Quantum Link
defunct American technology company
Quantum Link (or Q-Link) was an American and Canadian online service for the Commodore 64 and 128 personal computers that operated starting November 5, 1985. It was operated by Quantum Computer Services of Vienna, Virginia, which later became America Online.
In October 1989 the service was renamed America Online, and made available to users of PC systems as well. The original Q-link service was terminated on November 1, 1994, in favor of the America Online brand.
The original Q-Link was a modified version of the PlayNET system, which Control Video Corporation licensed. Q-Link featured electronic mail, online chat (in its People Connection department), public domain file sharing libraries, online news, and instant messaging using On Line Messages (OLMs). Other noteworthy features included multiplayer games like checkers, chess, backgammon, hangman, and a clone of the television game show Wheel Of Fortune called Puzzler; and an interactive graphic resort island, called Habitat during beta-testing, then renamed Club Caribe.
In October 1986, QuantumLink expanded their services to include casino games such as bingo, slot machines, blackjack and poker in RabbitJack's Casino; and RockLink, a section about rock music. The software archives were also organized into hierarchical folders and expanded.
In November 1986, the service began offering to digitize users' photos to be included in their profiles, and started an online auction service.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Quantum Link” is defunct American technology company. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Quantum, Link and defunct, not as a finished interpretation.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7268995. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1985, 1989, 1994 and 1986.
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This entry incorporates text from “Quantum Link” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.