Related Research Articles
AOL 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.
A multi-user dungeon, also known as a multi-user dimension or multi-user domain, is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, usually text-based or storyboarded. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat. Players can read or view descriptions of rooms, objects, other players, and non-player characters, and perform actions in the virtual world that are typically also described. Players typically interact with each other and the world by typing commands that resemble a natural language, as well as using a character typically called an avatar.
CompuServe was an American online service, the first major commercial one in the world. It opened in 1969 as a timesharing and remote access service marketed to corporations. After a successful 1979 venture selling otherwise under-utilized after-hours time to Radio Shack customers, the system was opened to the public, roughly the same time as The Source. H&R Block bought the company in 1980 and began to more aggressively advertise the service.
Simutronics is an American online games company whose products include GemStone IV and DragonRealms. It was founded in 1987 by David Whatley, with husband and wife Tom & Susan Zelinski. The company is located in St. Louis, Missouri. It became part of the Stillfront Group in 2016.
GEnie was an online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS, that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around 350,000 users. Peak simultaneous usage was around 10,000 users. It was one of the pioneering services in the field, though eventually replaced by the World Wide Web and graphics-based services, most notably AOL.
An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider, a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, an official government site, social media, a wiki, or a Usenet newsgroup.
Air Warrior was a multiplayer online combat flight simulation game launched by Kesmai in 1987. It was hosted on GEnie and used that service as a server for client software running on a variety of personal computers. It underwent continual improvement through its decade-long lifetime with Kesmai, appearing on new platforms and host services. Electronic Arts purchased Air Warrior in 1999, and became provider of the game, but it was discontinued in 2001. Sequels Air Warrior II and Air Warrior III were both released in 1997 and published by Interactive Magic.
NovaLogic, Inc. was a software developer and publisher established in 1985 and based in Calabasas, California. The company was founded by CEO John A. Garcia. Garcia's background in computer software started in Southern California in the early 1980s, when he worked at Datasoft. The company was known for their Voxel Space engine, which was utilized in franchises such as the Comanche and Delta Force series. In October 2016, NovaLogic's assets were bought out by THQ Nordic and is currently an inactive label for the company.
Multiplayer BattleTech: 3025 is a PC MMORPG developed by Kesmai during the same period as Microsoft's MechWarrior 4: Vengeance. The game occupies the fictional 31st century universe of BattleTech and focuses centrally on the large robotic war machines called BattleMechs ('Mechs) and the individuals who pilot them. The game was released as a beta in 2001 and shut down with little explanation on December 6, 2001.
Multiplayer BattleTech: Solaris is a version of the multiplayer BattleTech computer game which was available on AOL, and on Kesmai's game service between 1996 and 2001. At its height on the AOL server, thousands of players competed simultaneously in arenas of two to eight participants, battling in team games or free-for-alls. After AOL initiated its hourly pay-for-play system, the majority of players moved to the GameStorm service, which operated for a number of years until its purchase by Electronic Arts.
Mark Jacobs is an American game designer, programmer, author and businessman, and the former GM/VP/CEO of Mythic Entertainment, Inc and after Mythic Entertainment was sold to Electronic Arts in 2006 he served as its GM/VP/CEO at EA. Best known as a lead designer of Dark Age of Camelot (2001) and Camelot Unchained (2019), he also created two early MUDs, Aradath and Dragon's Gate, serving as both the designer and programmer in addition to his duties as President/CEO. He founded A.U.S.I. in 1983 and worked on a number of computer games for systems such as the Apple II.
Kelton Flinn is an American computer game designer who is a major pioneer in online games. He is a co-founder of the seminal online game company Kesmai, which they began in 1982. His best known title is the first graphical multi-player online game offered by a major service, Air Warrior (1987).
GameStorm was an online gaming service founded by Kesmai corporation in November 1997. It offered several online video games at a flat monthly fee of $10 per month, a relatively radical payment system in the age of pay-by-hour online gaming. Both Kesmai and GameStorm were sold to Electronic Arts in 1999, and shut down by Electronic Arts in 2001.
Dragon's Gate was an interactive, real time, text-based multi user online fantasy role-playing game, sometimes referred to as a MUD. It was one of the longest running pay-for-play online games in the world, it opened to the public in the spring of 1990 on GEnie. In 1996 the game was moved to AOL. Later the game was moved to Mythic Realms, and finally to independent server, where it ran until the summer of 2007.
Island of Kesmai was an early commercial online game in the multi-user dungeon (MUD) genre, innovative in its use of roguelike pseudo-graphics. It is considered a major forerunner of modern massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).
The history of massively multiplayer online games spans over thirty years and hundreds of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) titles. The origin and influence on MMO games stems from MUDs, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and earlier social games.
Online games are video games played over a computer network. The evolution of these games parallels the evolution of computers and computer networking, with new technologies improving the essential functionality needed for playing video games on a remote server. Many video games have an online component, allowing players to play against or cooperatively with players across a network around the world.
MegaWars III was a massively multiplayer empire building game written by Kesmai and run continuously on CompuServe between 1984 and 1999. It was one of CompuServe's most popular games throughout its lifetime with thousands of players joining the month-long game cycles. It was only shut down after CIS was purchased by AOL and moved to the web-based "CompuServe 2000" interface that would not cleanly support it. A modified version, Stellar Emperor ran for much of the same time period on GEnie, also ending in 1999 when that service was shut down by General Electric. A new version of Stellar Emperor, sporting a new client-server GUI, was run for a short period on Kesmai's GameStorm.
John R. Taylor III is an American computer game designer, serial entrepreneur and massively multiplayer online game pioneer. He is a co-founder of the game company Kesmai, which they founded in 1981. In 2011, Taylor was awarded the Online Game Legend Award by the Computer Game Developers Association.
References
- ↑ "News Corp.'S Kesmai Spins Off Publishing Division -- Launches New Ggames Service, Aries Online Games". gamestorm.com. September 16, 1996. Archived from the original on February 3, 1999. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
- ↑ Pattie Joy (April 27, 1994). "NEWS CORP. BUYS KESMAI". USA Today .
- ↑ Ben Potter (April 27, 1994). "News buys top US online games maker". The Age .
- ↑ John Voland (November 24, 1997). "GAMERS GANGING UP: Four online companies team in GameStorm". Daily Variety .
- ↑ Craig Menefee (September 30, 1997). "Gamer Firm Kesmai Sues America Online". Newsbytes.
- ↑ Bob Woods (July 7, 1998). "Kesmai, America Online Settle Lawsuit". Newsbytes.
- ↑ "Electronic Arts Announces Agreement to Acquire News Corp. Online Game Unit, Kesmai". Business Wire . November 22, 1999. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2021– via The Free Dictionary.
Multi-user dungeons (MUDs) | |
|---|---|
| Major branches | |
| Minor branches, codebases, libraries | |
| Concepts, terminology |
|
| Publications | |
| Companies, organizations | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
 | This United States video game corporation or company article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This Electronic Arts-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This MUD-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |