1998 - When I was a teenager, my mother bought me a computer, with 3 games, one of them was Redneck Rampage. As it was for a computer, I didn't know how to operate it and I went wild exploring what a computer was and can do... so I popped the disk in and explored what contents on the game CD... one of the folders had the words ENGAGE written onto it, I opened the file and this is what came up.

All I could say is this is totally badass.. however I didn't have Internet at the time. Looking at it now and from what I've learned. Engage Games is an online service that allowed players in America to connect and play games.

Awesome artwork

At the time, Internet was taking off and users in the States has the chance to play games online and this gave businesses a chance to rake in alot of money. This was all part of the 'dot.com bubble', a well known business term in America in the mid 90s to 2001 when businesses were cashing in and setting up website in hopes to make money.

I never really took a chance to connent and play any Engage games, however it's worth writing about, however the awesome glamour this disk was really attractive. The logo alone is awesome, when the words 'Engage',appeared, with the letter 'N' in heavy lighting, knowing that my 56k modem was going to be connected, with full power of electricity (I'm a nerd) and I'm going to beat my friend in a game of Warcraft 2. I live in London, England, this server was set up in America.

It was the logo and artwork that was really attractive, I have alot of MMO that I could play, however back then, this would of be aimmed towards teenage males and young adult males. This could also been around the trend of games were being a guy was all about shooting, building heavy armored machinary and having big 'guns' like Duke Nukem or the dude in Doom.

Anyways I did get a chance to run and play some of the games on my computer, however not online. I did find them interesting... I'll get onto that another time. However considering that MMO games are popular today, I do wonder if there anyone out their who remembers Engage games, or even experienced the service.

Some of the games used the new 3D technology computers had and also their was a game that was a bit more causal, where you were armed with a paintball gun, so there was something for everyone.

Nexon and NCsoft should make their logo like this

There was alot more online casual games services that were being played as ISP provider discs loaded a bunch of them as their clients only took around 5 or 10% of their discs. So Engage wasn't really alone in the online games market. However I simply like how they're giving out the goods in terms of games and what Engage gave out.

Engage Games evaparated, there still some articles laying around about the Engage service which dates back to 1998, maybe the service ended when the 'dot.com bust' occured. Who knows!?!?