10 Insane Gaming Facts That Will Blow Your Mind
7. Digital Distribution Set A Foundation For America OnLine
In the 1980s Control Video Corporation released a peripheral for the Atari 2600 that was essentially an oversized cartridge. Its purpose was to store downloaded games that were transferred by a phone line dubbed GameLine. The device never really took off though, considering that after a week or so you would have to redownload the game for some inexplicable reason. Furthermore, ambitious ideas such as network messaging AKA e-mails were originally a desired part of the service but never ceased to be.
The entire product was a humongous failure but the minds behind it were a talented bunch, for a new corporation called Quantum Link would rise from the ashes of GameLine. Quantum Link finally offered many of their original features (news, mailing, downloads, and more) and evolved into the networking powerhouse that is America OnLine.
Bonus Fact: Voice commands arent necessarily new either as a controller was released exclusively in Japan for the NES that featured a built in microphone. Of all things to be used, killing enemies in Zelda with your voice ranks among the most baffling and memorable. If you hadnt guessed it yet, the device was a failure of epic proportions that gamers didnt ask for; much like the Microsoft Kinect.