You used to be able get Email service from Acclaim

I was digging around Archive.org this morning because I discovered a long-lost alternate soundtrack to 1999’s TrickStyle that didn’t appear in the final game. It was released as a set of MP3s on Acclaim.com shortly after the game’s release, but that’s a story for another post.

While looking at some of the archived acclaim.com pages I noticed a tiny link in the footer for “free email”. I laughed, thinking that all emails were free and assuming that what they meant was just a marketing newsletter or something. It turns out that for a time Acclaim was hosting an email service and you could even choose the domain you wanted to use.

Can you imagine anything cooler than being [email protected]!? Unfortunately, the service wasn’t as permanent as Yahoo Mail or Hotmail would turn out to be and by late 2001 the following notice was added to the email login page:

ATTENTION: Due to circumstances outside of Acclaim’s control, the Free Email service provided here will most probably be terminated on Tuesday, January 8 [presumably 2002]. For alternative Free Email providers, please check this link. Please make plans to move your email before this date. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience.

I can’t imagine the technical circumstances that led them to use the phrase “most probably”, not even being certain about when their own service was going to be disabled. Oh, and for anyone not daring enough to click it, the link they provided is just a Google search page for the term “free email”.

RIP to Acclaim’s email service: 1999 – 2002. Lost and forgotten just a few years before Acclaim itself would file for bankruptcy and sell off many of its properties. Next up, this TrickStyle business…