Early Online and Multiplayer Games Figure 2.9 Atari
Early Online and Multiplayer Games Figure 2.9 Atari Football featured two-or four-player multiplayer play Figure 2.10 Gauntlet, released right about the time of the arcade decline, featured two to four players in cooperative, multiplayer hack-and-slash 2.2.4 Hosted Online Games In the 1980s, the idea of pay for play first emerged, with several game companies hosting online games and charging a monthly fee to play them. Companies such as Dow- Jones (The Source) and Compuserv (H and R Block) made use of the idle compute-cycles on their servers during nonbusiness hours by charging non-premium fees to access their computers to play games. Such systems primarily featured text-based games that were prevalent in academia, but several were multiplayer versions such as Compuserv s Mega Wars I, a space battle that supported up to 100 simultaneous players. Even though such games were limited by today s gaming standards, the prices charged were steep, ranging from $5 per hour up to $22.50 per hour.
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