1996 IN VIDEO GAMING

Contents

Events

Notable releases

Hardware

Business

Awards

Events

★ March — The Swedish video game magazine ''Super Power'', started in 1993, changes its name to Super PLAY.

★ May 16-18 — 2nd annual E³

★ May 29 — Videotopia exhibit premieres for a test run at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. The next year it is greatly expanded for its showing at the Franklin Institute Science Museum.

★ August 8 — John Romero leaves id Software, forming Ion Storm in Dallas, Texas in November with Tom Hall (who had left id in 1993).

★ August 15 — Gunpei Yokoi resigns from Nintendo and founds his own company, Koto, on September 11.

★ DigiPen Institute of Technology receives accreditation, making it the first school in the world to offer college degrees in video game development.

★ December 19 — VGMusic.com debuts on the web, specializing in video game MIDI.

Notable releases

★ January 29 — ''Duke Nukem 3D'', successor to the simple side-scrolling originals, and a genre-redefining title for first person shooters. (PC)

★ March — Capcom releases ''Resident Evil'' for the PlayStation in Japan and the United States. It is believed to have invented the term "survival horror" and it popularized the genre.

★ March 9 — '', Square Co., Ltd.'s last produced game for the SNES, released in Japan

★ May 13 — '' released in North America

★ May 31 — id releases ''Quake'', advancing 3D graphics technology on the PC and starting a franchise that has sold more than 4 million games.

★ June 23 — Nintendo releases ''Super Mario 64'', the first 3D Mario platformer, in Japan as the flagship for their new Nintendo 64 system.

★ August 25 — Namco releases ''Tekken 2'' for the Sony PlayStation. The game sold over 3,000,000 copies worldwide.

★ August 31 — Bethesda Softworks releases '', a notable evolution of the sandbox RPG started with ''The Elder Scrolls: Arena''. (PC)

★ September 3 — Sony releases ''Crash Bandicoot'' video game. Crash Bandicoot is used as the mascot for their PlayStation console.

★ September 27 — 3DO publicly launches ''Meridian 59'', widely regarded as the first MMORPG.

★ October 31 — , the second major title in the ''Command & Conquer'' fanchise, and the most popular one yet. (PC)

★ October 31 — ''Master of Orion II'', the sequel to the revolutionary original. (PC)

★ November 15 — ''Tomb Raider'' is released for the PC, Sony PlayStation, and the Sega Saturn. It spawns a series of sequels as well as a series of movies.

★ November 30 — ''Diablo'' is released. It is the first chapter in Blizzard Entertainment's enormously popular series. (PC)

★ December 3 — '' is released for N64 and PC. It is part of a large cross-media project by LucasArts.

★ ''Crusader: No Regret'', the critically acclaimed sequel to Origin's innovative ''Crusader: No Remorse''. (PC)

★ ''Final Doom'', the final release of the original Doom series. Contains 2 large and original storylines. (PC)

★ '', a successful sequel to the well-received ''MechWarrior 2''. (PC)

★ ''Donkey Kong Country 3'', the third and last installment to the popular Donkey Kong Country franchise is released.

★ ''Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh'', a controversial sequel to the controversial original. (PC)

★ ''Sega Super GT'' is released in arcades, considered a graphical marvel just like its predecessor (Daytona USA), the game runs on the Sega Model 3 hardware and renders 1 million polygons per second.

★ '', sequel to the innovative original, and the final interactive movie-based Star Wars game. (PC)

★ The first console emulators appear.

Hardware

★ Bandai's Tamagotchi virtual pet handheld

★ Nintendo:

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★ Nintendo 64 64-bit home console

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★ Game Boy Pocket (GBP) handheld console (30% smaller version of the previous Game Boy handheld console)

★ SEGA's Net Link modem for the Sega Saturn home console

★ SNK's Neo Geo CDZ (Japan only)

★ Namco's ''Alpine Racer'' arcade game, including a new type of user interface

Business

★ February — Blizzard Entertainment acquires a development group known as Condor, renaming it Blizzard North

★ February 13 — Atari Corporation announces a plan to merge with JTS Corp.

★ April — Eidos acquires Centregold plc, which holds Core Design (creator of the Lara Croft character) and U.S. Gold

★ June — Firaxis Games is formed By Jeff Briggs with Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds

★ July — GT Interactive purchases Humongous Entertainment

★ November 13 — Tom Clancy and Virtus Corp. found Red Storm Entertainment, headed by Doug Littlejohns

★ Infogrames Entertainment SA acquires Ocean Software Ltd.

★ Midway Games, Inc. (subsidiary of WMS Industries, formerly known as Williams Electronics) acquires Atari Games Corp. from Warner Communications Inc. (AOL Time Warner in 2000)

★ Technos Japan Corporation, originator of the ''Nekketsu Kouha Kunio Kun'' series and ''Double Dragon'' series, goes out of business (assets acquired by Atlus Corporation)

★ Black Isle Studios forms as a division by Interplay; doesn't use Black Isle name until 1998

★ Game Park Inc. founded in South Korea

★ The company formed by Microprose and Spectrum Holobyte in 1993 starts branding using only the Microprose name

★ Overworks, Ltd. formed

★ Zed Two Limited formed

★ Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Computer & Entertainment, Inc.

★ The 3DO Company purchases New World Computing

Awards

★ Spiel des Jahres: El Grande - Wolfgang Kramer and Richard Ulrich, Hans im Glück