Quantum Link
Encyclopedia
Quantum Link was a U.S. and Canadian online service for Commodore 64
and 128
personal computers that operated from November 5, 1985 to November 1, 1995. It was operated by Quantum Computer Services of Vienna, Virginia
. In October 1991 they changed the name to America Online, which continues to operate the AOL service for the IBM PC
and Apple Macintosh today. Q-Link was a modified version of the PlayNET
system, which Control Video Corporation (CVC, later renamed Quantum Computer Services) licensed.
Q-Link featured electronic mail, online chat
(in its People Connection department), public domain
file sharing
libraries, online news
, and instant messaging
(using On Line Messages, or OLMs). Other noteworthy features included online multiplayer games like checkers, chess
, backgammon
, hangman
and a clone of the television game show "Wheel Of Fortune" called 'Puzzler'; casino
games such as bingo
, slot machine
s, blackjack
and poker
in RabbitJack's Casino; and an interactive graphic resort island called Habitat
while in beta-testing and later renamed to Club Caribe
.
Club Caribe was developed with Lucasfilm Games. It was designed using software that would later form the basis of Lucasfilm's Maniac Mansion
story system (SCUMM
). Users controlled on-screen avatars
that could chat with other users, carry and use objects and money (called tokens), and travel around the island one screen at a time. It was a predecessor to today's MMOGs.
Connections to Q-Link were typically made by modem
s with speeds from 300-2400 baud
, with 1200 baud being the most common. The service was normally open weekday evenings and all day on weekends
. Pricing was $9.95 per month, with additional fees of six cents per minute (later raised to eight) for so-called "plus" areas, which included most of the aforementioned services. Users were given one free hour of "plus" usage per month. Hosts of forums and trivia games could also earn additional free plus time.
The system competed with other online services like CompuServe
and The Source
, as well as Bulletin board system
s (single or multiuser), including gaming systems such as Scepter of Goth
and Swords of Chaos
. Quantum Link's graphic display was better than many competing systems because it used specialized client software with a nonstandard protocol. However, this specialized software and nonstandard protocol also limited its market, because only the Commdore 64 and 128 could run the software necessary to access Quantum Link.
In the summer of 2005, Commodore hobbyists reverse engineered the service, allowing them to create a Q-Link protocol compatible clone called Quantum Link Reloaded which runs via the Internet as opposed to telephone lines. Using the original Q-Link software as a D-64 file, it can be accessed using either the VICE Commodore 64 emulator (available on multiple platforms, including Windows
and Linux
), or by using authentic Commodore hardware connected to the Internet by way of a serial cable connected to a PC with internet access.
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and 128
Commodore 128
The Commodore 128 home/personal computer was the last 8-bit machine commercially released by Commodore Business Machines...
personal computers that operated from November 5, 1985 to November 1, 1995. It was operated by Quantum Computer Services of Vienna, Virginia
Vienna, Virginia
Vienna is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, it had a population of 15,687. Significantly more people live in zip codes with the Vienna postal addresses bordered approximately by Interstate 66 on the south, Interstate 495 on the east, Route 7 to...
. In October 1991 they changed the name to America Online, which continues to operate the AOL service for the IBM PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
and Apple Macintosh today. Q-Link was a modified version of the PlayNET
PlayNET
PlayNet was a U.S. online service for Commodore 64 personal computers that operated from 1984 to 1987. It was operated by the PlayNet, Inc of Troy, New York.-History:...
system, which Control Video Corporation (CVC, later renamed Quantum Computer Services) licensed.
Q-Link featured electronic mail, online chat
Online chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
(in its People Connection department), public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
libraries, online news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
, and instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
(using On Line Messages, or OLMs). Other noteworthy features included online multiplayer games like checkers, chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, backgammon
Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the oldest board games for two players. The playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and players win by removing all of their pieces from the board. There are many variants of backgammon, most of which share common traits...
, hangman
Hangman (game)
Hangman is a paper and pencil guessing game for two or more players. One player thinks of a word and the other tries to guess it by suggesting letters.-Overview:...
and a clone of the television game show "Wheel Of Fortune" called 'Puzzler'; casino
Casino
In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
games such as bingo
Bingo (US)
Bingo is a game of chance played with randomly drawn numbers which players match against numbers that have been pre-printed on 5x5 matrices. The matrices may be printed on paper, card stock or electronically represented and are referred to as cards. Many versions conclude the game when the first...
, slot machine
Slot machine
A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...
s, blackjack
Blackjack
Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
and poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
in RabbitJack's Casino; and an interactive graphic resort island called Habitat
Habitat (video game)
Lucasfilm's Habitat was an early and technologically influential online role-playing game developed by Lucasfilm Games and made available as a beta test in 1986 by Quantum Link, an online service for the Commodore 64 computer and the corporate progenitor to America Online...
while in beta-testing and later renamed to Club Caribe
Club Caribe
Club Caribe was one of the first graphical online worlds. It was available in the 1980s on the exclusively Commodore 64 online service Quantum Link. Originally available in limited release as Habitat, Club Caribe was eventually released to the public as an extension of Q-Link's "People Connection"...
.
Club Caribe was developed with Lucasfilm Games. It was designed using software that would later form the basis of Lucasfilm's Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion
Maniac Mansion is a 1987 graphic adventure game developed and published by Lucasfilm Games. It was Lucasfilm's first published video game, and it was initially released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II. A comedy horror parody of B movies, it follows teenager Dave Miller as he ventures...
story system (SCUMM
SCUMM
Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....
). Users controlled on-screen avatars
Avatar (virtual reality)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
that could chat with other users, carry and use objects and money (called tokens), and travel around the island one screen at a time. It was a predecessor to today's MMOGs.
Connections to Q-Link were typically made by modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
s with speeds from 300-2400 baud
Baud
In telecommunications and electronics, baud is synonymous to symbols per second or pulses per second. It is the unit of symbol rate, also known as baud rate or modulation rate; the number of distinct symbol changes made to the transmission medium per second in a digitally modulated signal or a...
, with 1200 baud being the most common. The service was normally open weekday evenings and all day on weekends
Workweek
The workweek and weekend are those complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest respectively. The legal working week , or workweek , is the part of the seven-day week devoted to labor. In most Western countries it is Monday to Friday. The weekend comprises the two traditionally...
. Pricing was $9.95 per month, with additional fees of six cents per minute (later raised to eight) for so-called "plus" areas, which included most of the aforementioned services. Users were given one free hour of "plus" usage per month. Hosts of forums and trivia games could also earn additional free plus time.
The system competed with other online services like CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
and The Source
The Source (service)
The Source was an early online service, one of the first such services to be oriented toward and available to the general public. The Source described itself as follows:...
, as well as Bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s (single or multiuser), including gaming systems such as Scepter of Goth
Scepter of Goth
Scepter of Goth, also spelled Sceptre of Goth, was an early multi-user text-based role-playing game, or MUD. Originally written by Alan E. Klietz, Scepter of Goth was one of the first commercial MUDs and the first commercial MUD in the United States...
and Swords of Chaos
Swords of Chaos
Swords of Chaos is a computer game made by Mark Peterson. It is a MUD type game for the Major BBS and Worldgroup BBS software, allowing it to be played over a dial-up connection with a modem: since the advent of the internet, it is also possible to use a telnet connection or a terminal emulator...
. Quantum Link's graphic display was better than many competing systems because it used specialized client software with a nonstandard protocol. However, this specialized software and nonstandard protocol also limited its market, because only the Commdore 64 and 128 could run the software necessary to access Quantum Link.
In the summer of 2005, Commodore hobbyists reverse engineered the service, allowing them to create a Q-Link protocol compatible clone called Quantum Link Reloaded which runs via the Internet as opposed to telephone lines. Using the original Q-Link software as a D-64 file, it can be accessed using either the VICE Commodore 64 emulator (available on multiple platforms, including Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
), or by using authentic Commodore hardware connected to the Internet by way of a serial cable connected to a PC with internet access.