VideoText began as of offspring of Teletext, which was used widely in Europe. Teletext enabled the user to go to their televison set and order train tickets, or check the weather. Teletext was based on monospaced type and mosiac graphics.

Videotext added more complex computer graphics. Using a Norpak computer, designers could utilize16 colors (Wow!) and build graphics that consisted of polygons, lines, rectangles and circles that could be combined with text.

In Rhoded Island, the Providence Journal Company was one of a handful of publishing companies which also included The New York Times, Time Magazine and The Chicago Tribune, to become involved in creating videotext. Tim Tolman was the Creative Director for the videotext project at the Providence Journal that began in 1981 and ended in 1986. Prodigy was an offspring of the videotext work that combined text and grahics and the personal computer.