Events
Notable releases
★
Namco releases ''
Star Blade'', ''
Super World Stadium'', ''
Solvalou'', which is the 3rd title in the ''
Xevious'' series, ''
Tank Force'', which is the sequel to ''
Tank Battalion'', ''
Cosmo Gang the Video'', which uses characters from a popular redemption game released in the previous year, ''
Steel Gunner 2'', ''
Winning Run '91'' and ''
Golly! Ghost! 2''.
★
Microprose creates ''
Civilization'',
Sid Meier's most successful game
as of 2005.
★
Electronic Arts releases ''
Road Rash'' for
Sega Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the
1990s.
★
Capcom releases ''
Street Fighter II'' for arcades. It becomes highly successful and is routinely listed as the grandfather of the
fighting game genre.
★
Tecmo releases ''
Tecmo Super Bowl'' for
NES, which serves as one of the most revolutionary arcade
football games of its time.
★
AOL,
SSI,
TSR and
Stormfront Studios collaborate and launch ''
Neverwinter Nights'', the first graphical
MMORPG.
★
Delphine Software releases Eric Chahi's "
Another World" for the
Amiga 500, one of the first games to be made using
polygons instead of conventional
sprites. Also one of the first games to use
rotoscoping techniques to create cutscenes and fluid character animations since
Prince of Persia.
★
June 23 —
Sega releases ''
Sonic the Hedgehog'' (by AM8, later
Sonic Team) for the
Sega Mega Drive internationally and the
Sega Genesis in
North America. It introduced the
eponymous character, who would go on to became Sega's
mascot.
★
July 19 —
Squaresoft releases ''
Final Fantasy IV'' in Japan, the first ''
Final Fantasy'' game for the
Super Famicom (released in November as ''Final Fantasy II'' in North America).
★
August 13 —
Nintendo releases ''
Super Mario World'' along with the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System; it is the original pack-in game for the SNES, and one of the most sold games for that system. The game introduces the
Yoshi character to the
Mario series.
★
November 21 —
Nintendo releases '' for the
Super Famicom in
Japan.
★
Team17 release the first of their popular ''
Alien Breed'' series for the
Amiga.
Hardware
★
August 13 —
Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in
North America
★
December 1 —
Sega releases the
Mega CD in
Japan
★ September —
S3 launches with the 86C911, often regarded as the first significant
graphics accelerator chip
Business
★
New York State v.
Nintendo lawsuit: the state attorney general sues Nintendo over the monopoly of the
video game industry. Nintendo loses the suit and offers customers a $5 rebate on Nintendo games.
★ New companies:
Vicarious Visions, Inc,
id Software,
Bungie Software, Silicon & Synapse,
The 3DO Company (founded as SMSG, Inc.),
Cyberdreams