The Palace (computer program) - Revision history

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{{Short description|Computer program to access graphical chat rooms}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{original research|date=July 2018}}
{{Primary sources|date=June 2007}}}}

{{Infobox software
|name = The Palace
|logo =
|screenshot = The Palace chat early marketing screenshot.jpg
|caption =
|developer = [[Time Warner Interactive]], independent developers
|released = November 1995<ref name=history>{{cite web |url=http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palhistory.html |author=Suler, John |title=Psychology of Cyberspace - History of The Palace |website=Psychology of Cyberspace |date=January 1997 |access-date=June 24, 2020 |archive-date=July 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719144426/http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palhistory.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
|latest_release_version =
|latest_release_date =
|latest_preview_version =
|latest_preview_date =
|operating_system = [[Mac OS 9]], [[Mac OS X]], [[Linux]], and [[Microsoft Windows]]
|genre = [[Virtual community]], [[Client (computing)|client]]
|license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
|website = {{URL|http://www.thepalace.com/}}
}}

'''The Palace''' is a computer program to access graphical [[chat room]] servers, called ''palaces'', in which users may interact with one another using graphical avatars overlaid on a graphical backdrop. The software concept was originally created by Jim Bumgardner and produced by Time Warner in 1994, and was first opened to the public in November 1995.

While there is no longer any official support for the original program, a new client has been developed and is actively maintained by Jameson Heesen. Many chat servers are still operating and can be found on the Palace Portal Live Directory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thepalaceportal.com/list.php|title=Palace Portal Live Directory|access-date=2016-08-11|archive-date=2016-08-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160808061213/http://www.thepalaceportal.com/list.php|url-status=live}}</ref> Palace clients and servers are available for [[Mac OS 9]], [[Mac OS X]], [[Linux]], and [[Microsoft Windows]].

==Concept and design==

===Palaces===

Each room in a palace is represented by a large image that serves as a backdrop for users. By clicking on certain areas in a room called "doors", users can travel either to different rooms in the same palace, another palace server, or an address leading to a different service, such as websites and email. In some rooms, users are allowed to paint on the backdrop using a simple suite of drawing tools. User messages appear as chat bubbles above their [[Avatar (virtual reality)|avatar]], similar to those in [[comic book]]s, and stored in a chat log.

===Avatars===
{{redirect|Dollz|the girl group|The Dollz (girl group)}}

The Palace has an avatar system that allows users to combine small, partially transparent images. Once a member has created an avatar, the member can pick up various pieces of clothing or other accessories. By default, users are represented by [[Sphere|spherical]] [[smiley|smiley face]] [[emoticon]]s, but can also wear up to nine separate [[bitmap]] images known as "props."<ref name="outline 2018-03-29">{{cite web | first=Nicole | last=Carpenter | url=https://theoutline.com/post/3964/the-palace-game-history | title=On 'The Palace,' you can be anyone you want to be | work=[[The Outline (website)|The Outline]] | date=2018-03-29 | accessdate=2021-07-24 | archive-date=2021-07-23 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210723234655/https://theoutline.com/post/3964/the-palace-game-history | url-status=live }}</ref>

In Q3 1997, several users began using doll-inspired images as avatars with a customizable appearance.<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/> The avatars were known as "Little People" before later collectively named '''Dollz'''.<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/><ref name="palace ezine">{{cite web | author=Cyberia | url=http://www.thepalace.com/wonder/ezine/sk8ters.html | title=Where do Sk8ters come from? | accessdate=2021-07-24 | archive-date=2012-01-06 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106034700/http://www.thepalace.com/wonder/ezine/sk8ters.html | url-status=live }}</ref> A [[fanzine]] credited the creation of Dollz to Rainman, who based his "Sk8er" doll on his comic strip.<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/><ref name="palace ezine"/> Other sources claimed that Melicia Greenwood created the first Dollz, basing her avatar on [[Barbie]] while catering to counter-culture audiences of [[Preppy|prep]]s, [[Goth subculture|goths]], and [[Skateboarding#Culture|skaters]].<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.shatteredinnocents.com/dollz/originz1.html| last =Greenwood | first =Melicia| title=The Originz of Dollz| date=2003-09-11| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20031203012012/http://www.shatteredinnocents.com/dollz/originz1.html| archivedate=2003-12-03| accessdate=2010-03-29 | url-status=dead}}</ref> Other popular Dollz used on The Palace were Wonderkins, Silents, and Divas (based on [[Diva Starz]]).<ref name="palace ezine"/>

Dollz became popular with the users on The Palace, particularly teenagers, with several rooms dedicated to unofficial Dollz editing contests.<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/> Teenagers also used Dollz as avatars as a sign of rebellion against The Palace's older users.<ref name="salon 2003-10-07">{{cite web| last=Borgeson| first=Mitch| title=Playing with dollz| work=[[Salon.com]]| date=2003-10-07| accessdate=2010-03-29| url=http://www.salon.com/2003/10/07/dollz/| archive-date=2012-09-10| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120910073127/http://www.salon.com/2003/10/07/dollz/| url-status=live}}</ref> The popularity of Dollz has inspired several personal websites dedicated to creating and customizing Dollz, outside of The Palace community.<ref name="salon 2003-10-07"/> The majority of Dollz creators were female.<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/>

==History==
The Palace was originally created by Jim Bumgardner and produced by Time Warner Interactive in 1994, with its official website launching to the public in November 1995.<ref name=history/> Bumgardner incorporated many features of Idaho, an in-house authoring tool he had previously developed for making multimedia CD-ROMs. One of the features of Idaho was [[IPTSCRAE]], a [[Forth (programming language)|Forth]]-like programming language. The name is a play on the word "script" in [[Pig Latin]]. One of the unique features of the Palace for its time was that the server software was given away for free and ran on consumer PCs, rather than being housed in a central location.

From around 1997, artists began to use the Palace as a site for experimental live performance. Notably, the group Desktop Theatre staged interventions and performances in their own and public Palaces from 1997 until 2002. In 1997 they presented "waitingforgodot.com" at the Third Annual Digital Storytelling Festival, which took an interesting turn when another Palatian changed their name to Godot and arrived in the performance.{{Citation needed|date=September 2018}} Other artists working in The Palace include Avatar Body ''Collision'' (2002-2007).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.avatarbodycollision.org/|title=www.avatarbodycollision.org|website=www.avatarbodycollision.org|access-date=2015-03-23|archive-date=2015-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308014703/http://www.avatarbodycollision.org/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Palace's popularity peaked around 1999–2000, when [[nu metal]] band [[Korn]] had their own palace chat room that fans could download from their official website.<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/> Palace's popularity at this time could also be attributed to a palace which focused on the cartoon ''[[South Park]]'' as well as the Sci Fi channel's Mothership palace. There was even a link to the [[South Park]] palace on the [[Comedy Central]] website at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://comedycentral.com/southpark/noflash/cmp/palace.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991115203900/http://comedycentral.com/southpark/noflash/cmp/palace.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 November 1999|title=South Park|date=15 November 1999}}</ref>

The Palace was the subject of a number of sales between companies until 2001, when [[Open Text Corporation]] purchased the rights to the Palace software and technology as part of a bankruptcy settlement.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.palaceaholic.com/history.php |title=The Palace Legacy Project - Palace History |access-date=2016-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513151534/http://www.palaceaholic.com/history.php |archive-date=2017-05-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The software is currently unsupported by Open Text or any of its previous owners, and many members of the community now provide unofficial support for existing versions. The original thepalace.com domain was bought by a long time Palace user, and is now used as a directory for other sites.

Official Palace software development ceased when Communities.com declared bankruptcy, but a few developers have created viable Palace-protocol compatible clients since then. The earliest contributions came from David Lee, Lead Developer of Phalanx. David worked for many years reverse engineering the majority of the protocol for proper communications between the client and server. Without David's mentoring of Jameson Heesen, Palace Chat would likely not exist, as David shared much of his findings with Jameson, including the XOR(xtlk) encryption used to encrypt chats and generation of client registration codes, prop encoding and decoding, and so much more. Much later(circa 2010) and after numerous source code leaks, Open Palace was developed by Brian McKelvey. Jameson utilized Brian's open source Open Palace to implement scripting support into Palace Chat. Brian also spearheaded the development of Type 1 avatars, which Palace Chat adopted and continues to utilize.

All of these new clients support improved high-color avatars, larger room backgrounds (also in high-color), and modern sound formats (such as [[MP3]]), and are designed for modern operating systems. However, only Palace Chat is presently maintained and is the present-day client of choice.

One of the first comprehensive psychological studies of avatar communities, conducted by [[John Suler]], took place at the Palace. This collection of essays, entitled Life at the Palace, consists of an analysis of Palace history, social relationships, "addiction," and deviance. Suler's work focused on the unique aspects of interacting via avatars and in a graphical space.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/palacestudy.html|title=Life at the Palace|access-date=2013-09-17|archive-date=2014-04-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140412061315/http://truecenterpublishing.com/psycyber/palacestudy.html|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

==Privacy==
Signing into The Palace does not require any registration or personal information. To begin chatting, users download the client, set their user handle and login to a server. A child filter is enabled on the client by default, which filters out chat servers with an Adult ranking and inappropriate language used in chat rooms.

==Other clients==
* [http://pchat.org PalaceChat], created by Jameson Heesen (known in the community as PaVVn), which supports all original features of The Palace, as well as high-quality backgrounds and avatars, larger rooms and videos. This is the primary client in use.{{Citation needed|date=October 2017}}
* [http://sourceforge.net/projects/linpal/ Linpal], an open source Linux client using GTK+.
*Phalanx, primarily developed by David Lee by meticulously reverse-engineering the official client and was released by [http://www.bhlabs.com/phalanx.html Brainhouse Laboratories]. It's currently abandoned, but was the first viable alternative to the official client.

==Incompatible Palace-like clients==
* [http://www.madwolfsw.com/ The Manor], written by a former Palace lead developer. The Manor includes embedded Python for user and room scripting with an encrypted data stream. Supports importing Palace avatars. Both new incarnations of The Palace support larger room sizes and 32-bit color avatars.
* [http://worlize.com/ Worlize], an online virtual world utilizing [[user-generated content]]
* [http://openverse.com/ OpenVerse], an open-source visual chat program written in Tcl/Tk.

==See also==
* [[Active Worlds]]
* [[CyberTown]]
* ''[[Second Life]]''

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palace, The}}
[[Category:1995 software]]
[[Category:Virtual world communities]]

← Previous revision		Revision as of 03:48, 11 August 2025
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	\|caption =		\|caption =
	\|developer = [[Time Warner Interactive]], independent developers		\|developer = [[Time Warner Interactive]], independent developers
	\|released = November 1995<ref name=history>{{cite web \|url=http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palhistory.html \|author=Suler, John \|title=Psychology of Cyberspace - History of The Palace \|website=Psychology of Cyberspace \|date=January 1997 \|access-date=June 24, 2020 \|archive-date=July 19, 2020 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719144426/http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palhistory.html \|url-status=live }}</ref>		\|released = November 1995<ref name=history>{{cite web \|url=http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palhistory.html \|author=Suler, John \|title=Psychology of Cyberspace – History of The Palace \|website=Psychology of Cyberspace \|date=January 1997 \|access-date=June 24, 2020 \|archive-date=July 19, 2020 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719144426/http://users.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/palhistory.html \|url-status=live }}</ref>
	\|latest_release_version =		\|latest_release_version =
	\|latest_release_date =		\|latest_release_date =
Line 18:		Line 18:
	\|genre = [[Virtual community]], [[Client (computing)\|client]]		\|genre = [[Virtual community]], [[Client (computing)\|client]]
	\|license = [[Proprietary software\|Proprietary]]		\|license = [[Proprietary software\|Proprietary]]
	\|website = {{URL\|~~http://~~www.thepalace.com/}}		\|website = {{URL\|www.thepalace.com/}}
	}}		}}

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	The Palace was originally created by Jim Bumgardner and produced by Time Warner Interactive in 1994, with its official website launching to the public in November 1995.<ref name=history/> Bumgardner incorporated many features of Idaho, an in-house authoring tool he had previously developed for making multimedia CD-ROMs. One of the features of Idaho was [[IPTSCRAE]], a [[Forth (programming language)\|Forth]]-like programming language. The name is a play on the word "script" in [[Pig Latin]]. One of the unique features of the Palace for its time was that the server software was given away for free and ran on consumer PCs, rather than being housed in a central location.		The Palace was originally created by Jim Bumgardner and produced by Time Warner Interactive in 1994, with its official website launching to the public in November 1995.<ref name=history/> Bumgardner incorporated many features of Idaho, an in-house authoring tool he had previously developed for making multimedia CD-ROMs. One of the features of Idaho was [[IPTSCRAE]], a [[Forth (programming language)\|Forth]]-like programming language. The name is a play on the word "script" in [[Pig Latin]]. One of the unique features of the Palace for its time was that the server software was given away for free and ran on consumer PCs, rather than being housed in a central location.

	From around 1997, artists began to use the Palace as a site for experimental live performance. Notably, the group Desktop Theatre staged interventions and performances in their own and public Palaces from 1997 until 2002. In 1997 they presented "waitingforgodot.com" at the Third Annual Digital Storytelling Festival, which took an interesting turn when another Palatian changed their name to Godot and arrived in the performance.{{Citation needed\|date=September 2018}} Other artists working in The Palace include Avatar Body ''Collision'' (~~2002-2007~~).<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.avatarbodycollision.org/\|title=www.avatarbodycollision.org\|website=www.avatarbodycollision.org\|access-date=2015-03-23\|archive-date=2015-03-08\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308014703/http://www.avatarbodycollision.org/\|url-status=live}}</ref>		From around 1997, artists began to use the Palace as a site for experimental live performance. Notably, the group Desktop Theatre staged interventions and performances in their own and public Palaces from 1997 until 2002. In 1997 they presented "waitingforgodot.com" at the Third Annual Digital Storytelling Festival, which took an interesting turn when another Palatian changed their name to Godot and arrived in the performance.{{Citation needed\|date=September 2018}} Other artists working in The Palace include Avatar Body ''Collision'' (2002–2007).<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.avatarbodycollision.org/\|title=www.avatarbodycollision.org\|website=www.avatarbodycollision.org\|access-date=2015-03-23\|archive-date=2015-03-08\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150308014703/http://www.avatarbodycollision.org/\|url-status=live}}</ref>

	The Palace's popularity peaked around 1999–2000, when [[nu metal]] band [[Korn]] had their own palace chat room that fans could download from their official website.<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/> Palace's popularity at this time could also be attributed to a palace which focused on the cartoon ''[[South Park]]'' as well as the Sci Fi channel's Mothership palace. There was even a link to the [[South Park]] palace on the [[Comedy Central]] website at the time.<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://comedycentral.com/southpark/noflash/cmp/palace.shtml\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991115203900/http://comedycentral.com/southpark/noflash/cmp/palace.shtml\|url-status=dead\|archive-date=15 November 1999\|title=South Park\|date=15 November 1999}}</ref>		The Palace's popularity peaked around 1999–2000, when [[nu metal]] band [[Korn]] had their own palace chat room that fans could download from their official website.<ref name="outline 2018-03-29"/> Palace's popularity at this time could also be attributed to a palace which focused on the cartoon ''[[South Park]]'' as well as the Sci Fi channel's Mothership palace. There was even a link to the [[South Park]] palace on the [[Comedy Central]] website at the time.<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://comedycentral.com/southpark/noflash/cmp/palace.shtml\|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991115203900/http://comedycentral.com/southpark/noflash/cmp/palace.shtml\|url-status=dead\|archive-date=15 November 1999\|title=South Park\|date=15 November 1999}}</ref>

	The Palace was the subject of a number of sales between companies until 2001, when [[Open Text Corporation]] purchased the rights to the Palace software and technology as part of a bankruptcy settlement.<ref>{{Cite web \|url=http://www.palaceaholic.com/history.php \|title=The Palace Legacy Project - Palace History \|access-date=2016-10-09 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513151534/http://www.palaceaholic.com/history.php \|archive-date=2017-05-13 \|url-status=dead }}</ref> The software is currently unsupported by Open Text or any of its previous owners, and many members of the community now provide unofficial support for existing versions. The original thepalace.com domain was bought by a long time Palace user, and is now used as a directory for other sites.		The Palace was the subject of a number of sales between companies until 2001, when [[Open Text Corporation]] purchased the rights to the Palace software and technology as part of a bankruptcy settlement.<ref>{{Cite web \|url=http://www.palaceaholic.com/history.php \|title=The Palace Legacy Project – Palace History \|access-date=2016-10-09 \|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513151534/http://www.palaceaholic.com/history.php \|archive-date=2017-05-13 \|url-status=dead }}</ref> The software is currently unsupported by Open Text or any of its previous owners, and many members of the community now provide unofficial support for existing versions. The original thepalace.com domain was bought by a long time Palace user, and is now used as a directory for other sites.

	Official Palace software development ceased when Communities.com declared bankruptcy, but a few developers have created viable Palace-protocol compatible clients since then. The earliest contributions came from David Lee, Lead Developer of Phalanx. David worked for many years reverse engineering the majority of the protocol for proper communications between the client and server. Without David's mentoring of Jameson Heesen, Palace Chat would likely not exist, as David shared much of his findings with Jameson, including the XOR(xtlk) encryption used to encrypt chats and generation of client registration codes, prop encoding and decoding, and so much more. Much later(circa 2010) and after numerous source code leaks, Open Palace was developed by Brian McKelvey. Jameson ~~utilized~~ Brian's open source Open Palace to implement scripting support into Palace Chat. Brian also spearheaded the development of Type 1 avatars, which Palace Chat adopted and continues to ~~utilize~~.		Official Palace software development ceased when Communities.com declared bankruptcy, but a few developers have created viable Palace-protocol compatible clients since then. The earliest contributions came from David Lee, Lead Developer of Phalanx. David worked for many years reverse engineering the majority of the protocol for proper communications between the client and server. Without David's mentoring of Jameson Heesen, Palace Chat would likely not exist, as David shared much of his findings with Jameson, including the XOR(xtlk) encryption used to encrypt chats and generation of client registration codes, prop encoding and decoding, and so much more. Much later(circa 2010) and after numerous source code leaks, Open Palace was developed by Brian McKelvey. Jameson used Brian's open source Open Palace to implement scripting support into Palace Chat. Brian also spearheaded the development of Type 1 avatars, which Palace Chat adopted and continues to use.

	All of these new clients support improved high-color avatars, larger room backgrounds (also in high-color), and modern sound formats (such as [[MP3]]), and are designed for modern operating systems. However, only Palace Chat is presently maintained and is the present-day client of choice.		All of these new clients support improved high-color avatars, larger room backgrounds (also in high-color), and modern sound formats (such as [[MP3]]), and are designed for modern operating systems. However, only Palace Chat is presently maintained and is the present-day client of choice.
Line 60:		Line 60:
	==Other clients==		==Other clients==
	* [http://pchat.org PalaceChat], created by Jameson Heesen (known in the community as PaVVn), which supports all original features of The Palace, as well as high-quality backgrounds and avatars, larger rooms and videos. This is the primary client in use.{{Citation needed\|date=October 2017}}		* [http://pchat.org PalaceChat], created by Jameson Heesen (known in the community as PaVVn), which supports all original features of The Palace, as well as high-quality backgrounds and avatars, larger rooms and videos. This is the primary client in use.{{Citation needed\|date=October 2017}}
	* [~~http~~://sourceforge.net/projects/linpal/ Linpal], an open source Linux client using GTK+.		* [https://sourceforge.net/projects/linpal/ Linpal], an open source Linux client using GTK+.
	*Phalanx, primarily developed by David Lee by meticulously reverse-engineering the official client and was released by ~~[http://www.bhlabs.com/phalanx.html~~ Brainhouse Laboratories]. It's currently abandoned, but was the first viable alternative to the official client.		*Phalanx, primarily developed by David Lee by meticulously reverse-engineering the official client and was released by Brainhouse Laboratories. It's currently abandoned, but was the first viable alternative to the official client.

	==Incompatible Palace-like clients==		==Incompatible Palace-like clients==
	* [http://www.madwolfsw.com/ The Manor], written by a former Palace lead developer. The Manor includes embedded Python for user and room scripting with an encrypted data stream. Supports importing Palace avatars. Both new incarnations of The Palace support larger room sizes and 32-bit color avatars.		* [http://www.madwolfsw.com/ The Manor], written by a former Palace lead developer. The Manor includes embedded Python for user and room scripting with an encrypted data stream. Supports importing Palace avatars. Both new incarnations of The Palace support larger room sizes and 32-bit color avatars.
	* [http://worlize.com/ Worlize], an online virtual world ~~utilizing~~ [[user-generated content]]		* [http://worlize.com/ Worlize], an online virtual world using [[user-generated content]]
	* [http://openverse.com/ OpenVerse], an open-source visual chat program written in Tcl/Tk.		* [http://openverse.com/ OpenVerse], an open-source visual chat program written in Tcl/Tk.