Quantum Link

Quantum Computer Services, whose people included Steve Case and Jim Kimsey, opened Q-Link in November 1985 with graphical menus built for the Commodore 64 and 128, instead of the typed commands CompuServe demanded. The technology leaned partly on software licensed from the games company PlayNet. The offering was the expected mix of chat rooms, forums, file libraries and news, but price and simplicity drew in people who were not computer hobbyists.

In 1986 Lucasfilm's Habitat was trialled on the service — a graphical virtual world with avatars, years ahead of its time. The company became America Online in 1991, moved on to PCs and Macs, and Q-Link itself closed in 1994, by which point Commodore was already bankrupt. Most of the later AOL formula — chat rooms, simplicity, walled garden — was already here.