Classic Online Gaming

[Billaferd]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Brent and I am doing some research on classic / retro "Online Gaming". I first found out about the GameLine for the Atari about 6 - 7 months ago and can't get enough of these types of things. I am looking for anyone who has any information or first hand experience with any of these systems. I have been scouring EBay for a few months now to try and find some of these rare additions but with no luck so far.

Below is a list, it would be much appreciated if anyone can point out anything that I am missing or if anyone can provide any information on these things.

Cable Vision - Service for the Odyssey that was never realised. It involved broadcasting lifelike static images over cable and allowing the Odyssey to overlay it's graphics.

PlayCable - Cable service for the Intellivision, allowed to download
games from cable provider for a monthly fee.


GameLine - Telephone based service for downloading games to the Atari
2600.

Famicom Modem - Telephone based service for the Japanese Famicom that allowed Japanese weather updates and online banking.

Sega Channel - Cable service for the Sega Genesis. Allowed for game
downloads and video game related news.


Satellaview - Satellite service for the SNES that allowed for video
game downlods and additional game content.


Sega Meganet - Telephone based service for the Genesis that allowed
for competitive play.


Xband - Third party telephone based service that provided email
services and online competitive play.


Netlink (Saturn) - Peer-to-peer telephone based service that enabled
online competitive play.


Seganet (Dreamcast) - ISP service for the Dreamcast that allowed for
additional content and game downloads.


RandNet - ISP service for the Nintendo 64 DD which allowed for
additional content and game downloads.

Thanks for any help.

**Edit 1: Added Cable Vision section.

[tom]

you might have to do a search, but Ralph Baer/Odyssey wanted to do cable d/l gaming way back in 1972.

also, online gaming was very popular during the 60s, from one campus to another, involving PDP computers and Space War and/or other games. other games included Hunt the Wumpus, MUD, that was during the 70s. Roberta Williams was very involved in online gaming in the 70s, playing games on Telenet using a TTY and no screen.

[Billaferd]

tom,

You are amazing and I thank you very much. I researched in to the Odyssey by Magnavox and found an interesting fact. Apparently Ralph Baer basically invented downloadable content in one of his prototypes of the Odyssey. I found this link to be very interesting and informative.

About gaming in the 60's. I am also researching earlier examples of online gaming but I wanted to focus on consoles for now. I have been however been researching some of your other suggestions so that I can put alot of this stuff into context.

Again thanks and if you or anyone else has any other information it would be appreciated if it can be shared.

[shopkins]

The Dreamcast had pretty nice online gaming capabilities for mostly using a dial-up modem. I used to play Quake III online with that. I also used it's clunky Web browser as my sole source of Internet access for a while, for free by using Net Zero accounts. You had to convert the passwords using a guide I found online to get them to work. A later rev of the browser even supported a downloadable video format, although over dial-up it wasn't worth waiting around for. I know there was a broadband adaptor but that wasn't much use to me in Eastern Kentucky circa 2001.

I don't know about any game downloads, though. All the Dreamcast had was a VMU. Could you download VMU games?

[Billaferd]

Yeah, I remember the Dreamcast. It used Seganet in America and Japan, known as DreamArena in Europe. It was pretty neat, it was like Xbox Live in that the game servers were not available from the public Internet but were available when using Seganet (Seganet was more or less a VPN service). The only real notable exception was Quake 3 as it allowed you to change your ISP settings. After Seganet was discontinued a new browser was made available so that the Dreamcast could use any ISP for web browsing but all of the game servers are down now and very few games can be still played online. I think Phantasy Star was the first to go (Although they turned the servers back on for a few months for free just before they killed off Seganet).

[shopkins]

Yeah, I remember the Dreamcast. It used Seganet in America and Japan, known as DreamArena in Europe. It was pretty neat, it was like Xbox Live in that the game servers were not available from the public Internet but were available when using Seganet (Seganet was more or less a VPN service). The only real notable exception was Quake 3 as it allowed you to change your ISP settings. After Seganet was discontinued a new browser was made available so that the Dreamcast could use any ISP for web browsing but all of the game servers are down now and very few games can be still played online. I think Phantasy Star was the first to go (Although they turned the servers back on for a few months for free just before they killed off Seganet).

Is that right? As far as I can rememer I never paid to subscribe to any specific Seganet service, but it seemed like I could always browse the net through any ISP (I used three, BTW, a local ISP in Richmond, Kentucky, NetZero and a local ISP in Pikeville, Ky). I had the original browser, too.

[Billaferd]

Is that right? As far as I can rememer I never paid to subscribe to any specific Seganet service, but it seemed like I could always browse the net through any ISP (I used three, BTW, a local ISP in Richmond, Kentucky, NetZero and a local ISP in Pikeville, Ky). I had the original browser, too.

Yeah, Seganet was free if I remember correctly. The only way to play games online was to use that service, because the game servers were behind a firewall of some sort. This meant that you had to log into the Seganet service to play games such as Phantasy Star on the Dreamcast (I keep mentioning Phantasy Star because it's one of the few games I remember clearly). Also, the American version may have been different from the Canadian version. I don't remember being able to change ISP settings.

I will have to look into this. I thought Seganet was a full ISP all over the world, at least thats how it worked in Europe (Thats what I was told at least) and Canada (It's been a long time I will have to go back and look again).

[Haoie]

This is an interesting topic.

Although I have to say, the whole idea of online gaming in the 60s is a loose definition, at best.

Considering the internet was still a few decades away.

[tom]

Internet is irrelevant, before internet there was BBS, Telnet and PLATO:

PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations) was the first (ca. 1960, on ILLIAC I) generalized computer assisted instruction system, and, by the early 1970s, comprised some 1,000 terminals worldwide. Originally, PLATO was built by the University of Illinois and functioned for four decades, offering coursework (elementary–university) to UIUC students, local schools, and other universities......it established key on-line concepts: forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multi-player games (Although PLATO online gaming started in the early 70s, it happend probably earlier already from one university to another).

[parallaxscroll]

I also used it's clunky Web browser as my sole source of Internet access for a while, for free by using Net Zero accounts. You had to convert the passwords using a guide I found online to get them to work.

I remember for Dreamcast (and PC) internet access, I used dozens of different free accounts from at least half a dozen different ISPs including Worldshare, Freeeweb, NetZero, BlueLight, Dotnow, Juno and probably a few others (maybe Microsoft/MSN, can't remember). Some accounts would only last a day or two before I had to get another account. During 1999-2001, I never once payed for a dial-up ISP for either PC or Dreamcast. Fun times!

Yes I remember I used that guide to convert NetZero passwords.

In 2002 I got DSL (DirecTVinternet, formerly Telocity), in 2004 I got cable (Comcast) then in 2005 switched back to DSL (AT&T Yahoo).

[walrusmonger]

I remember for Dreamcast (and PC) internet access, I used dozens of different free accounts from at least half a dozen different ISPs including Worldshare, Freeeweb, NetZero, BlueLight, Dotnow, Juno and probably a few others (maybe Microsoft/MSN, can't remember). Some accounts would only last a day or two before I had to get another account. During 1999-2001, I never once payed for a dial-up ISP for either PC or Dreamcast. Fun times!

Yes I remember I used that guide to convert NetZero passwords.

In 2002 I got DSL (DirecTVinternet, formerly Telocity), in 2004 I got cable (Comcast) then in 2005 switched back to DSL (AT&T Yahoo).

I originally signed up with seganet, which was through AT&T I believe (or another provider). I used the toll free number to play and ended up getting raped with charges, so I cancelled the account shortly after that and used free ISPS. I didn't seem to need to switch accounts often though.

[p_b]

Not really classic in the sense of this thread, but still:

http://www.masswerk.at/pmd/

[thoudx]

I'm a former Xbander (SNES). I actually just updated some in-game video footage on YouTube if you'd care to see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2p_LDSqbGQ

There's more coming soon. Just haven't had time to convert everything on the VHS tape yet. The fees were pretty high when things started, but they later came out with a flat-rate nationwide plan that was a blast. Unfortunately, it was too far ahead of its time, and the market fell through in 1997.