1993 in video gaming

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.
• 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.
• 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