1995 in video games

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Events

May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek (then called Video Game Advisor)
May 11–13 — The 1st annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is held in Los Angeles, California.^[1]
November 5 — GameFAQs debuts on the web, as an archive of video game FAQs
November 24 — Nintendo unveils a playable version of the Nintendo Ultra 64, later renamed the Nintendo 64, at the 7th Annual Nintendo Space World Software Exhibition in Japan. Thirteen games were demonstrated but only two were in playable form, Kirby Ball 64 and Super Mario 64.^[2]

Notable releases

Video game platforms

Ami	Amiga
DOS	MS-DOS
GB	Game Boy

Neo	Neo Geo
PS1	PlayStation
Sat	Saturn

SMD	Mega Drive / Genesis
SNES	Super NES
Win	Windows
3DO	3DO Interactive Multiplayer
Atari Jaguar	Unknown platform

Notable releases of the year *1995*
Release	Title	System	Developer/Publisher	Notes
January 1	Battle Arena Toshinden	PlayStation	Tamsoft\SCEA	one of the first fully-3D fighting games
January 13	Bust-a-Move	Super NES	Taito
February 15	Star Wars: Dark Forces	MS-DOS	LucasArts	is the first in a successful series of Star Wars-based first-person shooters.
February 16	Ristar	Genesis	Sonic Team/Sega	a platform game.
February 24	Front Mission	Super Famicom	G-Craft\Squaresoft
March 10	Panzer Dragoon	Sega Saturn	Team Andromeda\Sega
March 11	Chrono Trigger	Super NES	Square	was their largest game for the system at 32 megabits
March 14	Mario's Picross	Game Boy	Jupiter\Nintendo	the first installment in a series of Mario-themed Picross titles released in the mid-90s.
March 17	Descent	MS-DOS	Parallax Software	Portal rendering with texture-mapped polygons, polygonal enemies, and six degrees of freedom.
March 21	Kirby's Dream Land 2	Game Boy	HAL Laboratory\Nintendo	second installment in the main Kirby series.
March 24	Mega Man 7	Super NES	Capcom
April 15	Mortal Kombat 3	Arcade
April 27	Jumping Flash!	PlayStation	Exact/SCEA
April 28	Super Bomberman 3	Super NES	Hudson Soft	first game in the Super Bomberman series to not get an American release; final game in the series released outside Japan.
April 30	Full Throttle		LucasArts	graphical adventure
May 25	Light Crusader	Genesis	Treasure\Sega
May 25	Shadow Squadron	Sega 32X	Sega
May	King Arthur & the Knights of Justice	Super NES	Enix	The only North America exclusive title released by Enix.
June 5	EarthBound	Super NES	Ape, Inc./Nintendo	is localized for US audiences, garnering a cult following in the US.
June 5	Street Fighter Alpha	Arcade	Capcom
June 7	Flight Unlimited	MS-DOS, Win95	Looking Glass Studios	possibly the first home flight simulator to use fluid dynamic physics.
June 29	Aquanaut's Holiday	PlayStation	Artdink, SCEA	A launch title for the PlayStation.
July	The Legend of Sword and Fairy		Softstar
July 21	Castlevania: Dracula X	Super NES	Konami	SNES port of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
July 24	MechWarrior 2	MS-DOS	Activision	spawned a franchise of BattleTech video games with high production values, helped to spawn the mecha genre of video games
July 25	The King of Fighters '95	Arcade	SNK	second installment in the King of Fighters series.
July 28	Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22	PlayStation	Bandai\Infogrames	would not be released in America until 2003, 8 years after its original release. It received overwhelmingly negative reviews.
July 31	Phantasmagoria		Sierra Online	a controversial game that strays from Sierra's typically family-oriented adventures.
August 5	Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island	Super NES		One of the last popular platformers for the SNES.
August 10	Bomberman GB 2	Game Boy	Hudson Soft\Nintendo	would not see release outside Japan until 1998; renamed simply "Bomberman GB" in America & Europe, due to the first installment being released outside Japan as Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!
August 31	Command & Conquer		Westwood Studios	one of the first popular real-time strategy games and spawns a franchise.
August 31	Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest		New World Computing	the first game in the popular turn-based strategy game franchise
August 31	Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom		Origin	ambitious computer game of the time, with a $12 million USD budget for its interactive-movie/space simulation content.
August	Comix Zone	Sega Genesis	Sega	A Beat 'em up game heavy inspired by comic books.
August	Tekken 2	Arcade, PS1	Namco	sold over 3,000,000 copies worldwide.
September 1	Rayman	PlayStation, Saturn	Ubisoft	The first game in the popular series.
October 6	Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together	Super Famicom	Quest Corporation
October 20	Terranigma	Super NES	Quintet	One of the last Action RPG on SNES.
October 27	Panel de Pon	Super Famicom	Intelligent Systems\Nintendo	released in America under the name "Tetris Attack", featuring a Yoshi's Island theme.
October 31	Destruction Derby	PlayStation	Reflections Interactive\Psygnosis
October 31	I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream		Cyberdreams	an adaptation of writer Harlan Ellison's short story that won Computer Gaming World's award for "Best Graphic Adventure Game" of the year.
October 31	Star Wars TIE Fighter: Collector's CD-ROM	PC	LucasArts
October	Time Crisis	Arcade	Namco
November 5	Twisted Metal	PlayStation	SingleTrac/Sony Computer Entertainment	Longest running PlayStation franchise, popular vehicular combat series.
November 21	Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest	Super NES	Rareware/Nintendo	the sequel to the hugely popular Donkey Kong Country
November 24	Battle Arena Toshinden 2	Arcade	Tamsoft\Capcom	the only game in the Battle Arena Toshinden series to be released in arcades.
November 24	Marathon 2: Durandal		Bungie
November 30	The Dig		LucasArts	adventure game.
December	Worms	Amiga	Team 17	it is an artillery video game and the first game in the Worms series
December	Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium	Genesis	Sega	localizes the 1993 Japanese game US, December 8 EU; marking the end of the original series.
December 1	Mega Man X3	Super NES	Capcom
December 9	Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation	Super Famicom	Heartbeat\Enix
December 9	Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness		Blizzard	sequel to their initial real-time strategy title, and a far more refined and popular title.
December 15	Tales of Phantasia	Super Famicom	Namco	the first in the Tales series.
December 15	Suikoden	PlayStation	Konami	debut of the Suikoden series
December 15	Brain Dead 13	MS-DOS	ReadySoft	An "FMV adventure" game from the creators of Dragon's Lair.
December 22	Final Fight 3	Super NES	Capcom
December 29	Ys V: Lost Kefin, Kingdom of Sand	Super Famicom	Nihon Falcom
December 31	The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery		Sierra On-Line	Adventure game; sequel to Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
December 31	King's Field II	PlayStation	From Software\ASCII Corporation\SCEE	first game in the King's Field series to be released outside Japan; renamed simply "King's Field" in NTSC-U/C and PAL regions.

Hardware

Nintendo releases:
- March 20 — Game Boy Play It Loud! series, color/clear versions of the Game Boy
- April 23 — Satellaview accessory for the Super Famicom console in Japan only
- July 21 — Virtual Boy 32-bit console in Japan. It is discontinued on December 22.

May 11 — Sega releases the Sega Saturn console in North America.^[3]
August 14 — The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is discontinued in North America.
September 9 — Sony releases the PlayStation console in the United States.^[4]
September 29 — Sony releases the PlayStation console in Europe^[5]
October 25 — Funtech releases the Super A'Can console in Taiwan.

Business

New companies: BioWare, Frog City, Interworld Productions (renamed Mythic Entertainment in 1997), Remedy, TalonSoft
Defunct: Cyberdreams

Lawsuits

Nintendo v. Samsung Electronics; Nintendo sues Samsung for promoting software piracy. The suit is settled.
Nintendo of America, Inc. v. NTDEC

References

^ "Attendance and Stats". IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
^ Semrad, Ed (February 1996). "Ultra 64 Unveiled". Electronic Gaming Monthly (79). Ziff Davis: 6.
^ Cifaldi, Frank (May 11, 2010). "This Day in History: Sega Announces Surprise Saturn Launch". 1UP.com. IGN. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. Retrieved October 30, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ Cifaldi, Frank (September 9, 2010). "This Day in History: Sony's PlayStation Launches in the U.S." 1UP.com. IGN. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
^ Roberts, Dave (September 29, 2005). "The day our world changed". Market for Home Computing and Video Games. Intent Media. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2015. The original PlayStation launched on September 29th 1995 priced £299. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

External links

[1] "Attendance and Stats". IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2015.

[2] Semrad, Ed (February 1996). "Ultra 64 Unveiled". Electronic Gaming Monthly (79). Ziff Davis: 6.

[SAT-May11-3] Cifaldi, Frank (May 11, 2010). "This Day in History: Sega Announces Surprise Saturn Launch". 1UP.com. IGN. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. Retrieved October 30, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

[PS-Sept9-4] Cifaldi, Frank (September 9, 2010). "This Day in History: Sony's PlayStation Launches in the U.S." 1UP.com. IGN. Archived from the original on April 17, 2015. Retrieved April 17, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

[MCV-DayChanged-5] Roberts, Dave (September 29, 2005). "The day our world changed". Market for Home Computing and Video Games. Intent Media. Archived from the original on April 15, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2015. The original PlayStation launched on September 29th 1995 priced £299. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

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