1993 in video games

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Events

March – In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super PLAY (SP) starts. The original name is Super Power.
Midway Games embroiled in controversy for its game Mortal Kombat from 1992 when the game is launched for video game consoles in 1993.^[1]
Nintendo and Silicon Graphics collaborate and begin work on "Project Reality". The project is officially announced in October.^[2]

Business

New companies: Croteam, nVidia, Take-Two, Shiny
Defunct companies: Epyx
Magnavox is acquired by the Carlyle Group
MicroProse is acquired by Spectrum HoloByte

Notable releases

Arcade

June 25 – Mortal Kombat II is released.
July 7 – SNK releases Samurai Shodown.
October 7 – Namco releases Ridge Racer.
December – Sega releases Virtua Fighter, laying the foundations for 3D fighting games.
Sega releases Daytona USA
Midway releases NBA Jam which revitalizes the sports genre and by 1994 becomes the highest-earning arcade game of all time.^[3]

Home

February – LucasArts releases the first-person space combat simulator X-Wing for the PC.
February 21 – Nintendo releases Star Fox for the Super Famicom/SNES, the first game to use the Super FX chip. It introduces the characters Fox McCloud, Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare and Slippy Toad.
March 26 – Nintendo releases Kirby's Adventure, the second Kirby game and the only one for the NES. It introduced Kirby's copy ability and the character Meta Knight.
April – Virgin Games publishes The 7th Guest, which becomes a killer app for CD-ROM drives.
June – Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle is released by Lucasarts as a sequel to Maniac Mansion.
June 6 – Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy), which becomes the best-selling handheld game in the series.
July 14 – Nintendo releases Super Mario All-Stars for the Super NES. It features updated remakes of the first 3 Super Mario Bros. games including the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2, playable outside Japan for the first time.
August 6 – Square releases Secret of Mana for the SNES, the second in a series of action role-playing games (the first technically being Final Fantasy Adventure for the Game Boy in 1991).
August 20 – Activision releases Return to Zork.
September 6 – MicroProse releases Master of Orion.
September 23 – Sega releases Sonic CD, which marks the first appearance of Amy Rose and Metal Sonic.
September 24 – Broderbund releases the Myst computer game, which goes on to become one of the bestselling computer games of all time.^{[citation needed]}
November – Lucasarts releases Sam and Max Hit The Road.
November 5 – Mega Man 6 released in Japan for NES.
November 11 – Virgin Games releases Disney's Aladdin for the Genesis, voted Genesis game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.
December 10 – id Software releases Doom, a seminal first-person shooter that advances pseudo-3D graphics technology for computer games.
December 17 – Sierra releases Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
December 17 – Mega Man X is released in Japan for SNES.
Electronic Arts publishes Eagle Eye Mysteries, featuring the first use of motion control photography in video games.^{[citation needed]}
Bullfrog releases Syndicate.

Hardware

Sega releases the Model 2, an arcade system board that introduces 3D texture filtering. It becomes their most popular arcade system board.
Fujitsu releases the FM Towns Marty in Japan, as the first 32-bit home console, starting the fifth console generation.
Panasonic, GoldStar and Sanyo release the first versions of the 3DO 32-bit console
Atari Corporation releases the Jaguar home console, calling it the first 64-bit video game system.
Commodore Business Machines releases the Amiga CD32 multimedia home console.
Nintendo releases a smaller redesigned NES, which allows cartridges to be inserted at the top of the console, instead of the front.
Pioneer releases the LaserActive multimedia home console
Sega's Mega-CD released in Europe and Australia.

References

^ Wilson v. Midway Games, Inc. 198 F.Supp.2d 167, March 27, 2002.
^ O'Leary, Jay (October 1, 1993). "Learning to fly". AllBusiness.com. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
^ "NBA Jam". GamePro. No. 56. IDG. March 1994. p. 188.

[1] Wilson v. Midway Games, Inc. 198 F.Supp.2d 167, March 27, 2002.

[2] O'Leary, Jay (October 1, 1993). "Learning to fly". AllBusiness.com. Retrieved January 27, 2010.

[3] "NBA Jam". GamePro. No. 56. IDG. March 1994. p. 188.

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