PlayNet was founded[1] in 1983 by two former GE Global Research employees, Dave Panzl and Howard Goldberg,[2] as the first person-to-person, online communication and game network to feature home computer based graphics had a partnership with Schenectady-based Radio Corporation of America.
They then raised over $2.5 million from a variety of investors, including the venture capital funds of the town of North Greenbush, NY, Key Bank, Alan Patricof & Associates, and the New York State Science and Technology Foundation, and a group of individual investors through a limited R&D partnership led by McGinn Smith.
[3] In 1985, PlayNet licensed their system to Control Video Corporation (CVC, later renamed Quantum Computer Services), which in October 1991 changed its name to America Online.
[6] The PlayNet offices were initially located in the J Building on Peoples Avenue in Troy, NY part of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute incubator program.
File downloads were charged a flat rate of $0.50 each [1] The fictional Internet company depicted in the second season of the AMC drama series Halt and Catch Fire is believed to be based on PlayNet.
Unlike other online systems of the era, PlayNet was highly graphical and required client software, and included error correction in the communication protocols.