Heat.net (1997-2000)

Back in the day, Heat.net was an online gaming community created by Sega, similar to today's Xbox Live. Gamers would sign up for about $10 a month to play games such as Kingpin, Baldur's Gate, Unreal, Quake and Sin over the Net.

The site developed a decent community of bleeding-edge gamers who could earn 'Degrees' -- Heat's own currency earned by frequent players in reward for, well, playing frequently. But as of June 2000, Sega closed Heat.net and redirected users to SegaNet -- a pseudo-ISP for gamers created in 1999, access to which was provided by local telephone numbers.

Ahead of its time
Sega eventually decided to move away from PC gaming to focus on making the new Dreamcast console an online gaming system. This resulted in the amazing Phantasy Star Online and a Dreamcast broadband adaptor, right after Heat.net shut its virtual doors.

But even SegaNet passed away a couple of years later, a casualty of the Dreamcast's failure, leaving the gaming world wondering what could possibly replace the Heat.net experience that was effectively several years ahead of its time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQRgOJ3YisE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak9fXR2vnQs