A screenshot of the nifty-serve login on an iPhone, showing japanese characters and a menu.

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   vga256 (vga256@dialup.cafe)'s status on Tuesday, 19-Aug-2025 07:37:47 JST vga256

   til about japan's Nifty-Serve online service, which was designed to be japan's answer to CompuServe.

   while renown for its online forums, i was impressed to see that it was also a shareware distribution service. you could pay for and download registered versions of utilities and games, and the creators were paid directly by nifty.

   while the service shut down in 2006, it was revived for one year as a museum of sorts for people to login and poke around. there was even an iOS app.

   did anyone happen to archive a copy of the app?
   https://web.archive.org/web/20110721053135/http://www.appbank.net/2011/07/20/iphone-application/278566.php

   it originally was downloadable here - if that helps to track it down:
   http://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/id447556735?mt=8

   #japan #retroComputing #softwarePreservation #shareware