1992 in video gaming

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Events

Mortal Kombat featured digitized characters rather than typical hand-drawn ones.

Notable releases

• Gremlin Graphics releases Zool, Amiga's answer to Mario 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 releases Ultima VII: The Black Gate for the PC.
• Midway Games releases the Mortal Kombat arcade game, which features bloody "fatalities", digitized characters, and started a franchise of games and movies.
• March — Blue Sky Productions releases Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, the first ever first-person 3D role-playing video game.
• Broderbund Releases Living Books with Just Grandma and Me
• April 27 — Nintendo releases Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy, the first game featuring the character Kirby.
• May 5 — id Software releases Wolfenstein 3D, which arguably popularized the first-person shooter genre for the PC.
• June — Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was released by LucasArts. It was considered one of the most advanced adventure games of the time and was a breakthrough for LucasArts' SCUMM games
• July 29 — Ecco the Dolphin was released, the first in the series.
• August 27 — Super Mario Kart (Nintendo, Super Famicom/SNES), the first in the Mario Kart series, spawned the mascot/go-kart subgenre of racing games
• September 24 — SNK releases Art of Fighting for the arcade.
• October 15 — Sega releases the controversial Night Trap video game for the Mega-CD console.
• October 21 — Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins was released for the Game Boy, introducing Wario to the Mario series
• November 21 — Sega 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.
• Interplay publishes Alone in the Dark, widely considered the first survival horror.
• Dune II was released by Westwood Studios, creating the template for the modern real-time strategy genre.
• Domark releases Championship Manager for the Amiga and Atari ST.
• Flashback/Flashback: The Quest For Identity was released by Delphine Software International on the Amiga, 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 as the best-selling French game of all time.

Hardware

• JVC releases the Wondermega console in Japan, a Sega Mega Drive and Sega Mega-CD put into one console (later released as the X'eye in North America)
• Philips releases the CD-i multimedia home console
• Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in Europe and Australasia
• Sega releases the Mega-CD as Sega CD (an add-on for the Sega Genesis) in North America, almost a year after the equivalent Japanese launch
• Taito Corporation creates the Wowow home console (unreleased)
• TTI (Turbo Technologies Inc.) releases the TurboDuo home console
• Commodore releases the Amiga 1200 home computer
• Nintendo Super Scope is released for the SNES

Business

• Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America, Inc.
• Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc.
• Activision (as Mediagenic) files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
• New companies: Wow Entertainment Inc. (AM1), Humongous Entertainment