[Ads-l] Nouning of "interactive"?

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Randy Alexander wrote:
> I'm pretty sure I've seen this usage in pre-internet CD-ROM days (1990's).

"Interactive discs" were created for the RCA video-disc machine. A
1981 article in Time magazine referred to these interactive discs as
"interactives". The RCA video-disc machine failed in the marketplace.

Date: December 14, 1981
Periodical: Time
Section: Video
Article: 200 Million Tube Job.
Quote Page 58, Column 3
Publisher: Time Inc., New York
Database; Internet Archive archive.org

[Begin excerpt]
It excels as a teaching tool, but RCA has marketed it for consumer
entertainment, where it has fared poorly compared with tape. The
bright hope is what vid whizzes call interactive discs. These can
instruct the viewer in a variety of pursuits or, wired through a home
computer, can let him seek specific help. On one prototype, for
example, a viewer with a troublesome bicycle can pinpoint the
malfunctioning part of a two-wheeler, and the disc will show him how
to repair it.

Unfortunately, RCA would have to redesign its existing machines to
enable them to play these interactive discs. If interactives are
indeed the salvation of disc machines, RCA’s are incompatible with the
future.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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