Castle Infinity

Castle Infinity was the first commercially launched MMOG for children. It was launched by Starwave Corporation in 1996, and featured personalized avatars, an embedded message system and live chat in a 2D side scrolling game world. It survives as a freeware MMOG.

The game is full of interactions that force players to collaborate with each other in order to pass from one area to the next, by way of four-person vehicles and other game-like lobbying devices.

The a cappella group The Bobs provided several original songs for the soundtrack. Additionally, members of the band also lent their voices for most of the characters.

Castle Infinity was first released in 1996, making it the first fully released MMOG designed for children. It was originally designed by Russell Ginns, Gregg Foster, and Scott Wallin, with art direction and animation by Jonathan Maier and Andy Norman. It was developed and published by Paul Allen's early internet company Starwave.

The initial launch included a joint promotion with Netcom, retail displays in Blockbuster Video, and coupons included in the packaging toward the purchase of a USRobotics modem.

Access to the game required a CD-Rom and also a subscription. This technology requirement, plus the nascent child online audience at the time, proved too limiting for wide distribution. At its peak, the service had approximately 4,000 registered players. Ownership passed to Disney when Starwave was acquired in 1997. Disney did not maintain development for the game, and access to the service became intermittent starting in 1998, and was shut down entirely by 2000.

In 2000, the game servers were rescued from a dumpster by Kevin Quitt, a C programmer who happened to be one of the game's players, and new development of the game began run by Castle Infinity, Inc. a non-profit organization. In 2005 there was fresh media coverage of the game by way of Slashdot and BoingBoing. In 2011 a new server was launched with the help of former players, including Spencer Jerome, Donald Butyen and Rachel Coleman. At present, Castle Infinity, LLC, manages the effort.

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