GameLine was a dialup game distribution service for the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...

, developed and operated by Control Video Corporation (CVC). Subscribers could install the proprietary modem and storage cartridge in their home game console, accessing the GameLine service to download games over a

telephone line A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit industrywide) is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system. It is designed to reproduce speech of a quality that is understandable. It is the physical wire or ot ...

. GameLine had an exclusive selection of games, and its pioneering business model eventually gave rise to

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

. Despite being ahead of its time, it wasn't very popular, possibly due to its price of $60 for the hardware, $15 for the membership fee, and $1 per game, which you could only keep for a week. In 1983, cable pioneer

William von Meister William F. von Meister (February 21, 1942 – May 18, 1995) was an American entrepreneur who founded and participated in a number of startup ventures in the Washington, D.C., area. These included The Source, an early online service and CompuServe ...

was looking for a way to use his modem transmission technology, which was previously acquired in ill-fated attempts of sending music to

cable companies This is a list of cable television providers by country. Andorra * Mútua Elèctrica(Cable Mútua), Sant Julià de Lória) Argentina * Cablevisión *DirecTV * * *Gigared *Telered Australia * Foxtel *Fetch TV Austria *BKF *LIWEST *Salzburg A ...

. Legal issues caused cable providers to step away from the service, leaving Von Meister with a delivery tool and no content. He then converted his variable speed adaptive modem technology to download games from central servers to individual households. This allowed users to dial a system and, for a fee, download games to their GameLine modules. The game would typically work for 5-10 plays, after which the user would have to connect to GameLine again and pay for another download. The "Master Module" has 8 KB of RAM and a 1,200 Bps modem, and physically resembles an oversized silver Atari cartridge. It has a phone jack on the side that was used to link the Master Module with the CVC computers. The module is able to transmit with pulse or tone dialing, allowing the unit to be versatile in the field. The games available on the GameLine service were all from third-party gamemakers, the largest of which was Imagic. CVC tried, but failed to obtain licensing agreements from the largest game makers, such as

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, Ca ...

, Activision,

Coleco Coleco Industries, Inc. was an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as The Connecticut Leather Company. It was a successful toy company in the 1980s, mass-producing versions of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consol ...

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in mor ...

, and

Parker Brothers Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products we ...

Membership benefits

When a user registered with the service, they were given a PIN. This PIN was used to log into the central CVC computer and download the requested games. One of the benefits of registering was that users were given free games on their birthday. GameLine provided players an opportunity to compete in contests with selected games, where they could upload a high score. Prizes would be awarded to regional (and supposedly national) champions. One such regional prize was a GameLine

windbreaker A windbreaker, or a windcheater, is a thin fabric jacket designed to resist wind chill and light rain, making it a lighter version of the jacket. It is usually of lightweight construction and characteristically made of a synthetic material. ...

. Each subscriber to GameLine also received a professionally printed magazine titled ''GameLiner''. ''GameLiner'' consists of information about new games added to the service, questions and answers, advice on better gameplay, and a list of all currently available games on GameLine.

Discontinuation

GameLine was originally envisioned to not provide just games, but also news (NewsLine), stock quotes (StockLine), sports reporting and scores (SportLine), electronic mail (MailLine), online banking (BankLine), online forums (OpinionLine), and a wide variety of information including airline schedules, horoscopes, and classified ads (InfoLine). GameLine ceased operations before any of these expanded services were offered, though StockLine and SportsLine were reportedly near complete implementation. Control Video Corporation was one of many smaller companies that went bust in the

video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

Legacy

Even though the GameLine was discontinued, the investors and founding members of CVC went on to start a new company that would continue to use the technological infrastructure they had built. The company, named Quantum Computer Services, was created by

Steve Case Stephen McConnell Case (born August 21, 1958) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). Case joined AOL's predecessor company, Quantum Computer ...

, among others. This company created a service named Quantum Link which linked together

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness W ...

and

Commodore 128 The Commodore 128, also known as the C128, C-128, C= 128,The "C=" represents the graphical part of the logo. is the last 8-bit home computer that was commercially released by Commodore Business Machines (CBM). Introduced in January 1985 at the ...

users offering many of the expanded services originally envisioned for GameLine. Quantum Computer Services eventually became

in October 1991, which became extremely successful during the 1990s, and eventually took over

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

in 2001, but was spun off a few years later. Though the company still technically exists, support for the GameLine does not. The game titled ''Save The Whales'' was exclusive to the GameLine and although it was never released on a cartridge, a prototype was found in early 2002.

Game list

GameLine offered the following games:

References

External links

photo of GameLine with phone jacka picture of a GameLine
* ttps://archive.org/details/gameline-reseller-brochure Scans of a 1983 advertising brochure for resellers at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...