I just came across a video by Larry Bundy (a.k.a. Guru Larry) about some old Internet services that most folks haven’t heard of, and the one that caught my attention was GameLine for the Atari 2600. It launched in 1983, way before dial-up was a household name! It plugged directly into the cartridge slot and cost $60, plus a $15 membership fee. You could download games for just a dollar per week! When it didn’t take off, it was partly because of the massive video game crash that hit during that time. Has anyone actually used GameLine or at least heard stories about it?
5 Answers
I’ve never heard of GameLine, but my buddy had the Sega Channel. He had to unplug it to get me to stop playing! Would love to see Sega Channel come back for modern consoles, but licensing might be too much of a headache.
Even without the Internet, there were still home computers and modems around. People used bulletin board systems (BBS) to chat and share games, so there was some kind of community even back then.
Did you ever get to try out GameLine yourself?
I’m not from that era, but I do remember GameTap when it came around. Have to say, GameTap had a nice selection of classics!
GameTap was awesome! I loved digging through all those retro games when it launched.
Wow, I’ve never heard about GameLine either. It sounds really wild. I can’t imagine it was super successful considering that video games were just starting out back then.
Yeah, and right after it launched, the gaming crash happened, which really hurt the gaming industry in North America. GameLine had potential, but it just didn’t hold up!
I had a friend with GameLine back in the day. It came with this big cartridge and had a phone cord running from it. There was a thick binder listing all the games you could play. It was pretty cool! Eventually, it evolved into Q-link, which I know was more popular with Commodore 64 users and then turned into America Online.
That sounds pretty neat! Did your friend ever mention how long it took to download the games? I imagine their connection speeds were super slow!
I totally agree! I miss the Sega Channel! It’d be great to relive those days, though I guess licensing issues would make it a real struggle to happen.