The Historical Record
Text and evidence from the 1994 documents
TEN did not begin with Outland. The surviving Optigon documents establish the service, founders, product, public beta, and first game relationships before the 1995 transaction.
The founders and the work before launch
The July 1, 1994 Electronic Information Report names Daniel Goldman and Janice Linden-Reed together, dates the venture to 1989, and reports more than five years and more than $1 million in development before public launch. The Optigon founders profile says their collaboration began in 1986 and describes Linden-Reed as co-founder and design director, responsible for interface, art direction, game design, and management. [article] [founders profile]
June 25, 1994: TEN is unveiled
Optigon's release describes TEN as a service for people who want to play, explore, interact, create, and participate in building a community. It names Daniel Goldman and Janice Linden-Reed as the press contacts and places national beta after an operating test program. [page 1] [page 2]
August 10, 1994: SimCity goes online
The Maxis and Optigon release announces multiplayer SimCity for TEN, with people cooperating, communicating, and competing in real time. It gives Optigon online production rights and the ability to sublicense the online versions. [page 1] [page 2]
A graphical community, not only a game lobby
The 1994 Facts and Features sheets describe a graphical interface, email, newsgroups, chat, file libraries, news wires, portraits, profiles, paths, macros, multiplayer games, and user-created graphical environments. The early roster included SimCity, WizWar, chess, backgammon, and Go. [page 1] [page 2]
1994 and 1995: the service before Outland
Optigon launched the national beta over Sprint's X.25 dial-up network. TEN.NET was registered for Optigon Interactive on October 31, 1994 according to the founding-team account; the registry independently confirms the date. In 1995 the Optigon-era service supported two-player Descent online multiplayer. The exact date is firsthand history, and Goldman's later published recollection corroborates the capability.
Funding and the 1995 acquisition
Daniel Goldman originally funded TEN with royalties from SimCity. Art Kern supplied the first angel investment. Planet Optigon later acquired Outland in a transaction publicly announced as a merger, with the first Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture round in June 1995. The company then became T E Network, Inc.
The 1994 documents, period articles, domain records, and the restored press chronology are collected at totalentertainment.fyi/press/.
