Roger Wilco (software)

Roger Wilco
Original author(s) Resounding Technology
Developer(s) GameSpy
Initial release May 3, 1999 (1999-05-03)
Last release
1.4.1.6 / July 8, 2003 (2003-07-08)
Operating system
Platform x86
Size 790.7 KB (installer)
Available in English
Type Voice over IP
Website rogerwilco.gamespy.com (archived)

Roger Wilco is one of the first voice-over-IP client programs designed primarily for use with online multiplayer video games.[1] Roger Wilco enables gamers to talk through a headset or other handsfree device instead of typing messages to each other.

Roger and Wilco are procedure words which, in radiophone communication, mean "I understood your message and I will comply".

Development and release

Roger Wilco was developed by a US startup company called Resounding Technology. Three of the company's four founders were roommates when they were undergraduate students at Princeton University: Adam Frankl, Tony Lovell, and Henri de Marcellus.[2]:14

The company began publishing pre-release versions of the software in the autumn of 1998;[2]:16 the first general availability release, Roger Wilco Mark I, followed in May 1999.[3] The company distributed both the client and server as freeware. The server software, Roger Wilco Base Station, was developed for Linux, FreeBSD, Windows 9x, and Windows NT.[3] Development of a client for Mac OS never progressed beyond the alpha phase.[4]

Mpath Interactive, a startup company in Silicon Valley, acquired Resounding Technology later that year, and renamed it to HearMe, Inc.[5]

In December 2000, GameSpy bought the Roger Wilco intellectual property. In early 2001, they integrated an updated version of the client software into their game server browser, GameSpy Arcade. Players could use the Roger Wilco software if they bought a subscription to GameSpy's Game Tools suite.[6]

GameSpy published the final version of the Roger Wilco client for Windows on July 8, 2003.[6] That year, a vice president of consumer products at GameSpy Industries told The Boston Globe that Roger Wilco had about 5 million users.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Bray, Hiawatha (October 29, 2003). "Players Add Verbal Jabs to Their Arsenal". BostonGlobe.com. Boston Globe Media Partners. Retrieved 2009-07-27.
  2. 1 2 Tooke, Wes (February 24, 1999). "Three Game Guys: Former Roommates Give Cyberplayers a Voice". Princeton Alumni Weekly. Princeton University. Retrieved 2017-05-28 – via Google Books.
  3. 1 2 "Roger Wilco". RogerWilco.com. Resounding Technology. Archived from the original on 1999-05-08.
  4. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". rogerwilco.gamespy.com. GameSpy. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
  5. ↑ "Mpath Acquires Resounding Technology, Changes Name to HearMe" (Press release). Mpath Interactive. Business Wire. September 28, 1999. Retrieved 2017-05-28 – via FindArticles.
  6. 1 2 "Roger Wilco". rogerwilco.gamespy.com. GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2017-05-28.

Further reading

  • Wilfong, Blake Linton (October 17, 1999). "Talk While You Play: Roger Wilco". The Wondersmith. Blake Linton Wilfong.
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