ink's QuantumLink page

This was (sniff!) the loading screen for QuantumLink on the Commodore 64. You would put your Qlink disk into the disk drive (a 5.25" floppy disk which could hold up to 128K of information) and type the infamous:
LOAD "*",8,1
And this screen would appear after the modem dialed. Incidentally, my first modem was a 300baud-- but then I moved up to 1200 and I was very impressed by the speed of the bugger. We once wasted a whole hour downloading this worthless piece of junk software (I guess things don't change THAT much) :)

This is the main menu for Qlink. While Compuserve and the rest were still using a command-line approach (not a bad thing really), Qlink was allowing the user to navagate through their service with a menu. This was innovation, and a lot of what is now seen on the web resembles things that Qlink was doing way back then.
Some of the services were called Plus Time, and they would charge at an hourly rate (I think it was around $4/hour) while the majority of it was free. This was another twist from the norm-- all the other "online services" were charging from the moment you connected, even if your modem wasn't activly sending data. Qlink invented free online time for large networks.

This is the People Connection screen, or the "IRC" of back then. It allowed users to create named channels (again, Compuserv and the rest only had "CB channels" where you would have to join a numerical chat line number) which could be public or private. A listing of all the people on that channel was right there for you to choose from; you could send private messages and even have moderated groups with up to 99 people at a time.
People Connection also supported sounds and games-- something which still haven't been introduced on IRC. On IRC you can send .wav files out, and those which support your type of sound can hear it-- on Qlink, people could play MIDI-style (they were called 'sid' files) songs for the whole room. This was a lot of fun, because there were thousands of SID music files to choose from-- most every popular song had a corresponding SID.

Club Caribe was an interactive area of Qlink where one could walk around with a character and interact with the world and other people. It was like "Ultima Online" in that you could pick up items, earn money and do things to other characters. There were hidden areas and you could earn extra Plus Time by completing quests and such. Each person could pick how they would look to everyone else by picking a "head" (you'd actually buy new heads from the head vending machine).
This was much more sophisticated than today's Palace network, but I'd have to say the Origin has finally outdone it with Ultima Online-- it took them long enough.

Here's a screen shot of people connection-- notice that people could send out graphics to the rest of the room (you had to be pretty talented to do this, in fact there were contests based on it). Qlinkers used emots ( :) :( ]:> ) as we currently know them. They were known as "Qshorthand" and you could read all about them in one of the free areas. Who would have thought that MCI would be airing TV commercials with Qshorthand in them.
Was that a great time or what? :)

Quantum also created online services for Tandy and Apple called, respectively, PCLink and AppleLink. The latter became "obsolete" when Apple launched the short-lived eWorld online service. They eventually became a huge company that purchased Time-Warner media, which afforded the synergy to ironically send out free CDs with Saurumon's One Ring promotional material printed on it. It's called America Online. QLink went offline November 1, 1994 -- leaving perhaps their single product that had a soul in the dark.

Links
JohnD39/Steward's Q-Link Page

	This was (sniff!) the loading screen for QuantumLink on the Commodore 64. You would put your Qlink disk into the disk drive (a 5.25" floppy disk which could hold up to 128K of information) and type the infamous: `LOAD "*",8,1` And this screen would appear after the modem dialed. Incidentally, my first modem was a 300baud-- but then I moved up to 1200 and I was very impressed by the speed of the bugger. We once wasted a whole hour downloading this worthless piece of junk software (I guess things don't change THAT much) `:)`
This is the main menu for Qlink. While Compuserve and the rest were still using a command-line approach (not a bad thing really), Qlink was allowing the user to navagate through their service with a menu. This was innovation, and a lot of what is now seen on the web resembles things that Qlink was doing way back then. Some of the services were called Plus Time, and they would charge at an hourly rate (I think it was around $4/hour) while the majority of it was free. This was another twist from the norm-- all the other "online services" were charging from the moment you connected, even if your modem wasn't activly sending data. Qlink invented free online time for large networks.
	This is the People Connection screen, or the "IRC" of back then. It allowed users to create named channels (again, Compuserv and the rest only had "CB channels" where you would have to join a numerical chat line number) which could be public or private. A listing of all the people on that channel was right there for you to choose from; you could send private messages and even have moderated groups with up to 99 people at a time. People Connection also supported sounds and games-- something which still haven't been introduced on IRC. On IRC you can send .wav files out, and those which support your type of sound can hear it-- on Qlink, people could play MIDI-style (they were called 'sid' files) songs for the whole room. This was a lot of fun, because there were thousands of SID music files to choose from-- most every popular song had a corresponding SID.
Club Caribe was an interactive area of Qlink where one could walk around with a character and interact with the world and other people. It was like "Ultima Online" in that you could pick up items, earn money and do things to other characters. There were hidden areas and you could earn extra Plus Time by completing quests and such. Each person could pick how they would look to everyone else by picking a "head" (you'd actually buy new heads from the head vending machine). This was much more sophisticated than today's Palace network, but I'd have to say the Origin has finally outdone it with Ultima Online-- it took them long enough.
	Here's a screen shot of people connection-- notice that people could send out graphics to the rest of the room (you had to be pretty talented to do this, in fact there were contests based on it). Qlinkers used emots ( `:) :( ]:>` ) as we currently know them. They were known as "Qshorthand" and you could read all about them in one of the free areas. Who would have thought that MCI would be airing TV commercials with Qshorthand in them. `Was that a great time or what? :)`
Quantum also created online services for Tandy and Apple called, respectively, PCLink and AppleLink. The latter became "obsolete" when Apple launched the short-lived eWorld online service. They eventually became a huge company that purchased Time-Warner media, which afforded the synergy to ironically send out free CDs with Saurumon's One Ring promotional material printed on it. It's called America Online. QLink went offline November 1, 1994 -- leaving perhaps their single product that had a soul in the dark.

Links JohnD39/Steward's Q-Link Page