First Console to Feature DLC?

[nullPointer]

So I’ve got the How-To Geek loaded up in my RSS reader, and I typically catch up on stories during my lunch break. A few times a week they run trivia questions, and often those questions are video game related. This is great because it tends to give me a nice mid-day ego boost, as I can prove (to no one in particular) my knowledge of trivial and pointless information. Yay me.

Today's question threw me for a loop though, so I thought I’d share it with you guys as I found it rather fascinating.

Which Game Console Was The First To Have Downloadable Content?

• Atari 2600
• Nintendo 64
• Xbox
• PlayStation

Think you know the answer? Hit up the spoiler to find out:

Answer: Atari 2600

Long before downloadable content on the Xbox Live network, there was downloadable content for the Atari 2600. All the way back in the early 1980s, CVC (Computer Video Corporation) was marketing a beefy Atari 2600 cartridge known as GameLine.

GameLine was absolutely revolutionary for its day as the cartridge was simultaneously a modem and reprogrammable game cartridge. Players would buy the cartridge for $60 (about twice the cost of a regular Atari title), and then pay $1 per downloaded title (which would stay on the cartridge for two weeks). Although CVC secured licensing with multiple third-party game publishers, offered additional content, and even held high-score contests to keep players engaged, the service ultimately failed to capture much of the market.

That said, the founding members of CVC went on to use the networking and information expertise they had gained building GameLine to found Quantum Computer Services. The new company created Quantum Link which linked Commodore computers by phone line and would eventually go on to become America Online.

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[ClassicGMR]

Answer: Intellivision!

In 1981 - 2 years before the Gameline modem - Intellivision released the Playcable modem. It only saw limited release and was pulled in 1983.

[nullPointer]

Wow! Leave it to our awesome forum members here to know considerably more about gaming lore than the cited source. Thanks for the share ClassicGMR! Some pretty remarkable history there, and an aspect of our hobby of which I was unaware. Ya learn something new every day!

[hansolo77]

And here I was going to say Sega Genesis with their Sega Channel. You guys went way farther back. I was on the right track, thinking it had to have a modem/flash rom built in. I didn't know older consoles had something similar. I knew the PC's of the day (Commodore, Atari 800, Amiga, etc) all had modems, but you specified console, so I didn't even think about those.