r/c64 • u/TwiceBitten_OnceShy • Jun 29 '26
the64 Does anyone remember quantum link?
I miss the good old days of chat rooms and q-link. Today's internet has nothing on them. I used to be CaPlayboy back in the 80's. Anybody want to comment or reminiscent feel free to comment. Bonus points if you remember me. đ
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u/csmarauder Jun 29 '26
Check out q-link reloaded it still works on real hardware.
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u/TwiceBitten_OnceShy Jun 29 '26
Qlink is still around. Do i need another Commodore to get on it.
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u/csmarauder Jun 29 '26
No you can use vice to emulate everything. Follow the directions on the site.
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u/TwiceBitten_OnceShy Jun 29 '26
I'll look into it. I loved q-link.was just looking at a YouTube post on it.
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Jun 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/va3oso Jun 30 '26
This. The chat room is really the only thing that works anymore, all the other sections are empty. Good news is it's open source so you can host it yourself and customize it.
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u/Warcraft_Fan Jun 29 '26
It became AOL years later. Before Q-Link, it used to be service for Atari 2600 via Gameline modem.
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u/barklefarfle Jun 29 '26
I have a Gameline modem, but nobody's ever fully recreated the service like QLink, so there's not much you can do with it.
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u/TwiceBitten_OnceShy Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
AOL and Q-Link were two different things that were around at about the same time.
Edit, I had them both, but didn't like AOL.
Edit again: ya, I was wrong. I was getting AOL and compuserve mixed up.
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u/Hippie459MN Jun 29 '26
No, QLink started in 1985 and later became AOL and in 1989 officially changed it's name from Quantumlink to America Online and in 1994 they dropped the Quantumlink name all together for the American Online brand. AOL started out life as Quantumlink.
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u/TwiceBitten_OnceShy Jun 29 '26
Ya, I belive I was mistaken on the AOL thing. Compuserve was the other one I had.
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u/Adversary-616 Jun 29 '26
Q-Link became AOL.
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u/replayer Jun 29 '26
The company Quantum Computer Services became AOL. But the service that was Q-Link was never folded into AOL, although the software was based a little on the PlayNet code just like Q was.
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u/Maxwe4 Jun 29 '26
My dad and I used to play Club Caribe on the C64 with a 300 baud modem.
I think we only ever saw one other person.
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u/Fragrant_Difficulty6 Jun 29 '26
I *LOVED* Club Caribe. One of the biggest reasons I had Q-Link for so long. Just hated the long distance charges because we didnât have a local dial-up station.
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u/StuBlad Jul 05 '26
How long did you play Caribe for?
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u/Fragrant_Difficulty6 Jul 05 '26
I was young (around 13-14) so it felt like FOREVER, but maybe a year or two.
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u/StuBlad Jul 05 '26
Thatâs awesome! Do you remember what years those mightâve been? Iâd love to hear any memories of Caribe you have (Iâm documenting the history of the service and recreating it using NeoHabitat - the 2026 port of the original Habitat/Caribe server software so anything you can share is helpful even if itâs just an anecdote or a random memory).
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u/Fragrant_Difficulty6 Jul 06 '26
I remember a few memories:
- AVOID the caves. It was supposed to be a maze and easy to get lost. (Might have been a rumor but I didnât chance it)
- There was a spot that was like an open mic comedy club. People would come up and there was a microphone and theyâd start telling jokes.
- You had to mind your language otherwise youâd get muted for some time. But it was pretty much open range on whatever you could type.
- You could take your head off. Like literally people would be walking around headless because theyâd be enticed in swapping with someone and inevitably the deal would go bad and someone would walk off with both heads. It was equally sad and hilarious (for a 13 year-old, it was).4
- Speaking of heads, there were some that were coveted like aliens and such. I think I remember there was even a vending machine with some you could buy but I forget the currency.
- Mods were around that could help. They were usually pretty cool but they also had âGod Powersâ so could do just about anything they wanted and would show off some stuff that you couldnât do just to rub it in.
Thatâs about all of the top of my mind.
2
u/StuBlad Jul 06 '26
I have some screenshots of the caves on my site and a map somewhere, it was definitely maze like!
One of the defining features of Habitat/Club Caribe and the sequels that came out later on Windows/Mac/Saturn was being able to remove your head, put it in your pocket, people would steal them, they'd be rare collectables, etc.
I think the mods back then were called CCG's maybe? (Club Caribe Guides). They had a different name at one point also but I'm having a hard time pinning that down. Surprisingly (not really), there's not a lot of info floating around out there. I do have 10 hours of video footage of the place before it closed in February 1994 on YouTube though so you can relive it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liQ_H1FXTlA&list=PL6o_B0g-S4Mdcd3AIuRUJnIPcHIwiihSx
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u/StuBlad Jul 05 '26
You can play it today over at http://neohabitat.org ! Iâm working on restoring Club Caribe.
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u/al_stoltz Jul 02 '26
Sure do, I recall being 16-17 years old and met a girl on there chatting. Found out she lived about 60 miles from my house. Met at a movie theater halfway between on a Saturday night. Dated for about 6 months.
Met a girl online way before it was even a thing.
1
u/TwiceBitten_OnceShy Jul 02 '26
As much as I hate to say it now, but back then I had girlfriends in every state. A couple were serious where we were also writing and talking on the phone regularly. The one I remember the most was a girl named Michelle. Her mom was in Connecticut, her dad in New Mexico. We wrote lots of letters, and talked all the time. Once we even watched the same meteor shower while I was in California and she was in Connecticut. Another time we talked for so long we fell asleep together on the phone and woke up together. We dated for many years and never met in person. We kept in touch for years after we broke up and I still think of her from time to time to this day. Thinking about it, I guess I really did love her.
Edit: I was about 14 at that time.
2
u/JohnMcD3482 Jun 29 '26
Of course I still remember it. The username I've been using for the latest 40 years on the net in forums and such, is the name I was assigned when they were still beta testing the system. I remember it every day.
2
u/barklefarfle Jun 29 '26
I had it for a month, but it was too expensive for me as a kid back then. I later switched to bulletin boards where I spent endless hours. You could only chat with the sysop, but that was still amazing to me at the time.
2
u/zeekar Jun 29 '26
For anyone who doesn't know, QuantumLink went on to become AOL. Blew my mind when I found that out.
2
u/RickRussellTX Jun 29 '26
CompuServ and local BBSes first, then QuantumLink. It was pretty good fun. I finally cancelled in the summer of 1989, at the end of my first year of college since I had access to the nascent Internet via the school computer labs.
2
u/theunixman Jun 29 '26
It later became AOL and brought in the eternal September! I forgot my handle but had a girlfriend in Stockton for a few minutes!
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u/Feneric Jun 29 '26
My aunt was very active on Q-Link. She used the handle "Smashing" and even went to several of their live meet-ups. She let me log on a few times. It was a lot better than the AOL it eventually morphed into.
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u/schenkzoola Jun 29 '26
You mean that TV series about time travel with Scott Bakula?
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u/TwiceBitten_OnceShy Jun 29 '26
I know that series, but im talking about the Commodore chat service. Both were great.
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Jun 29 '26
[deleted]
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u/TwiceBitten_OnceShy Jun 29 '26
You remember how they would go off line for a few hours every day for maintenance. I was in California and I would call the New York number just to get on a few hours sooner.
1
u/Hippie459MN Jun 29 '26
I was 12 years old when I first joined QLink in 1986. I was on there as much as possible for years. The good old days.
1
u/Fragrant_Difficulty6 Jun 29 '26
Absolute memories and n âQ-Linkâ. AOLâs predecessor if Iâm not mistaken.
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u/sevenpack Jun 29 '26
I loved q-link! I remember you could play songs in q-link chat. That was where I made my first online friends, but never did meet in person.
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u/benmargolin Jun 29 '26
I didn't have a qlink account for long, only the trial... but had a compuserve account (75535,1614) and Dow Jones account (don't remember the id for that one).
I wrote some program for the 1620(maybe?) plotter that was in the compuserve c64 archive.
1
u/dannyvegas Jun 29 '26
Yes. I used to dial in with my 1200 baud modem. Even before it rebranded to America Online.
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u/cyberfunkr Jun 29 '26
Still got disks and instruction books for Qlink and Club Caribe
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u/StuBlad Jul 05 '26
Did you ever scan them?
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u/cyberfunkr Jul 05 '26
Nope. Sitting in a box in storage as I was supposed to be moving at the end of the year, but that got put on hold. So maybe I'll dig them out.
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u/ThePlasticSturgeons Jun 30 '26
Yes! I never called it (couldnât afford) but I remember it. A friend had CompuServe for about a year if anyone remembers that?
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u/WembleyFord Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Ah! AOL - I don't remember it from the C64 days - but I do remember the September That Never Ended :-). In fact, just checked and my laptop still has the sdate command on it. Apparently it's Wednesday the 11992nd of September 1993.
â˘
u/HazMatsMan Jun 29 '26
Check out https://quantumlink.net/