1991 in video gaming

Events

Notable releases

• Electronic Arts releases Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a popular series of games.
• AOL, SSI, TSR and Stormfront Studios collaborate and launch Neverwinter Nights, credited as the first graphical MMORPG.
• Delphine Software releases Another World for the Amiga 500, one of the first games to be made using polygons instead sprites.
• February 14 — DMA Design releases Lemmings, a puzzle game that requires the player to lead a group of lemmings through a dangerous environment to an escape portal.
• February 6 — Capcom releases Street Fighter II for arcades. It becomes highly successful and is routinely listed as the grandfather of the fighting game genre. It is also credited with revitalizing the arcade game industry at the time,^[1] and popularizing direct tournament-level competition between players.^[2]
• May 6 — Sierra On-Line releases The Sierra Network, which is also credited as the first graphical MMORPG (due to its inclusion of The Shadow of Yserbius), TSN would later become its more memorable name, ImagiNation Network, after a total buyout from AT&T in 1994.
• June 23 — Sega releases Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis which later becomes the pack-in game for the console. It introduces the eponymous character, who would go on to be Sega's mascot. Sega also releases a version of the game for the Master System and Game Gear.
• July 19 — Square 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 23 — Nintendo releases Super Mario World and F-Zero along with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America; Super Mario World was 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 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Famicom in Japan.
• December 1 — LucasArts releases Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge for Amiga, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and FM Towns.
• December 6 — Mega Man 4 is released in Japan.
• December 13 — Tecmo releases Tecmo Super Bowl for NES, the follow-up to 1989's Tecmo Bowl.
• December 16 — MicroProse creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game as of 2005.
• Team17 release Alien Breed, the first of their popular Alien Breed series, for the Amiga.

Hardware

• July — Atari updates their Lynx handheld system with a smaller form-factor, better screen, and longer battery life.
• August 23 — 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 for the Microsoft Windows platform.

Business

• New companies: Vicarious Visions, Inc, id Software, Bungie, Silicon & Synapse (now known as Blizzard Entertainment), The 3DO Company (founded as SMSG, Inc.), Cyberdreams

References