Raph’s Website » CompuServe Classic is shutting down

CompuServe Classic is shutting down

July 2nd, 2009 (Visited 1099 times) Tags: vw history

The whimper at the end of an era.

CompuServe, the corporate entity, dates to 1969 but the CompuServe Classic online service for consumers debuted in 1979. In 1987 it was the flagship of online services with 380,000 users. A 1991 TV commercial trumpets CompuServe as the only online service with more than a half-million members.

Unfortunately time, and its acquisition by AOL, has not been kind to CompuServe. In recent years it has barely been marketed. Its Web site looks like a throwback to the (gasp!) 20th century. The “build” date on version 4.0.2 of CompuServe for Windows NT, the latest version of the access software for CompuServe Classic, is January 11, 1999.

– The Paper PC: CompuServe Classic: So Long, Old Friend.

I was never one of the hordes of truly hardcore gamers who hovered around the CompuServe and GEnie games — no money, you see. I was in high school at the time. Every once in a while I could sneak on for ten minute snatches — my dad was always horrified at the bill. He used TheSource too, because it was “more useful and had less games and distractions” I seem to recall.

CompuServe 2000 will still be around, but I am not sure anyone cares.

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nonobadkitty said on July 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 am:

Wow I didn’t know CompuServe was still around at all, but it was CompuServe which got me online back in the early 1990’s and I still have online friends that I met in those forums back then. Ah, the good old days of the internet, when content was king hehe. Thankfully internet access is a lot cheaper now, I dreaded those $300 or higher monthly bills I racked up back then. I guess this means I can finally dump my old OzWin forum software floppy disks now too (not that I’ve used them in ages, but I keep them for nostalgia’s sake.) I have a lot of good memories of good old CompuServe though. I’m not sure what CompuServe 2000 is, if it’s the “web based” version of CompuServe they tried to roll out in the late 1990’s then, well … that was the reason I left CompuServe and went to a “regular” ISP back then.

We Fly Spitfires said on July 2nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm:

I remember CompuServe. I used it before I even knew what the Iternet was or anything about Google. Awesome stuff.

Adrian Lopez said on July 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm:

I had (or have, somewhere) a printed directory of CompuServe’s services from the 1990’s, but I never got a chance to use it. CompuServe was just way too expensive.

Wendelius said on July 3rd, 2009 at 3:57 am:

I remember Compuserve very well. Those were the first communities I really got involved with. I still play or talk daily nowadays with people I met on the Gamers’ Forum back in the early 90ies. And some of the friends I made on the SFLit forum (we were known as IMPs from “Informal Association of Writers IMPatiently Waiting To Be Published “) are now published and respected sci-fi and fantasy authors.

The communities on CServe were mature and you would meet “celebrities” in many of the forae. Some days, I also miss the forum moderation from those happy days.

Even when CServe went web based, I stuck with the Classic client as long as I could. It was a much better experience.

heartless_ said on July 3rd, 2009 at 4:45 am:

Services such as CompuServe or selling Dial-up internet service is pretty much a “gravy train” for larger companies like AOL. That is why so many of them are in such poor shape. The technology is dead cheap to maintain and requires literally no support, so it gets back shelved and is almost 100% profit. Why do you think major ISPs still sell dial up? Because it costs them almost nothing! Same goes for CompuServe for AOL.

Sebastian said on July 3rd, 2009 at 7:39 am:

The end of an era, wow!

My dad had a CompuServe account, back during the late-80s and early 90s. I used it… a lot…

And then when I worked up enough of a bill (£3/hour or something insane, and then the telephone bill on top of that?) I would switch to BBSes and the Void MUD (I’m probably the youngest old-school MUDer around…)

Void was still something like 12p/minute… ugh. I hate to be reminded of the bills I racked up back in the day…

My dad was actually paying his monthly subscription to CompuServe until about 5 years ago — he forgot to cancel it. Hah.