Notable events of 1994 in computer and video games. See also history of computer and video games. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... see also: 1993 in games, 1995 in games Games Released or Invented in 1994 Daytona USA Donkey Kong Country Final Fantasy VI Jazz Jackrabbit Killer Instinct Marathon Mortal Kombat II Phantasy Star IV Star Trek Customizable Card Game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Sonic and Knuckles Super Metroid Super Street Fighter... Notable events of 1993 in computer and video games. ... See also: 1994 in video gaming, other events of 1995, 1996 in video gaming, history of video games Events The 1st annual E³ (Electronic Entertainment Expo) held Business Frog City Software, Inc. ... Although the history of computer and video games spans almost five decades, computer and video games themselves did not become part of the popular culture until the late 1970s. ...

Events

Warcraft I, released in 1994, was followed by well known sequels

• 1994 - Nintendo calls this year "1994: The Year of the Cartridge".

• April - Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) founded (name changed to the Entertainment Software Association in 2003); IDSA founds Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)
• 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.

Download high resolution version (713x713, 281 KB)The original (and now unavailable) Warcraft: Orcs and Humans box art. ... Download high resolution version (713x713, 281 KB)The original (and now unavailable) Warcraft: Orcs and Humans box art. ... Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy computer game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Nintendo (Japanese: 任天堂, ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 ) is a Japanese company originally founded on November 6, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. ... Look up April in Wiktionary, the free dictionary April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of four with the length of 30 days. ... The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the computer and video game industry in the United States. ... The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a self-regulatory organization that applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles for computer and video games in the United States and Canada (officially adopted by individual provinces 2004-2005). ... June 24 is the 175th day of the year (176th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 190 days remaining. ... The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a non-profit organization designed to promote, and strengthen the video game industry, and have computer games recognised as an art form. ... For other uses, see November (disambiguation). ... Game Zero Magazine was a U.S. based video game magazine published from 1992 to 1998 (although primary publication stopped in 1996). ... November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 51 days remaining. ... William (Willy) A. Higginbotham (October 25, 1910 - November 10, 1994), a physicist, is credited with creating one of the first video games, Tennis for Two, which is similar to PONG. He created it on an oscilloscope in 1958, while the Head of the Instrumentation Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory, to... Tennis for Two was a game developed in 1958 on an oscilloscope which simulated a game of tennis or ping pong. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Notable releases

• February 2 - Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Sega, Genesis), introduced Knuckles the Echidna. Sonic & Knuckles was released in the autumn of 1994. Sonic & Knuckles introduced "lock-on" gaming, allowing a player to connect Sonic 2 or 3 to the cartridge, which allowed the player to play these games as Knuckles.
• 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.

• Nintendo releases Rare's Donkey Kong Country (SNES), featuring distinctive 3D pre-rendered graphics. It was followed by several sequels.
• Blizzard releases the real-time strategy game Warcraft, which spawns a franchise and influences many later games.
• Looking Glass Studios releases System Shock.
• Bungie releases Marathon, one of the earliest original (non-ported) first-person shooters for the Macintosh.
• Squaresoft releases Final Fantasy VI (known as Final Fantasy III in North America) for the SNES, which many still consider to be the best game in the series yet.
• Daytona USA (Sega, arcade game), a highly successful racing game noted for its advanced 3D graphics that included texture mapping
• Wario's Woods, the last game released for the NES in North America
• Killer Instinct (Rare, arcade), the first arcade game with an internal hard disk, made extensive use of pre-rendered graphics
• Rise of the Triad is released. The multiplayer mode included possibly the first ever Capture the flag mode in a PC game.

February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Sonic the Hedgehog 3, or simply Sonic 3, is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. ... Sega (セガ) (pronounced seh-gah in the U.S, see-gah elsewhere) is a video game software and hardware developer, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... The Mega Drive/Genesis was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world as the Mega Drive. ... Knuckles the Echidna is a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games, television shows and comics. ... Sonic & Knuckles is a platform game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis in 1994. ... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx Autumn (also fall in North American English) is one of the four temperate seasons, the transition from summer into winter. ... Sonic the Hedgehog 2, or simply Sonic 2, the sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog, is a platform game made by Sega for the Mega Drive/Genesis. ... March 19 is the 78th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (79th in leap years). ... Super Metroid is the third installment in the Metroid series of video games. ... The megabit is a unit of information storage, abbreviated Mbit or sometimes Mb. ... One of four covers used for EGMs 200th issue Electronic Gaming Monthly (often abbreviated to EGM) is a U.S.-based video game magazine published by Ziff-Davis that releases 12 issues a year (and an occasional extra 13th issue for the Holiday season, also known as the Smarch... See also: 2001 in video gaming, other events of 2002, 2003 in video gaming and the history of video games Events Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Will Wright of Maxis to the AIAS Hall of Fame BAFTA (British Academy of Film and... Nintendo (Japanese: 任天堂, ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 ) is a Japanese company originally founded on November 6, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. ... The Golden R Rare logo used since autumn 2003. ... Donkey Kong Country is a video game developed by Rare and Nintendo, featuring the popular arcade character, Donkey Kong. ... The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, and Australia. ... Blizzard Entertainment is a PC game developer and publisher. ... Age of Empires (1997), Invasion of an enemy A real-time strategy (RTS) game is a type of computer strategy game which does not have turns like conventional turn-based strategy video or board games. ... Warcraft: Orcs & Humans is a real-time strategy computer game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994. ... Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s. ... System Shock is a computer game developed by Looking Glass Studios (formerly Looking Glass Technologies). ... Bungie Studios is a video game developer founded in 1991 under the name Bungie Software Products Corporation (or in the non-legal definition Bungie Software) by two undergraduate students at the University of Chicago, Alex Seropian and Jason Jones. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Doom, one of the games that defined the first-person shooter genre. ... The Macintosh project started in early 1979 with Jef Raskin, an Apple employee, who envisioned an easy-to-use, low-cost computer for the average consumer. ... Square Co. ... Final Fantasy VI (ファイナルファンタジーVI Fainaru Fantajī VI) is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Square Co. ... Daytona USA was a racing arcade game released by Sega in 1994. ... Sega (セガ) (pronounced seh-gah in the U.S, see-gah elsewhere) is a video game software and hardware developer, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... Spherical texture mapping Texture mapping is a method of adding realism to a computer-generated graphic. ... Warios Woods is a puzzle game made by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo in 1993, and then later released on the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Satellaview in 1994. ... The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, is an 8-bit video game console released by Nintendo in North America, Brazil, Europe, Asia, and Australia. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the... Killer Instinct is a fighting game by Rare and Nintendo. ... The Golden R Rare logo used since autumn 2003. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... Rise of the Triad: Dark War (shortened to RotT) is a first person shooter computer game, first released on December 21, 1994 by Apogee Software (later known as 3D Realms). ... Capture the flag is a traditional outdoor game often played by children where two teams have a flag each and the objective is to capture the other teams flag, located at the teams base, and bring it back to their own base. ...

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 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 32X add-on for the Sega Genesis in North America and the Sega Megadrive in Europe 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
• December 3 - Sony releases the PlayStation console in Japan
• Nintendo releases the Super Game Boy adapter for the SNES home console

Aiwa was a Japanese consumer electronics company, founded in 1951. ... This article is about the Japanese toy manufacturer. ... The Bandai Playdia console The Playdia was a video game console released in 1994 by Bandai. ... NEC Corporation is a multi-national information technologies company headquarterd in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. ... The PC-FX console The PC-FX was NECs 32-bit sequel to its PC Engine (US:TurboGrafx 16). ... Sega (セガ) (pronounced seh-gah in the U.S, see-gah elsewhere) is a video game software and hardware developer, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... Sega Channel was a project developed by Sega for the 16-Bit Sega Genesis console. ... Time Warner Inc. ... The Mega Drive/Genesis was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world as the Mega Drive. ... Sega Genesis 32X on top of regular Genesis, model 2 The Sega 32X (Japanese: スーパー32X) was a video game console by SEGA. In Japan, the console was distributed under the name Sega Super 32X. In North America, its name was the Sega Genesis 32X. In Europe, Australia, and other countries... The Mega Drive/Genesis was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world as the Mega Drive. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the... Sega MegaDrive 2 European version with joypad, game cart + box Sega Mega Drive (Japanese: メガドライブ Mega Doraibu) was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega. ... Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiogeographic one. ... The Sega Nomad was essentially a portable Sega Genesis The Nomad shown with optional A/C power cord attached The Sega Nomad was a handheld game console sold in North America and South America, mainly in Brazil, essentially a mini-Genesis console, based on the Japanese Mega Jet and featuring... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the... The Mega Drive/Genesis was a 16-bit video game console released by Sega in Japan (1988), Europe (1990) and most of the rest of the world as the Mega Drive. ... The Sega Saturn (Japanese: セガサターン, Sega Saturn), is a video game console of the 32-bit era. ... It has been suggested that SNK Playmore be merged into this article or section. ... The system, with four games The Neo Geo CD was released shortly after its cartridge-based equivalent in an effort to reduce manufacturing costs. ... December 3 is the 337th (in leap years the 338th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Sony Corporation (Japanese katakana: ソニー) (TYO: 6758 , NYSE: SNE) is a global Japanese consumer electronics and financial services corporation based in Tokyo, Japan. ... The PlayStation (Japanese: プレイステーション) is a video game console of the 32-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid 1990s. ... Nintendo (Japanese: 任天堂, ニンテンドー Nintendō; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 ) is a Japanese company originally founded on November 6, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. ... The Super Game Boy is an adaptor cartridge for Nintendos Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as the Super Famicom in Japan. ... The European SNES design is identical to the Super Famicom. ...

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