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Information on AOL
AOL began as a short-lived venture called Quantum Computer
Services (or QCS), founded by William von Meister. Its sole
product was an online service called Gameline for the Atari
2600 video game console after von Meister's idea of buying
music on demand was rejected by Warner Brothers. (Klein, 2003)
Subscribers bought a modem from the company for $49.95 and
paid a one-time $15 setup fee. Gameline permitted subscribers
to temporarily download games and keep track of high scores,
at a cost of approximately $1 per hour.
In 1983, the company nearly went bankrupt, and an investor in
Control Video, Frank Caufield, had a friend of his, Jim Kimsey,
brought in as a manufacturing consultant. That same year,
Steve Case joined the company as a full-time marketing
employee upon the joint recommendations of von Meister and
Kimsey. Kimsey went on to become the Chief Executive Officer
(CEO) of the newly renamed Quantum Computer Services in 1985,
after von Meister was quietly dropped from the company.
Case himself rose quickly through the ranks; Kimsey promoted
him to vice-president of marketing not long after becoming
CEO, and later promoted him further to executive
vice-president in 1987. Kimsey soon began to groom Case to
ascend to the rank of CEO, which he did when Kimsey retired in
1991.
Kimsey changed the company's strategy, and in 1985 launched a
sort of mega-BBS for Commodore 64 and 128 computers,
originally called Quantum Link ("Q-Link" for short). The
Quantum Link software was licensed from PlayNet, Inc. In May
1988, Quantum and Apple launched AppleLink Personal Edition
for Apple II and Macintosh computers. After the two companies
parted ways in October 1989, Quantum changed the service's
name to America Online. In August 1988, Quantum launched PC
Link, a service for IBM-compatible PCs developed in a joint
venture with the Tandy Corporation.
From the beginning, AOL included online games in its mix of
products; many classic and casual games were included in the
original PlayNet software system. In the early years of AOL
the company introduced many additional innovative online
interactive titles and games, including:
Graphical chat environments Habitat (1986-1988) and Club
Caribe (1988) from LucasArts,
The first online interactive fiction series QuantumLink Serial
by Tracy Reed (1988),
Quantum Space, the first fully automated Play by email game
(1989-1991),
The original Dungeons & Dragons title Neverwinter Nights from
Stormfront Studios (1991-1997), the first Massively
Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) to depict the
adventure with graphics instead of text (1991) and
The first chat room-based text role-playing game Black Bayou
(1996-2004), a horror role-playing game from Hecklers Online
and ANTAGONIST, Inc.
In February 1991 AOL for DOS was launched using a GeoWorks
interface followed a year later by AOL for Windows. In October
1991, Quantum changed its name to America Online. These
changes coincided with growth in pay-based BBS services, like
Prodigy, CompuServe, and GEnie. AOL discontinued Q-Link and PC
Link in the fall of 1994. |
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