Table of Contents
Modem To Modem Computer Gaming
| Field | Gaming |
| Went Obsolete | Late 1990s |
| Made Obsolete By | Internet gaming via TCP/IP |
| Knowledge Assumed | Using a phone, using a modem |
| When useful | After your parents had gone to bed |
Outside of a LAN, in the 1990s, many computer games could only be played mulitplayer by the annoying process of setting your modem to “listen” for an incoming phone ring, then having a friend call into the game with his modem.
In a house with only one phone line this was especially difficult. You'd first have to call your friend and work out the details of the connection. Then, you would both have to hang up and as quickly as possible, initiate the modem to modem connection. Inevitably, someone would get a phone call from their Grandmother, leaving the other person helplessly waiting for the incoming modem call.
Amazingly though, my 9600 baud modem supported Warcraft II multiplayer gaming for a few years before battlenet.
