Online Gaming History: The Sierra Network (ImagiNation) TV Ad - early 90's

[ehurtley]

Great commercials. I was a member for the entire life of the service (was even one of the invited beta testers,) and loved it. Stratego, Red Baron, and the RPGs were my faves.

I recently discovered a revival! They have re-implemented the server-side code enough to play some of the basic games, plus Yserbius. (You have to run it on modern hardware in an emulator for 'net access, though.)

[debrakaye1]

I loved INN!!!! I played way too much. Made lots of friends. Had lots of fun. I remember everyone in my family and everyone I knew thought I was crazy being online so much. Now everyone I know is online more than I am. I sure do miss playing games, role playing and chatting with everyone.

[3ldmey]

Wow, I LIVED in that place when I was 14 lol. I remember making friends, joining a clan and having my Boogers skill slider on max :D

[3ldmey]

OMG this vid brought back so many memories. It was 1994 when I joined INN, I was a kid and I remember making friends there, I remember having my "boogers" skill slider at max :P

Thanks for posting.

[katrar]

Ah the memories. I was a TSN/INN addict from 1993-1996. It really was the primordial beginnings of online gaming culture the way we know it today.

[VGCodeMaster]

I remember having this on a 3.5 floppy disk back when I was little, I think I did try it online but I am not sure. I remember how crazy awesome it looked to me though. Sadly stuff like this will not happen today, sure, the games all exist, but the way this and the WOW service which i think compuserve had? were special... unique.... fun. now we all log on to our invisible internet and click up a web browser. It's a little sad... I wish I could go back in time and have money lol =)

[chron1978]

I spent hundreds of hours on this and never paid a dime.. i came from a poor family and carded all my accounts.

[johnakles]

Ahhh... Back in the good ol days where we didn't have 10 y/o kids screaming into a mic because they got fragged in Halo... I miss it.

[Azorino]

INN was great. and so was Boogers!

[krazycalvin]

man... granny is pretty savvy with the computer. its 2009 and we have simpler computers and i have a hard time teaching my grandma what to do... she does like playing bridge now though... if you have to teach an old person how to use a mouse and one program find out their favorite card game... they will figure that out quick.

[mojdfiv]

My first online gaming was in INN. It was so fun, I remember playing red baron and the games in MedievaLand all the time.

[AsTheSunBurnsOut]

5 HOURS FREE?!

[SirMang77]

The funny part of INN was, I don't remember there ever being more than 50 people logged on at once.

It was very innovative at it's time and used it's own ad to push "you can be whoever you want without anyone knowing."

Now of course, all those games can be played anywhere on the internet for free basically...

However the RPGs were early precursors to games like Everquest and WOW.

[tennis128]

If you're interested, there is an INN revival. Google "INN Revival" and you will find instructions to download DOS Box and the INN software and you too can get back on INN and play for free. really great for the fans of the RPG, spades and cribbage are still played regularly

[pyrrho314]

I worked for TSN/INN/WorldPlay... we got up to about 2000+ simultaneous users. Bought and ruined by AOL unfortunately. Our newer server software is still used by EA games.

[richmwill]

I was a member of this- I remember the Sysops being very nice and friendly to new members.

[h8bushoil]

I agree with all of you. It really was ahead of its time. Everyone who played on there made gaming what it is today. I dont care what anyone says, I would kill everyone on Red Baron today! :)

[Scari45]

If you used to play this and want to play again contact me through here.

[Abercr0mbie4life]

I WANT THAT MOUSE IN 01:29!!!

[elbryan42]

Wow, I actually remember this.

Too bad Jones in the Fastlane wasn't online.

[codix121]

The start of the Gaming Culture.

[Terijinks]

Wow brings back memories! I was a member from 1993-1996 and also a host on TSN/INN and spent many many hours playing trivia in the clubhouse. Nothing has compared to it since.

[RichieEastside]

I remember when they came out with The Realm...sucks that the MMORPG thing is so huge now and Sierra gets no credit for it.

[pyrrho314]

you should have seen the virtual environment AOL canned, thinking adults wouldn't play ORPG, and internal politics.

CyberPark, it was sweet. Even the current MMORPG servers are not capable of what our was, though the client graphics are of course better than we could do then.  However, CyberPark did use 3D.

[MaddogMinchin]

Hey, it's the fat kid from Hook!

[1kawaiineko1]

lol

[asantos]

haha yeah!

[rlrose328]

Wow, this brings back memories! I was a Sysop, met my husband on TSN. How I WISH it was still around. Nice to see so many people haven't forgotten.

[Kusiga]

Oh how many late nights I spent when I was like 12-14 playing on there.

[MaskedGamer]

I miss TSN / INN so much. I was a beta tester for it and had a blast. I totally forgot about paintball and minigolf! I spent hours and hours playing Red Baron and Shadows of Yserbus, at one point costing my parents a LOT of money due to my addiction. Anyone remember the EGO Red Baron clan?

[TiChiKat]

INN was the greatest... is still missed by so many

[lonmontel]

Great upload! I bought my first PC in early 1992, and that was primarily because of how much I loved TSN on my friend's computer. This was SO ahead of its time.

[Schnitz1]

WOW! Thanks for uploading this vid. I am a Sierra fan, but I didn't know what that Sierra network was about more precisely. Sadly, most people probably don't understand how much ahead of it's time this really was.

[qbusqbus]

if you want to play the games this guy is working on a home made server. innrevival.googlepages com it works for many games but not for other stuff like mail.

[pyrrho314]

oh yeah, I meant to say thanks for uploading this! feels good... I'm going to point this stuff out to some of my old colleagues.

[pyrrho314]

no, it can't have been 1991. I went to work there in 1992 and wrote stratego shown in there (and also finished/published boogers)... so it must have been more like... 1993 I'm guessing, mabye even 1994 because of the golf game being in there.

[omgomg53]

thanks for the correction! how long did you work there? I loved stratego, by the way!

[pyrrho314]

I worked there from 1992 to 1998... the whole time pracitcally... they say it "started" in 1989 but that was just Al Lowe hacking away at some code (the guy that wrote Liesure Suit Larry wrote the original system). Really they started as a sub-company of Sierra in 1991... I saw an article in the NyT applied, and started working there a year later.

[tibbars]

No, it was up nationwide by 1991, cause thats when I checked in from Ohio, was a sysop there till it closed down when AOL took over. What a mistake that was, should have sold out to Gates years earlier when they had the opportunity.

[pyrrho314]

yes, they were nationwide, but they didn't do the ad I mean, until about 93.