1993 in video gaming
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1993 has seen many sequels and prequels in video games and several new titles such as Star Fox, Virtua Fighter and Ridge Racer.
Contents
1 Events
2 Business
3 Notable Releases
3.1 Hardware
4 References
Events
- March – In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super PLAY (SP) starts. The original name is Super Power.
Nintendo and Silicon Graphics collaborate and begin work on "Project Reality". The project is officially announced in October.[1]
Business
- New companies: Croteam, nVidia, Take-Two Interactive, Shiny
- Defunct companies: DK'Tronics, Epyx
Magnavox is acquired by the Carlyle Group
MicroProse is acquired by Spectrum HoloByte
Notable Releases
| Date | Dev. / Pub. | Game Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | Midway | Mortal Kombat II | "Mortal Kombat II proved to be an enormous commercial success and even a cultural phenomenon. WMS Industries, owner of Midway at the time, reported its 1993 sales in the quarter ending December 31 rose to $101 million from $86 million and said much of its revenue gain was related to the sale of the arcade version of MKII [2]" |
| July | SNK | Samurai Shodown | '93 Game Of The Year voted on by Electronic Gaming Monthly[3] |
| August | Sega | Daytona USA | Becomes one of the world's most impactful racing games of all time, and "won't go away[4]" |
| October | Namco | Ridge Racer | - |
| November | Sega | Virtua Fighter | "Is often cited as being the first fully 3D fighting game released to the general public, and is a basis for almost all subsequent games in the genre[5] " |
| December | Midway | NBA Jam | Being one of the first sports games with official licensed teams and players, it became a cult classic. It was also the highest-earning arcade game of all time.[6] |
| Date | Dev. / Pub. | Game Title | Console | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February | LucasArts | X-Wing | PC | - |
| February | Nintendo | Star Fox | SNES | The first game to use the new Super FX chip |
| March | Nintendo | Kirby's Adventure | NES | Introduced Kirby's ability to take on the powers of enemies he has eaten, which would go on to become a staple of the franchise. First appearance of Meta Knight. |
| April | Virgin Interactive | The 7th Guest | PC | Sold over two million copies and was widely regarded as one of three "killer apps" that accelerated the sales of CD-ROM drives (other two being Myst & Doom[7] [page 129]). Bill Gates also called The 7th Guest "the new standard in interactive entertainment" |
| June | LucasArts | Maniac Mansion II: Day of the Tentacle | PC | - |
| June | Nintendo | The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening | Game Boy | The best-selling handheld game in the series |
| June | Electronic Arts | Syndicate | PC | - |
| July | Nintendo | Super Mario All-Stars | SNES | Featured upgraded 16-bit versions of the first four Super Mario games. Also Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels makes its debut in the Western region. |
| August | Square | Secret of Mana | SNES | Second "Action Role-Playing Game" after Final Fantasy Adventure |
| August | Activision | Return to Zork | PC | - |
| September | MicroProse | Master of Orion | PC | - |
| September | Sega | Sonic CD | PC | First appearance of Amy Rose and Metal Sonic to the Sonic the Hedgehog series. |
| September | Broderbund | Myst | PC | One of '93's key games, with lots of interesting facts[8] including that (until The Sims took the top spot with 6.3 million games sold in 2002) Myst was the best-selling PC title on record, with 6 million units sold since its launch. To date, the franchise has sold over 12 million units. |
| November | LucasArts | Sam & Max Hit the Road | PC | - |
| November | Capcom | Mega Man 6 | NES | - |
| November | Virgin | Disney's Aladdin | Genesis | Crowned "Genesis Game of The Year" at the Electronic Gaming Awards (aka the Arcade Awards aka the Arkies) voted on by the public[3] |
| November | Nintendo | ClayFighter | SNES | Thought of as a parody of Street Fighter & Mortal Kombat, but actually wasn't, and was re-released to the Wii. |
| November | Sega | Sonic The Hedgehog Spinball | Genesis | - |
| December | Sierra | Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers | PC | - |
| December | Id Software | Doom | PC | Widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential games of all time, especially in the first-person-shooter genre. |
| December | Capcom | Mega Man X | SNES | - |
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
^ O'Leary, Jay (October 1, 1993). "Learning to fly". AllBusiness.com. Retrieved January 27, 2010..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ "WMS Industries Inc.'s fiscal second-quarter profit rose 6..." tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
^ ab List of Game of the Year awards
^ Freeman, Will (2017-10-06). "Daytona USA: why the best arcade racing game ever just won't go away". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
^ "Virtua Fighter". Sega Retro. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
^ "NBA Jam". GamePro (56). IDG. March 1994. p. 188.
^ Wolf, Mark J. P. (2008). The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to Playstation and Beyond. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313338687.
^ "15 Things You Might Not Know About Myst". 2015-04-23. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
