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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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| February | Sega | Daytona USA | Becomes one of the world's most impactful racing games of all time, and "won't go away[2]" |
| 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 [3]" |
| July | SNK | Samurai Shodown | '93 Game Of The Year voted on by Electronic Gaming Monthly[4] |
| October | Namco | Ridge Racer | - |
| December | 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 |
| 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 | - |
| 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 | - |
| 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[4] |
| November | Nintendo | Clay fighter | 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 | One of the greatest - and most influential - games of all time. |
| 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.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ Freeman, Will (2017-10-06). "Daytona USA: why the best arcade racing game ever just won't go away" (in en-GB). The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/06/daytona-usa-arcade-racing-game-1993-sega-coin-op-driving.
- ↑ "WMS Industries Inc.'s fiscal second-quarter profit rose 6..." (in en). tribunedigital-chicagotribune. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1994-01-26/business/9401260045_1_mortal-kombat-ii-video-games-rose.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Template:Oldid
- ↑ "Virtua Fighter". Sega Retro. Retrieved 2018-01-02.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
- ↑ "NBA Jam". GamePro (IDG) (56): p. 188. March 1994.
- ↑ Wolf, Mark J. P. (2008) (in en). The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to Playstation and Beyond. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9780313338687. https://books.google.ca/books?id=to5zEwOC9BcC&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=gates+new+standard+in+multimedia+7th+guest&source=bl&ots=OPOjtdtj3o&sig=QJoaJ0T_etkrOz8x_NokVJjFYtA&hl=en&ei=mXK2TJrvLNGgngegpblq&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=bill%20gates&f=false.
- ↑ "15 Things You Might Not Know About Myst" (in en). 2015-04-23. http://mentalfloss.com/article/63351/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-myst.
Template:Years in Video Gaming