[转帖]IGS and Panda Net 简史[英文]

Fish

IGS and Panda Net
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1. IGS is founded

Feb., 1992

A group of volunteers started IGS as a game server at the University of New Mexico, USA, providing a place for free matches to GO fans all over the world around the clock. GO fans contributed to further development of IGS by writing client programs with a graphical interface, improving the server software, writing documentation and manuals, among many things.

2. INET acquires IGS

Jan., 1995

I.NET Technologies Inc., a Korean on-line service company, acquired IGS. How it was acquired for how much money is not known. tweet, an IGS administrator, gave as the main reason the difficulty of securing a computer for stable operation of IGS.

Jun., 1995

INET started providing IGS through their on-line service. Access from other providers was initially blocked, but they retracted the policy after all.

3. NKB comes into the picture

Nov., 1995

NKB Inc., a Japanese advertising firm, signed an agreement with INET to acquire the right to market access to IGS within Japan.

Apr., 1996

NKB started offering access to IGS under the name of Panda Net. The initial membership fee is 10,000 yen (=US$83) and the monthly fee is 2,500 yen (US$21). Members go through Panda Net's server, which is located in Japan, to access IGS. At the same time, IGS stopped accepting new user registrations on IGS from the .jp domain. (Established IGSers from the .jp domain were allowed to continue to access IGS for free.)

May, 1996

IGS retracted the policy to reject new registrations from the .jp domain. As an explanation NKB said that there are "free members" and "paying members".

4. And now...

Feb., 1997

An e-mail notification titled "Fee-based access to IGS" was sent to IGSers in Japan. The content was:
As of April 1, 1997, all direct access to IGS from Japan will be blocked.
If you become a member of Panda Net, you can access IGS.

NKB offers a special rate of either 100 yen/match (US$0.83) or 2,000 yen/month (US$16). (Existing Panda Net members are charged either 250 yen/match (US$2) or 2,500 yen/month (US$21).)

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References
[1] Takegawa, Zenta. "IGS (Internet GO server)", The School of Business, Keio University.
[2] Nikkei Newspaper, Novermber 30, 1995.
[3] An advertisement from Panda Net, in Shuukan GO ("GO Weekly"), June 17, 1996.
[4] Direct mailing from Panda Net.
[5] An e-mail notification from Panda Net titled "Fee-based access to IGS".

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Last updated: Mar.16, 1997