1994 in video gaming

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Events

• Nintendo calls this year "1994: The Year of the Cartridge".
• Nintendo Australia Pty. Ltd, the Australian subsidiary of Nintendo Co., Ltd is established and opened by Hiroshi Yamauchi and effectively ends Mattel Australia's distribution of Nintendo's products throughout Australia.
• "Project Reality" is renamed the Nintendo Ultra 64. The console's design is revealed to the public for the first time in spring 1994.
• April — Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) founded (name changed to the Entertainment Software Association in 2003); IDSA founds Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)
• April 28 — Sega and MGM make a venture to create video games, movies, and television programs.
• June 24 — The Computer Game Developers Association is formed by Ernest W. Adams.
• November — Game Zero magazine drops their print format and becomes the first video game news magazine on the web.
• November 10 — William Higinbotham, creator of Tennis for Two (1958), dies at 84.

Notable releases

• Namco releases Point Blank.
• February 2 — Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Sega, Mega Drive/Genesis), introduced Knuckles the Echidna.
• March 19 — Super Metroid (SNES), distributed on a 24-megabit cartridge (the largest of its time), called the "best game of all time" by Electronic Gaming Monthly in 2002.
• Square Co. releases Final Fantasy VI (then known as Final Fantasy III in North America) for the SNES on April 2 in Japan and October 11 in North America.
• May 3 — Epic Megagames releases Jazz Jackrabbit, which is named as the 1994 Arcade Game of the Year.
• June 9 — Shiny Entertainment releases Earthworm Jim.
• July — LucasArts releases TIE Fighter.
• July 5 — Capcom releases Darkstalkers, its horror characters and EX meter make it a fighting cult classic to this date.
• August 27 — Nintendo releases Mother 2 for the Super Famicom in Japan, which was released almost a year later in North America on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as EarthBound.
• September 22 — Looking Glass Studios releases System Shock.
• October — Killer Instinct (Rare), the first arcade game with an internal hard disk, making extensive use of pre-rendered graphics.
• October 10 — id Software releases Doom II and Dave D. Taylor creates a Linux port of the original Doom, becoming the first major game for the new operating system.
• October 17^[1] — Sonic & Knuckles was released. It introduced "lock-on" gaming, allowing a player to connect previous Sonic games to the cartridge, making Knuckles playable in them.
• October 25 — Microprose releases UFO: Enemy Unknown and the Strategy Game of the Year Master of Orion.
• November — Blizzard Entertainment releases the real-time strategy game Warcraft, which spawns a franchise and influences many later games.
• November 21 — Nintendo releases Rare's Donkey Kong Country (SNES), featuring distinctive 3D pre-rendered graphics. It was followed by several sequels.
• November 23 — Sierra On-Line releases the computer adventure game King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride which was the first in the series to use "SVGA" graphics.
• December 9 — Namco releases its first 3D fighting game Tekken in the arcade.
• December 21 — Bungie releases Marathon, one of the earliest original (non-ported) first-person shooters for the Macintosh.
• Mortal Kombat II becomes the first title to contain blood and gore on a Nintendo platform.
• Daytona USA (Sega, arcade game), a highly successful racing game noted for its advanced 3D graphics that included texture mapping
• Origin Systems releases their most ambitious Wing Commander game, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, based both around space simulation gameplay and an interactive movie with big-name actors. It's one of the most expensive games developed, with a budget of $4 million USD.
• Sensible Software releases Sensible World of Soccer, regarded as the best Amiga game of all time by British Amiga magazine Amiga Power.
• MicroProse releases Master of Magic.
• Sir-tech Software, Inc. releases turn-based tactics game Jagged Alliance, the first installment of Jagged Alliance series.
• Raven software releases Heretic.

Hardware

• Aiwa releases the CSD-GLM Mega Drive multimedia home console in Japan only
• Bandai releases the Playdia multimedia home console
• NEC releases the PC-FX multimedia home console
• Sega:
  • introduces the North American cable TV Sega Channel in cooperation with Time Warner (AOL Time Warner); the subscription service provides Sega Genesis games via cable box to customers
  • releases the Sega 32X add-on for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in Europe, North America and Japan
  • releases the Sega Nomad handheld console in North America, a portable Sega Genesis.
  • releases the Sega Saturn home console in Japan
• SNK releases the Neo Geo CD home console

PlayStation video game console, first released in Japan

• Sony releases the PlayStation console in Japan on December 3
• Nintendo releases the Super Game Boy adapter for the SNES home console

Business

• Apogee establishes the 3D Realms Entertainment division.
• Blizzard Entertainment is renamed from Silicon & Synapse.
• Commodore goes out of business.
• SSI sold to Mindscape
• Alpex Computer Corp. v. Nintendo lawsuit: Alpex sues Nintendo over patent infringements. Nintendo loses the case.
  • Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Dragon Pacific Intern
• Neversoft Entertainment is founded.

References