Control Video Corporation (CVC), with a service called Gameline. Gameline offers downloadable games for the Atari VCS over conventional phone lines through a modem which operates from between 900 – 1200 baud. The games are stored on the 8K memory bank inside a special, $49.95 cartridge called the Master Module, which connects to the phone line. After dialing into the system via a toll-free number, the phone line is typically tied up for about a minute while retrieving a choice from the rotating roster of 30 games to be offered each month. Customers get a free subscription to Gameliner magazine, where currently available games are listed. GameLine is the first stage of a planned comprehensive online BBS type of system for the VCS including MailLine, offering text messages pecked off an onscreen keyboard with a joystick at 15 cents per 8,000 characters, sports news and scores via SportsLine, and home banking and financial management through StockLine.

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Downloading of games also comes to the Intellivision via PlayCable, and Coleco also announces a partnership with AT&T to deliver games over the phone lines to the ColecoVision. Also touted is The Games Network, where players would rent a special box from their cable providers with a $20 deposit. With this equipment, an initial catalog of 20 games from various manufacturers would be available to gamers.

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When the Gameline system is eventually shut down in early 1985, these three reform CVC into Quantum Computer Services. The company develops a telecommunications network package dedicated to the Commodore C64/128 computers, based on tech licensed from an already existing online entity called PlayNET. Q-Link eventually adds support for Apple computers under the AppleLink banner, and PC Link for IBM compatibles in a partnership with Tandy. An online service for IBM’s PS/1 operating system is also made by Quantum and called Promenade. In 1989, Case, Kimsey and Seriff morph QuantumLink and all its sundry services into another little online company…America Online.

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http://thedoteaters.com/?bitstory=vcs2600&all=1

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_online_games

https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/174956-download-corrupted-the-incredible-history-of-downloadable-console-games

https://www.cnet.com/news/a-brief-history-of-downloadable-console-games/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Online_gaming_services

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_distribution_in_video_games

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_gaming

http://www.intellivisionlives.com/bluesky/hardware/playcable_tech.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayCable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayNET

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AppleLink

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EWorld

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