Post by troposnap on Aug 29, 2024 5:20:33 GMT
Figured I'd make this post as my final attempt at getting people to catch onto this. It's pretty hard to describe what this app was all about, so I'll just quote a description from USA Today, "The Winston Show app is a set of animated sketches during which Winston (a talking yellow blobby character) and his sidekick, Ellington (an orange round guy who talks in gibberish), query the player for responses. The player talks to Winston by holding down a microphone button to respond. Winston "listens" to what is said and then responds, frequently in a witty and hilarious manner.".
Here are The Winston Show's primary 6 "mini-games" so to speak. The game takes place at a studio lot of sorts, so naturally each studio is it's own show and game.
- Studio 1 is a quiz game show titled 'Win With Winston' where kids are given multiple choice answers on different categories
- Studio 2 is a nightly talk show titled 'Fireside Chats: With Winston' where Winston would interview kids about various different topics
- Studio 3 is called 'In The Movies'. I not only don't have much info on this one, but I also never see it accounted for in any of the articles I read about the app
- Studio 4 is a game show titled 'You Vs.' where kids were pitted against historical figures or animals in some sort of battle
- Studio 5, named 'Costume Department' is a game where kids could see themselves in their camera while trying out different costumes
- Studio 6 is an interactive story based game titled 'Writer's Room' where kids could guide Winston and Ellington along in a picture book
Here are some pieces of information about the behind the scenes of the game.
- The game was created by the company ToyTalk. (now PullString) A company consisting of a bunch of ex-Pixar employees
- PullString was also bought out by Apple in 2019
- The Winston Show was inspired by CEO and co-founder Oren Jacob seeing shows like Blue's Clues and Dora The Explorer and noticing how they characters would often break the 4th wall
- ToyTalk planned to release content for the app weekly, and there was a planned "Season 2"
- 3,000 lines of dialogue were recorded for the app as of the app's launch in September 2013
- The Winston Show used technology called PullString that allowed the app to "integrate dialogue with sketches, artwork, and animation for two-way AI-driven conversations"
Here's my personal recollection of the game.
I can't say for certain when I had gotten the game, it would have to be around 2013-2014. I do know it was pre-Club Penguin shut down, which sounds strange with no context, but I have this vague memory of playing the mobile version of Club Penguin after I couldn't get The Winston Show to work. I couldn't get it to work due to the system they had in place where kids had to get their parents to sign up for a ToyTalk account in order to gain access to the app in compliance with COPPA laws. Another memory I had with the game was when I went over to a friends house, and downloaded the app on his iPad, I remember the game looking completely different, and taking place in a spaceship instead of a studio lot. Another thing to note is that I cannot find the app in my purchase history on any of my devices despite me being confident that I had downloaded on the account I use to this day. Personally, my reasoning for wanting to see this found is because 1, I think preservation of media is important as should everyone, 2, I want to see how this very technologically advanced app (for the time) holds up nearly 11 years since it launched, especially considering how prevalent AI is nowadays, and 3, I really think experiences like this are helpful for kids now more than ever, especially with the amount of brain-rot that has seeped into children's media as of late. I want kids growing up in 2024 to be able to experience this strange little app in it's entirety.
[EDIT: I just discovered that the game was updated at some point to only include 3 episodes and nothing else, not even the studio stuff, and only 1 episode had Winston and Ellington, that's what I was referring to when I said that the game looked different when I tried it with my friend.]
Here is my personal theory on what happened to the game and why I believe I cannot find the game in my purchased apps list.
Most lost app's from the App Store have been delisted due to 32bit apps no longer being supported, and initially this is what my theory was, but if that were the case, I'd still be able to view the app on my purchased list, I just wouldn't be able to look at the app listing or download it, however this is not what happened. I've searched through all my Apple ID's and even looked through my families purchased lists yet to no avail. I personally believe that due to ToyTalk becoming PullString and being acquired by Apple themselves, all of ToyTalk's previously published app's were removed. And another piece of evidence to this claim I came across while doing research was that according to the United States Patent And Trademark Office, not only is the trademark for 'The Winston Show' dead, but it was also deliberately cancelled in September 2021. [Source] If this is 100% the case, that would make searching for an IPA file for this app much MUCH harder unfortunately.
And here's what's happening now for the search.
Around 3 days ago as of writing this, I got into contact with both Oren Jacob (CEO and co-founder of ToyTalk) and Martin Reddy (Co-founder of ToyTalk). Oren Jacob replied allowing me to ask questions about The Winston Show (he hasn't responded to my questions yet), whereas Martin Reddy told me that he cannot speak about The Winston Show due to PullString no longer owning the IP for The Winston Show, and upon asking him about this further, he informed me that Apple seemingly owns the IP interestingly enough. I've contacted a few people who I think could bring more attention to this piece of lost media, but as of right now that's where the search is at. This post is sort of my last big attempt to try and garner interest in this search. So if you're able to provide even just a small bit of help, I would greatly appreciate it. At this point, anything would be helpful, but I'm mainly looking for more gameplay footage, an IPA file, or more information about either the development, or the different studio games. It'd also just be nice to see if at least one other person remembers this app at all.
Here's a Pastebin with all of the articles and videos I've used to create this post.
[The Winston Show Sources]
Here's a Google Drive folder with all known pieces of Winston Show media I've uncovered, this is also constantly updating.
[The Winston Show Google Drive] (I got most photos from ToyTalk's social media platforms, like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, whilst Winston's audio lines are from ToyTalk's SoundCloud page)
Here are The Winston Show's primary 6 "mini-games" so to speak. The game takes place at a studio lot of sorts, so naturally each studio is it's own show and game.
- Studio 1 is a quiz game show titled 'Win With Winston' where kids are given multiple choice answers on different categories
- Studio 2 is a nightly talk show titled 'Fireside Chats: With Winston' where Winston would interview kids about various different topics
- Studio 3 is called 'In The Movies'. I not only don't have much info on this one, but I also never see it accounted for in any of the articles I read about the app
- Studio 4 is a game show titled 'You Vs.' where kids were pitted against historical figures or animals in some sort of battle
- Studio 5, named 'Costume Department' is a game where kids could see themselves in their camera while trying out different costumes
- Studio 6 is an interactive story based game titled 'Writer's Room' where kids could guide Winston and Ellington along in a picture book
Here are some pieces of information about the behind the scenes of the game.
- The game was created by the company ToyTalk. (now PullString) A company consisting of a bunch of ex-Pixar employees
- PullString was also bought out by Apple in 2019
- The Winston Show was inspired by CEO and co-founder Oren Jacob seeing shows like Blue's Clues and Dora The Explorer and noticing how they characters would often break the 4th wall
- ToyTalk planned to release content for the app weekly, and there was a planned "Season 2"
- 3,000 lines of dialogue were recorded for the app as of the app's launch in September 2013
- The Winston Show used technology called PullString that allowed the app to "integrate dialogue with sketches, artwork, and animation for two-way AI-driven conversations"
Here's my personal recollection of the game.
I can't say for certain when I had gotten the game, it would have to be around 2013-2014. I do know it was pre-Club Penguin shut down, which sounds strange with no context, but I have this vague memory of playing the mobile version of Club Penguin after I couldn't get The Winston Show to work. I couldn't get it to work due to the system they had in place where kids had to get their parents to sign up for a ToyTalk account in order to gain access to the app in compliance with COPPA laws. Another memory I had with the game was when I went over to a friends house, and downloaded the app on his iPad, I remember the game looking completely different, and taking place in a spaceship instead of a studio lot. Another thing to note is that I cannot find the app in my purchase history on any of my devices despite me being confident that I had downloaded on the account I use to this day. Personally, my reasoning for wanting to see this found is because 1, I think preservation of media is important as should everyone, 2, I want to see how this very technologically advanced app (for the time) holds up nearly 11 years since it launched, especially considering how prevalent AI is nowadays, and 3, I really think experiences like this are helpful for kids now more than ever, especially with the amount of brain-rot that has seeped into children's media as of late. I want kids growing up in 2024 to be able to experience this strange little app in it's entirety.
[EDIT: I just discovered that the game was updated at some point to only include 3 episodes and nothing else, not even the studio stuff, and only 1 episode had Winston and Ellington, that's what I was referring to when I said that the game looked different when I tried it with my friend.]
Here is my personal theory on what happened to the game and why I believe I cannot find the game in my purchased apps list.
Most lost app's from the App Store have been delisted due to 32bit apps no longer being supported, and initially this is what my theory was, but if that were the case, I'd still be able to view the app on my purchased list, I just wouldn't be able to look at the app listing or download it, however this is not what happened. I've searched through all my Apple ID's and even looked through my families purchased lists yet to no avail. I personally believe that due to ToyTalk becoming PullString and being acquired by Apple themselves, all of ToyTalk's previously published app's were removed. And another piece of evidence to this claim I came across while doing research was that according to the United States Patent And Trademark Office, not only is the trademark for 'The Winston Show' dead, but it was also deliberately cancelled in September 2021. [Source] If this is 100% the case, that would make searching for an IPA file for this app much MUCH harder unfortunately.
And here's what's happening now for the search.
Around 3 days ago as of writing this, I got into contact with both Oren Jacob (CEO and co-founder of ToyTalk) and Martin Reddy (Co-founder of ToyTalk). Oren Jacob replied allowing me to ask questions about The Winston Show (he hasn't responded to my questions yet), whereas Martin Reddy told me that he cannot speak about The Winston Show due to PullString no longer owning the IP for The Winston Show, and upon asking him about this further, he informed me that Apple seemingly owns the IP interestingly enough. I've contacted a few people who I think could bring more attention to this piece of lost media, but as of right now that's where the search is at. This post is sort of my last big attempt to try and garner interest in this search. So if you're able to provide even just a small bit of help, I would greatly appreciate it. At this point, anything would be helpful, but I'm mainly looking for more gameplay footage, an IPA file, or more information about either the development, or the different studio games. It'd also just be nice to see if at least one other person remembers this app at all.
Here's a Pastebin with all of the articles and videos I've used to create this post.
[The Winston Show Sources]
Here's a Google Drive folder with all known pieces of Winston Show media I've uncovered, this is also constantly updating.
[The Winston Show Google Drive] (I got most photos from ToyTalk's social media platforms, like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, whilst Winston's audio lines are from ToyTalk's SoundCloud page)
