Background[]
The 3D virtual chat platform known as Worlds Chat came online around April-May 1995, a pioneer in this particular genre of virtual spaces. It was originally developed in San Francisco, CA at the same time as other 3D projects (like Starbright World and Active Worlds/Alphaworld) by Worlds Inc., formerly Knowledge Adventure Worlds.[1] Eventually, Worlds Chat was succeeded by WorldsPlayer in 1998.
Artists[]
Helen Cho
Professional Site: Quiet-Time
Created many of the iconic 2D avatars on Worlds Chat promotional photography as well as the textures for the Space Station and Worlds Chat interface. Cho describes the limitations of the Worlds Chat engine on the texture colors...
"The palette supported primarily grays, browns, and blues."
Jeff Robinson
Professional Site: Scamper
Created the "better-lit alien" look of the Space Station, as well as (but not limited to) the Sky World, the Worlds Chat interface, the Aardog Avatar, the penguins, the End Bots, the Iris Airlock, the Energy Door, and the Worlds Chat CD Cover. All of the art was done on Macintoshes, and was produced using Photoshop and StudioPro, with some elements created in TextureShop and Bryce as well. Rather than being scanned, the source textures were all generated synthetically
Robinson stated that there were deadlines to meet that prevented further work on particular projects. For example, when describing the Worlds Chat CD Cover...
"There was originally a narrative for [the stars in the background] but any narrative was stripped from the project as deadlines loomed. Too bad."
Lynne Ann
Avatar and object-maker (source 1, source 2). Known as OKCAHA in AlphaWorld / Active Worlds.
Danny Viescas
Avatar and object-maker (source 1 , source 2). Known as Kalak of Tanagra in AlphaWorld / Active Worlds.
Musicians and Sound Effects[]
David Tolley
The composer and sound effect maker (based in San Francisco, California) worked for Worlds Inc. from 1995 -1997. This included writing music for Worlds Chat, AlphaWorld, Starbright World, and Nishho-Toppan (Worlds Chat Japan).
Development Team[]
1994[]
Management
Chris Cole (Peregrine Systems), Dave Gobel (Knowledge Adventure), and Cole Larson from Kinetic Effects Inc (Credo Interactive), founded Knowledge Adventure Worlds, merging their technologies to create 3D virtual environments (source).
Engineering
Dave Leahy, Andrea Gallagher, Wolf Schmidt, Judy Challinger, Syed Asif Hassan, Farshid Meshgali, Kurt Kokko, John Navitsky, Naggi Asmar, and many others (source 1, source 2).
Wolf Schmidt gives a brief history on early Worlds Chat exploits in Bruce Damer's Avatars! book.
1995[]
Management
David P. Gobel - Founder and Chairman of the Board
Rich Abel - C.E.O.
Jim Freeman - Senior Vice President of Development and Production
Joe Rehfeld - Senior Vice President of Business Development and Marketing
Christopher Dean - Vice President of Marketing
Steve Miller - Vice President of Sales
Bryan Dunkeld - Vice President of Production
Glenn P. Halstead - Vice President of Operations and Customer Support
Deborah J. Ludewig - Vice President, General Counsel
Engineering
An addition to the existing engineering team, Ron Britvich joined Knowledge Adventure Worlds, having previously worked on WebWorld (source). During this time under Knowledge Adventure Worlds, Britvich worked on AlphaWorld as well as Worlds Chat. Britvich was known as Protagonist in AlphaWorld / Active Worlds.
Misc
When Worlds Chat was launched in April 1995, the company name was officially changed from Knowledge Adventure Worlds to Worlds Inc.
By November 13, 1995 Worlds Inc. had filed a patent application for a "Scalable virtual world chat client-server system."
Around 1996, Worlds Inc. had several strategic partnerships and customers, including MGM, Visa, U.S. Department of the Interior, and more.
Worlds Chat Beta[]
During the beta period from 1995-1996, Worlds Chat was a free demo for any user that installed the 4-5 MB application on their Windows 95/NT or Windows 3.1 computer. It only had 15 avatars to choose from, 20 rooms available to explore, and 2 worlds, Sadness and Glee.
The End of the World[]
One Worlds Chat user named Avatar posted a graphic on their website in memoriam of the event, "I survived the end of the world."
On September 13th, 1996, the final beta version (0.9a) included a patch that caused "major trauma" to the Space Station during an "End of the World" party. This included avatars for the occasion that had "THE END" in red across their chest, graffiti on the walls of the Space Station reading "IT'S OVER," and global chat messages announcing the impending doom.
There is not a lot written about this event, but we have some insight into the experience from a couple of accounts, like Worlds Chat user Odin:
"Light's flickered, windows cracked, avatars were tossed like popcorn, metal fatigue sounds and electrical short circuits could be heard, and pengies tagged graffiti on the walls. All this happened while a nearing red planet smashed into the Hub Center!"
Worlds Chat Official Release[]
Shortly after "The End of the World," Worlds Chat 1.0 was launched.
There was now a free demo version and the paid Gold version. The users on the demo version had limited avatars, could only explore the Space Station, and could not register a unique name (known as Guest-123...). Users on the paid Gold version had all avatars available to choose from, could explore several more worlds, and could register a unique username.
When CNET reviewed the software, the Worlds Chat Gold CD-ROM was $32.95 (USD).
System Requirements[]
Even then, Worlds Chat was a comparatively small and fast application, but it was the internet and networking hardware that could present challenges to some users.
Their minimum requirements were:
- 486DX/66MHz-or faster PC
- Windows 3.1x, or Windows 95
- 8 MB RAM minimum (16 MB recommended)
- 24 MB hard-disk space minimum
- 256-color display
- SLIP/PPP or direct Internet connection (14.4 kbps or higher)
- 2x CD-ROM drive (for installation)
- 16-bit sound card (optional)
How to Use[]
When launching Worlds Chat, you are met with a login screen where you can enter your username and choose from a list of limited avatars. Once you make those selections and log in, you are transported to the Space Station's Hub -- the entry-point for all users on the platform. Users could watch new avatars logging on as they materialized with a blue flash and accompanying sound on their arrival.
There are two available methods of movement: with your mouse or with your arrow keys.
By default, the client puts you in the state where your mouse movement allows you to slide through the virtual world. You slide and twist your mouse forward or backwards to move in a way that Damer compares to Doom. When you click your mouse, you then see a green walking man symbol on the bottom right and your mouse no longer alters the direction in which your avatar moves. This allows you to click on other menu options within the client.
You can also choose to use your arrow keys to move.
To chat with others, click into the bottom white rectangle, type something, and press Enter. You will see your username> followed by your message in the main chat.
A chat between multiple registered users in September 1995. Unregistered users would be named "Guest-123."
There is a proximity notion within Worlds Chat where your main chat displays the messages from the nearest several people in your cyberspace first.
However, you can also use the whisper feature to directly message someone in private whether you're in the same world/room or not. You can even click on Group Member to set up a private group whisper between multiple people.
You will also notice the ability to Mute people -- this prevents you from seeing what they type, but it will not prevent them from seeing what you type. They also have no way to know they have been muted unless told.
Worlds[]
On the bottom right is the Space Station mini map. The section that your avatar occupies is highlighted, and you can click on other parts of the station to teleport to that location.
Official[]
Hub
Sadness
Glee
Garden
Gothic Pod
Avatar Gallery
User-created Patches[]
While this early iteration of Worlds Chat did not have the ability for users to create their own worlds officially, some users developed "patches" that could be seen by other users who had installed that same patch. For example, Morticia's Worlds Chat site includes several patches to the Observation Deck and Koi Pond.
Also, if you manage to hit door hinges by the entrances to escalators "just right," you can jump off the Space Station and float in space.
Avatars[]
Background[]
A user logging in that still has the default Woody avatar. You can also see the blue flash captured as it materializes in the Hub (Space Station).
There were fourteen avatars to choose from initially. With more versions of Worlds Chat over 1995-1997, they added more avatars to the Avatar Gallery, specifically for Worlds Chat Gold users. If you decided not to choose an avatar from the gallery, the default avatar worn was Woody. Additionally, if you were using the Demo version and not the Gold version, users using Gold-only avatars would display as Woody avatars to Demo users.
Avatars in this early history were 2D "Holographic" avatars that consisted of 2 to 8 .bmp files depending on how many different views the avatar required. For example, the first .bmp may be the front view, the second the back view, and so on. Due to rendering and memory constraints, the .bmp images needed to fit in a 200x200 pixel square.
This multi-view approach to the avatars also created the right circumstances for the software to have nearby avatars turn toward you automatically. The person running the avatar did not actually turn to look at you necessarily.
Worlds Chat used (and continues to use in WorldsPlayer) a proprietary compression scheme to generate the avatars from those core .bmp files.
Customizing avatars[]
Worlds Inc.'s instructions on avatar file generation for Worlds Chat.
World Chat user Sting describes how to create your own custom avatar and share it with others here.
Norms[]
Verbal Language (source)
- No cursing in main chat.
- Do not interrupt others having a conversation in main chat until there is a natural lull (just like etiquette in real life).
- English is not the only language users will use to communicate.
- Use the muting feature sparingly, as it can cause confusion (since you cannot see what they type but they can see what you type).
Body language (source)
Walls will stop your avatar from going through them, but the same is not true for going through other avatars. It can be interpreted as rude to stand directly in front of someone's avatar in a way that blocks their view.
Idling
Some users will have their avatars idle in virtual space for a number of reasons -- they could have temporarily stepped away, are staying online in order to continue to receive messages from other users, and many more reasons.
Avatar use
People have different relationships with their avatar(s). They may wear an avatar associated with a group (e.g. Penguins / OPUS).
They may wear an avatar associated with the identity they'd like to present (e.g. Beach Girl, Cruzn Biker). Especially if they are a user who likes to create and/or download custom avatars (e.g. Sting's Place; Odin's Avatar Gradebook; BigLip's Avatar Database).
They may also be wearing an avatar due to a holiday or season (e.g. Santa).
Downtime
When Worlds Chat Gold was down due to server migration, some regulars would go to Worlds Chat Japan.
Unofficial Citizen Groups[]
These groups would sometimes have special meetings, avatars, websites, and/or events.
Some evident groups or clans were:
Events[]
- Las Vegas, Nevada, USA meet-up in 1998.
Management Changes[]
In November 1997, Worlds Inc. was acquired by Worlds Acquisition Corporation and changed the name to Worlds.com.
Odin's Account of that time 1995-1999
Scamper's mention of Worlds Chat CD Cover 2 and development ceasing
Transition to Worlds Chat Platinum / Gamma / WorldsPlayer[]
In 1998, the client known internally as Gamma or Worlds Chat Platinum was finally released for download on their website and as a CD-ROM.
Because of the release of Worlds Ultimate 3D Chat aka WorldsPlayer, previous Worlds Chat users had to say "goodbye" to their beloved Worlds Chat avatars. Some were memorialized in the Custom Avatar Mausoleum.
To continue reading about Worlds Chat's history from 1998-2010, click here.
Experience Early Worlds Chat[]
- ↑ "3-D Worldschats on Net" by Simon Sharwood. PC Week. May 24, 1994.