1992 in video gaming
Encyclopedia

Events

Notable releases

  • Gremlin Graphics releases Zool
    Zool
    Zool is a video game originally produced for the Amiga by Gremlin Graphics in 1992.Zool was intended as a rival to Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. It was heavily hyped upon its initial release, including being bundled with the newly launched Amiga 1200, although not the AGA version with enhanced...

    , Amiga's
    Amiga
    The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

     answer to Mario
    Mario
    is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...

     and Sonic. It goes on to become the best selling Commodore Amiga game, boosting the already popular computer to be the leading gaming machine in Europe.
  • Origin Systems
    Origin Systems
    Origin Systems, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Austin, Texas that was active from 1983 to 2004...

     releases Ultima VII
    Ultima VII
    Ultima VII: The Black Gate is the seventh installment of the Ultima series of computer role-playing games. It was released in 1992.The Black Gate was critically and commercially successful, being widely lauded as a high point in the series and as one of the best isometric RPGs ever created...

    : The Black Gate
    for the PC.
  • March — Blue Sky Productions
    Looking Glass Studios
    Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s.The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged....

     releases Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
    Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss
    Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss is a first-person role-playing video game developed by Blue Sky Productions and published by Origin Systems...

    , the first ever first-person 3D CRPG.
  • April 17 — Nintendo
    Nintendo
    is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

     releases Kirby's Dream Land
    Kirby's Dream Land
    Kirby's Dream Land, known as in Japan, is a 1992 third party developed platforming video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy handheld video game console. It was first released in Japan, and was later released in North America. It is both the first video game...

    for the Game Boy
    Game Boy
    The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

    , the first game featuring the character Kirby
    Kirby (Nintendo)
    is the main protagonist of Nintendo's Kirby video game series created by Masahiro Sakurai and developed by HAL Laboratory. The Kirby series is one of Nintendo's many well-known game franchises, spanning nearly twenty games since 1992...

    .
  • May 5 — id Software
    Id Software
    Id Software is an American video game development company with its headquarters in Richardson, Texas. The company was founded in 1991 by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack...

     releases Wolfenstein 3D
    Wolfenstein 3D
    Wolfenstein 3D is a video game that is generally regarded by critics and gaming journalists as having both popularized the first-person shooter genre on the PC and created the basic archetype upon which all subsequent games of the same genre would be built. It was created by id Software and...

    , which arguably popularized the first-person shooter
    First-person shooter
    First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...

     genre for the PC
    Personal computer
    A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

    .
  • June — Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
    Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
    Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is a point-and-click adventure game by LucasArts originally released in 1992. Almost a year later, it was reissued on CD-ROM as an enhanced "talkie" edition with full voice acting and digitized sound effects...

    was released by LucasArts
    LucasArts
    LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...

    . It was considered one of the most advanced adventure game
    Adventure game
    An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...

    s of the time and was a breakthrough for LucasArts' SCUMM
    SCUMM
    Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion is a scripting language developed at LucasArts to ease development of the graphical adventure game Maniac Mansion....

     games
  • July 29 — Ecco the Dolphin
    Ecco the Dolphin
    Ecco the Dolphin is a puzzle video game released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The central character, Ecco, is a bottlenose dolphin controlled by the player through a progression of side-scrolling aquatic levels...

    was released, the first in the series
    Ecco the Dolphin (series)
    Ecco the Dolphin is the collective name given to a series of action/adventure science fiction video games developed by Novotrade International and published by Sega. They were originally developed for the Mega Drive/Genesis and Dreamcast video game consoles, but have since been ported to numerous...

    .
  • August — Midway Games
    Midway Games
    Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...

     releases the Mortal Kombat
    Mortal Kombat (video game)
    Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...

    arcade game, which features bloody "fatalities", digitized characters, and started a franchise of games and movies.
  • August 27 — Super Mario Kart
    Super Mario Kart
    is a go-kart racing video game developed by Nintendo EAD for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System . The first game of the Mario Kart series, it was launched in Japan on August 27, 1992, in North America on September 1, 1992, and in Europe on January 21, 1993. Selling eight million copies...

    (Nintendo, Super Famicom/SNES), the first in the Mario Kart
    Mario Kart
    is a series of go-kart-style racing video games developed by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from its trademark Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games...

    series, spawned the mascot/go-kart
    Go-kart
    thumb|A [[Kart racing|racing kart]] at the [[Commission Internationale de Karting|CIK-FIA]] European Championship 2008A go-kart is a small four-wheeled vehicle...

     subgenre of racing game
    Racing game
    A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...

    s
  • October 8 — Mortal Kombat
    Mortal Kombat (video game)
    Mortal Kombat is a 1992 fighting-game developed and published by Midway for arcades. In 1993, home versions were released by Acclaim Entertainment. Released in the Fall of 1994, the Microsoft Windows 3.1x version was released by Activision Interactive. It is the first title in the Mortal Kombat...

    is released to arcades.
  • October 15 — Sega releases the controversial Night Trap
    Night Trap
    Night Trap is a video game that was released in North America on October 15, 1992 originally for the Sega Mega-CD. It was filmed over a three week period in 1987 for an unreleased game entitled "Scene of the Crime"...

    video game for the Mega-CD console.
  • October 21 — Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
    Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
    is a platforming video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1992, in North America on November 2, 1992, and in Europe on January 28, 1993...

    was released for the Game Boy
    Game Boy
    The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...

    , introducing Wario
    Wario
    is a fictional character in Nintendo's Mario series. The character was designed as another antagonist to Mario , and first appeared in the 1992 Game Boy title Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main antagonist and final boss...

     to the Mario
    Mario
    is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...

     series
  • November 21 — Sega
    Sega
    , usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

     publishes Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System, Game Gear), which features the first appearance of Super Sonic and Miles "Tails" Prower
    Miles "Tails" Prower
    , better known by his nickname , is a character, as well as the main deuteragonist in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games, comics, animated series and film released by Sega....

    .
  • Interplay
    Interplay Entertainment
    Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...

     publishes Alone in the Dark
    Alone in the Dark (series)
    Alone in the Dark is a series of survival horror computer games from Infogrames. In most of the series, the gamer plays as private investigator Edward Carnby, who usually goes to investigate a haunted mansion or town that is full of undead creatures. The story is based on the writings of H. P...

    , widely considered the first survival horror.
  • Dune II
    Dune II
    Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty is a Dune computer game released in 1992 by Westwood Studios...

    was released by Westwood Studios
    Westwood Studios
    Westwood Studios was a computer and video game developer, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was founded by Brett Sperry and Louis Castle in as Westwood Associates, and renamed to Westwood Studios when it merged with Virgin Interactive in...

    , creating the template for the modern real-time strategy
    Real-time strategy
    Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....

     genre.
  • Domark
    Domark
    Domark Software was a video games software house based in the United Kingdom. The name was derived from the given names of its founders, Dominic Wheatley and Mark Strachan...

     releases Championship Manager
    Championship Manager
    Championship Manager was the very first game in the popular Championship Manager series of association football management simulation games. The game was originally released on the Amiga and Atari ST in September, 1992 and then ported to the PC/DOS platform soon after...

     for the Amiga
    Amiga
    The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

     and Atari ST
    Atari ST
    The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

    .
  • September 24 — SNK releases Art of Fighting
    Art of Fighting
    is a trilogy of competitive fighting game titles that were released for the Neo Geo platform in the early 1990s. It was the second fighting game franchise created by SNK, following the Fatal Fury series and is set in the same fictional universe...

     for the arcade.
  • Flashback/Flashback: The Quest For Identity was released by Delphine Software International
    Delphine Software International
    Delphine Software was a French video game developer company. They were famous for their games Another World and Flashback, which bore a similarity to Prince of Persia, both in gameplay and in utilizing rotoscoped animation...

     on the Amiga
    Amiga
    The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...

    , later released on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo in 1993. The game was praised for its rotoscoped animation, giving movements fluidity unusual for the time. It is listed in the Guinness World Records
    Guinness World Records
    Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...

     as the best-selling French game of all time.

Hardware

  • JVC
    JVC
    , usually referred to as JVC, is a Japanese international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan which was founded in 1927...

     releases the Wondermega console in Japan, a Sega Mega Drive
    Sega Mega Drive
    The Sega Genesis is a fourth-generation video game console developed and produced by Sega. It was originally released in Japan in 1988 as , then in North America in 1989 as Sega Genesis, and in Europe, Australia and other PAL regions in 1990 as Mega Drive. The reason for the two names is that...

     and Sega Mega-CD
    Sega Mega-CD
    The is an add-on device for the Mega Drive video game console, designed and produced by Sega and released in Japan, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The device was also released in North America under the name Sega CD, for the Sega Genesis...

     put into one console (later released as the X'eye in North America)
  • Philips
    Philips
    Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....

     releases the CD-i
    CD-i
    CD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. CD-i also refers to the multimedia Compact Disc standard used by the CD-i console, also known as Green Book, which was developed by Philips and Sony...

     multimedia home console
  • Super Nintendo Entertainment System
    Super Nintendo Entertainment System
    The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...

     released in Europe
    Europe
    Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

     and Australasia
    Australasia
    Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

  • Sega
    Sega
    , usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

     releases the Mega-CD as Sega CD (an add-on for the Sega Genesis) in North America
    North America
    North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

    , almost a year after the equivalent Japanese launch
  • Taito Corporation
    Taito Corporation
    The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....

     creates the Wowow
    WOWOW
    WOWOW was the first private satellite broadcasting and pay TV station in Japan. It has its headquarters on the 21st floor of the Akasaka Park Building in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo...

     home console (unreleased)
  • TTI (Turbo Technologies Inc.) releases the TurboDuo
    TurboDuo
    The TurboDuo was a video game console released in the United States. It was released on October 10, 1992 by 'Turbo Technologies Incorporated', a Los Angeles-based corporation consisting of NEC and Hudson Soft employees, established to market NEC consoles in North America after NEC Home Electronics...

     home console
  • Commodore
    Commodore International
    Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...

     releases the Amiga 1200
    Amiga 1200
    The Amiga 1200, or A1200 , was Commodore International's third-generation Amiga computer, aimed at the home market...

     home computer
  • Nintendo Super Scope
    Super Scope
    The Super Scope, or Nintendo Scope in Europe and Australia, is the official Super Nintendo light gun. It was released in the European and North American markets, with a limited release in Japan due to a lack of consumer demand...

     is released for the SNES

Business

  • Atari
    Atari
    Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...

     Games Corp. v. Nintendo
    Nintendo
    is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

     of America, Inc.
  • Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc.
    Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc.
    Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc. was a court case which established the rights of users to modify copyrighted works for their own use....

  • Activision
    Activision
    Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...

     (as Mediagenic) files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
  • New companies: Wow Entertainment
    Wow Entertainment
    Sega Wow is a Sega video game company, which resulted from the merger of Wow Entertainment and Overworks.-Wow Entertainment:Wow Entertainment was an in-house Sega developer previously known as AM1...

     Inc. (AM1), Humongous Entertainment
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