Wing Commander Prophecy expansion: Secret Operations (1998). That’s the first game I can remember that had, both, episodic content and being download only. Episodes were released every week…I think…maybe two…hard to remember that far back haha.
Anyway, residential broadband was still in its infancy in my area and we had to use dialup. Tying up a phone line during the days and evenings for 3hrs+ wasn’t an option, unless you were fortunate enough to have a 2nd line. I wasn’t. So an overnight download using GetRight download manager is what a lot of us did.
Nostalgia is nice to visit every now and then but I don’t miss those days what so ever.