GameSpy Arcade was a

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

game server browsing utility. GameSpy Arcade allowed players to view and connect to available multiplayer games, and chat with other users of the service. It was initially released by GameSpy Industries, on November 13, 2000, to replace the aging GameSpy3D and

Mplayer.com Mplayer, referred to as Mplayer.com by 1998, was a free online PC gaming service and community that operated from late 1996 until early 2001. The service at its peak was host to a community of more than 20 million visitors each month and offere ...

program. Version 2.0.5 was the latest offering of the software, boasting additional features such as increased speed and advanced server sorting abilities.

History

Discussing GameSpy Arcade's history, Ian Birnbaum of ''

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'' wrote, "GameSpy began in 1996 as a fan-hosted server for the original '' Quake''. By the early 2000s, GameSpy was ''the'' online multiplayer platform, adding dozens of games every year." The service closed in May 2014.

Features

GameSpy Arcade included various other features which enhance its overall functionality: *Ability for users to have their own profiles. *Scanning a user's hard disk for Arcade compatible games. *A basic web browser. *Voice Chat *Buddy Instant Messaging *Game Staging rooms *Dedicated Server browsing *User Rooms

Subscription

GameSpy Arcade was free. However the software maintained shareware status as there were three different subscription levels. These levels provided benefits, each according to their price.

Basic users

"Basic users" could be created for free at the GameSpy website. They were able to display and connect to games, as well as chat to users inside the game lobby. Advertisements were shown inside the program for these users.

GameSpy Arcade

"GameSpy Arcade", the first pay subscription service ($4.95/Month, $24.95/Year), provided extended functionality such as no advertisements and in-game voice chat, as well as priority service for technicians to assist in solving problems with the software.

Founders Club

"Founders Club", the second pay subscription service ($9.95/Month, $79.95/Year), was the highest possible level of membership to GameSpy arcade. This subscription had benefits which applied across the entire GameSpy network, including FilePlanet access, and ‘Insider’ newsletters. This was the most expensive of the subscriptions on offer. There were some issues with the "Founders Club" subscription that caused this subscription to show up as a normal subscription on GameSpy Arcade.

Games

GameSpy Arcade allowed users to play games online such as Halo: Combat Evolved,

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, Half-Life: Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament, Star Wars: Battlefront II, Quake III Arena, Rogue Spear, as well as various other first-person shooters and strategy games. Additionally, there were parlor games, but these were removed due to security flaws found in the actual parlor games. Some of the parlor games that existed were Y.A.R.N (story making)

Reversi Reversi is a strategy board game for two players, played on an 8×8 uncheckered board. It was invented in 1883. Othello, a variant with a fixed initial setup of the board, was patented in 1971. Basics There are sixty-four identical game pieces ...

, Checkers,

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

, and

Backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Pe ...

References

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External links

GameSpy ArcadeVersion History
2000 software Game server browsers GameSpy Online video game services