colm_mcm · 31-12-2005 12:15am

what was Telex then?

Capt'n Midnight · 31-12-2005 2:16am

colm_mcm wrote:

what was Telex then?

cross between a modem and a typewriter. it's like the teleprinter thing you see in films or at the start of UFO. The key point about them was that when you sent something by telex it had legal status. Fax and email only got that much later.

see also wikipedia and the whole case sensitive thing
addresses were neat though bit like email ones

colm_mcm · 31-12-2005 3:17am

sounds kinda fancy

psicic · 31-12-2005 3:45am

Wow...I always knew about the MiniTels in France, but I forgot about them here in Ireland. I remember know, they were so exensive and pointless only rich people and spoil.....ummm...errr <swallows childhood jealousies>

The Telex machines were cool - in that they feature as great props in loads of different movies, and even crucial plot devices (remember the Telex in the Andromeda Strain?)

Tom Dunne · 02-01-2006 4:24pm

I remember being at some kind of computer show in the RDS many years back (windows 95 show?) and there was a stand selling Minitel. I went over and asked if it could connect to the internet.

I might aswell have insulted the person's mother. He was utterly disgusted. It was as if Minitel was light years ahead the nascent internet.

telecinesk · 03-01-2006 4:23pm

http://www.minitel.fr
An applet opens up if you select something and you can download a real minitel software interface. I did it and it looks for "dialup" ,oh how amusing..See attachment for screenshot.

All I need is to live in France...........................................................

And for the hardware... http://www.minitel.com/terminaux_public.htm

IsaacWunder · 28-06-2012 8:11pm

It's being switched off tomorrow.

Interesting extract from the BBC report about how Ireland was used as a test market:

Briefly in the early 1990s, France Telecom did set up a pilot project in Ireland. The idea was to test Minitel in a small Anglophone environment, with an eye on a bigger launch in the UK or the United States. A few thousand terminals were sold, but it never took off.

"I remember when I joined in 1990, it all felt extremely funky. My friends were all very impressed that I was bringing in this new sexy piece of French kit," says Gary Jermyn, who was the joint operation's finance director.

"But there were so many problems. First of all, unlike in France, we were selling the terminals, not giving them away. That was a huge handicap. And then the internet was arriving, and that was the death knell.

"Minitel wasn't an open platform. It only provided Minitel services, which was quickly going out-of-date as a model. Also by the early 1990s the terminal itself was the clunkiest piece of desk manure you could imagine. It was embarrassing."

A decade later, Jermyn says all that remained in Ireland were a few disused Minitel sets gathering dust in a handful of remote B&Bs (a tourist booking service had been one of the key ideas).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18610692

It was no match for Aertel.

Seanergy · 12-03-2014 6:57pm

Yeah I remember well. My dad was involved in it. I helped him present them in the RDS at a show. I must a picture. I'm glad they didn't really take off as stats show the french were slower to make the transition to the internet.

spurious · 13-03-2014 2:55pm

Was it not used by deaf people, or am I mixing it up with something else?

barneysplash · 05-08-2014 1:59pm

I remember having a go on a Minitel, in around 93 or 94.
It was at the ideal homes exhibition in the point theater or RDS, I recall.
I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I've always had a soft spot for old technology and forgotten systems
like the minitel.

Here is an excellent documentary on the minitel from the equally brilliant
show "The Computer Chronicles". Hundreds of episodes of this great show
are available to view online, will do up a full post about this show for the forum later on.

Wikipedia Page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Chronicles

Archive.org Download Repository
https://archive.org/details/computerchronicles

darkdubh · 06-08-2014 7:11am

aidan_dunne wrote: »

Think you're a bit confused there, nachos. That's the Minicall ("Get a life, get a Minicall") you're thinking of, which was basically a sort of pager thing, if I remember correctly.

The Minitel was a small computer thing, as others have referred to here already. A kind of precursor to the Internet, you used it to view pages of information (similar to teletext, a bit) and you could also use it for ordering things like tickets through it. I remember it very well. Wasn't much of a success here but it was very popular in France where it originated.

Happened to spot one being used in some crappy film I stumbled upon one night when flicking through the telly channels a few years ago. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw it was "Jaysus, a Minitel! Now there's a blast from the past!" Can't remember the name of the film but Hugh Grant was in it and, I think, Kristen Scott Thomas. Something to do with some guy in a wheelchair as well, telling them about his kinky adventures with some French chick or something! Anyway, if you ever happen to see it, keep an eye out for the Minitel in it.

The movie was Bitter Moon from 1992.Years since I saw but if I see it again I'll look out for that.

barneysplash · 06-08-2014 8:18pm

Here's a readable academic paper on the minitel system.

It is in preview format, you can read the whole thing but
to download it you have to join the site etc.

http://www.academia.edu/1420773/The_Teletel_Minitel_System_in_France

icdg · 10-08-2014 7:00pm

IsaacWunder wrote: »

It was no match for Aertel.

Aertel has outlived it by some period - while no longer broadcast in its original form terrestrially (though an MHEG-5 service with its name is broadcast on Saorview), it lives on in its original form even now on UPC analogue and Sky and is still being updated. Think it is the one of the last, if not THE last, teletext service in the UK and Ireland left.

paulgs · 23-11-2014 4:19pm

Anyone know if the boxes are worth anything

L1011 · 25-11-2014 10:18am

paulgs wrote: »

Anyone know if the boxes are worth anything

Very, very little as a curio only.

Tara_Kennedy · 03-05-2016 12:10pm

Hello, I am looking to source a Minitel box that would have been from Minitel in Ireland - so one with a QWERTY keyboard. Does anyone have one or have any leads?
Thanks
Tara

Minitel

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