Even the most fervent industry watchers could be forgiven for their ignorance of a company called Entertainment Express International, but nine years ago this week they were promising to revolutionise the way consumers bought software. Their EDOS (Electronic Distribution Of Software) system, which was basically a PC with an in-built cassette recorder (yes, cassette recorder - tape-based 8bit machines were still the volume sellers at this time), would enable stores to display a vast selection of titles at all times and never run out of stock.

Which was a lovely theory. In practice however, it was all a bit clumsy: the consumer approached the counter clutching his empty case and the EDOS PC dumped a copy of the game code from a master CD onto a blank cassette tape that had been placed in the recorder. This took several minutes, and for multi-load games, even longer. Then the sales assistant scribbled the game's title onto the cassette label. Some consumers complained that the end result was no different to a pirate copy, despite being all official and above board, and the shops complained that with just a few software houses supporting it, and most of these only providing £2.99 budget titles, the system wasn't worth the effort or expense.

There was talk of EDOS handling PC, ST and Amiga floppy titles, and even Sega cartridges (which would have made a world of difference), but ultimately it went the way of most good ideas in this industry - pear-shaped - due to a lack of product from the software houses and a lack of commitment from the retailers. The industry may yet return to the principles behind EDOS though - electronic distribution of software - when the Internet can cope with the traffic. And the publishers won't have to worry about retailers at all then, they will be able to deliver software straight to the consumer's machine.