Feb 25, 2015
Gardner Pomper was president and co-founder of Games Computers
Play. Games Computers Play was almost certainly the first graphical
online service (except for maybe PLATO, depending on how you're
counting). It was devoted exclusively to interactive, multi-player
games, and it was only for Atari computers. You probably didn't get
a chance to use Games Computers Play -- it only managed to get
about 1,000 subscribers at its peak. But you may have seen the
colorful, enticing advertisement that they ran in the Atari
magazines, or read the article about the service in Antic
magazine.
A
word about the source code mentioned in the interview: they haven’t
found it yet, but they believe they have it and are still looking.
we’ll let you know here if and when they uncover
it.
This
interview took place January 28, 2015 over
Skype.
LINKS
Antic
Magazine article about GCP
Games
Computers Play Magazine ad
AtariAge
discussion about GCP
Update: We have learned that Gardner Pomper died on November 12, 2016.