But when sales dipped with the economy, the systems, which were heavy and costly, faded away.
But the systems, which require unthinkable sums of money to build, are not growing nearly as rapidly.
The company has shipped 740,000 of the systems, which sell for $200, about two-thirds the price of Sony's PlayStation2 and Microsoft's Xbox.
It followed three months of negotiations in which AOL had sought unsuccessfully to retain the systems, which it controlled through a partnership with Advance/Newhouse Communications.
Spectrum Equity Investors, a private equity firm in Boston, and the cable entrepreneur Steve Simmons will buy the systems, which have about 80,000 subscribers, RCN executives said.
This summer it began installing the systems, which offer customers up to 25 movies, 25 short-subject programs and 50 compact discs, in its economy cabins, too.
Of the Tomahawks purchase, he wrote: "The systems which guide them and the intelligence on which their targeting depends are all American.
The rate at which officers are armed, the law which controls them, the systems which are supposed to supervise them are all left untouched.
We'll need to look forward to understand and acquire the data we'll need at that time to train the systems which will be critical to our competitiveness.
The systems, which have one belt and front and rear pulleys, can also be bought from many frame manufacturers for use in customized bikes.
The company also encourages its big customers to use the systems, which it calls video collaboration studios, or to link up in virtual networks using their own systems.
