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Quantum Link
*** Shopping-Tip: Quantum Link
Image:Qlink-mainmenu.png thumb|368px|right|Quantum Link main menu
'''Quantum Link''' (or '''Q-Link''') was an American
online service for
Commodore 64 and
Commodore 128 128 personal computers that operated from
November 5,
1985 to
November 1,
1994. It was operated by
Quantum Computer Services of
Vienna, Virginia, which in
October 1991 changed its name to
America Online, and continues to operate its 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.
Just as later services would, 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 ''OLM''s). Other noteworthy features included online multiplayer games like
checkers,
chess,
backgammon, and
hangman;
casino games such as
bingo,
slot machines, and
poker in RabbitJack's Casino; and an interactive graphical resort island called
Habitat (video game) Habitat while in beta-testing and later renamed to Club Caribe.
Club Caribe was developed with
Lucasfilm Games and was designed using software that would later form the basis of Lucasfilm's
Maniac Mansion SCUMM story system. Users controlled on-screen
Avatar (virtual reality) avatars that could chat with other users, carry and use objects and money (called ''tokens''), and travel around the island one screenful at a time. It was a predecessor to today's
MMOGs.
Connections to Q-Link were typically made by
modems with speeds from 300-2400
bit/s, with 1200 bit/s 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.
The system competed with many other online services like
CompuServe and
The Source (service), as well as
Bulletin board systems (single or multiuser), including gaming systems such as
Scepter of Goth and
Swords of Chaos. Quantum Link's graphical display was better than many of these competing systems because it used specialized client software with a nonstandard protocol. However, this specialized software and nonstandard protocol also limited its market, because many computers could not 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 using telephone lines. Using the original Q-Link software, it can be accessed using either the [http://www.viceteam.org/ VICE] Commodore 64 emulator (available on multiple platforms, including
Microsoft Windows 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.
External links
-
Remember Q-Link
-
Remembering Q-Link
-
AOL Disk Collection: Q-Link
-
Quantum Link Reloaded
Category:Online service providers
Category:Commodore 64
*** Shopping-Tip: Quantum Link
