The Invention of the MMO

The 1982 Commodore 64, priced at $595 in the US and equipped with 64 KB RAM, 16-color graphics and a music-synthesizer sound chip, sold an estimated 12.5 million units, making it the best-selling desktop computer of its era. Its 1986 Q-Link service offered real-time chat, forums and multiplayer games at $3-hourly rates, far cheaper than competitors, and later introduced Lucasfilm’s Habitat, a networked world-simulation game that connected users nationwide.