{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Dead Internet Almanac","title":"July 29: Dial Tone for the 16-Bit Future","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":526,"description":"Before console multiplayer became a menu option, XBAND made it a ritual: cartridge into modem, modem into console, console into phone jack, and suddenly the living room had another player hiding somewhere beyond the dial tone. Catapult’s strange little device turned Mortal Kombat, Madden, and other supported Genesis and Super Nintendo games into early online arenas, complete with usernames, rankings, messages, and the first hints of a console social network.\n\nThis episode follows XBAND at the moment its future was being handed off. In 1995, Catapult and Blockbuster tried to sell online console play through thousands of video rental stores, with demo tapes, four-foot displays, subscription plans, and worried parents staring at the phone line. By July 1996, Mpath’s move to acquire Catapult marked a larger shift: the retail-aisle, cartridge-and-dial-tone dream of connected consoles was being absorbed into the server-driven Internet future that would eventually define online gaming.\n\nRead the original article: https://medium.com/@dia_91230/july-29-dial-tone-for-the-16-bit-future-f4ebbfef4213\n\nSubscribe to The Dead Internet Almanac: https://buttondown.com/dead-internet-almanac","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/0T0Z9X69zNfYqQ8Z8xV4SB06Vk-a5Z4I4iH6CPQMsiQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yYmJj/OTNlYmM2M2UxYmZl/MDBjZTRiMDlhZTRm/MjI4NC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}