1992 in video gaming

Events

Mortal Kombat

• Street Fighter II wins Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards and the last Electronic Gaming Awards

Notable releases

• January 1 – Dune II is released by Westwood Studios, creating the template for the modern real-time strategy genre.
• January 15 - Mega Man 4 is released in the US.
• March – Blue Sky Productions releases Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, the first ever real-time 3D, first-person role-playing video game.
• April 16 – Origin Systems releases Ultima VII: The Black Gate for the PC.
• April 27 – Nintendo releases Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy, the first game in the Kirby series.
• May 5 – id Software releases Wolfenstein 3D for MS-DOS, which popularizes the first-person shooter genre for the PC and leads to many similar games
• June – Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis is released by LucasArts, considered one of the most advanced adventure games of the time.
• July 29 – Ecco the Dolphin is released, the first in the series.
• August 27 – Nintendo releases Super Mario Kart, the first in the Mario Kart series, creating the mascot/go-kart subgenre of racing games,
• September 1 – Domark releases Championship Manager for the Amiga and Atari ST.
• September 24 – SNK releases Art of Fighting for the arcades.
• October – Sega releases Virtua Racing by Yu Suzuki and AM2 in the arcades, laying the foundations for subsequent 3D racing games and popularizing 3D polygon graphics among a wider audience.
• October – Gremlin Graphics releases Zool, a character-based platformer following in the footsteps of Mario and Sonic. It goes on to become the best selling Amiga game.
• October 8 – Midway Games releases the Mortal Kombat arcade game in North America, which features bloody "fatalities," digitized characters, and started a franchise of games and movies.
• October 15 – Sega releases the controversial Night Trap video game for the Sega CD console.
• October 21 – Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins is released for the Game Boy. The first appearance of Wario.
• November – Accolade releases Star Control II.
• November 21 – Sega publishes Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive/Genesis, Master System, Game Gear). The game introduced Sonic's signature ability the Spin Dash, Super Sonic, and Sonic's sidekick Miles "Tails" Prower.
• Interplay publishes Alone in the Dark, widely considered the first survival horror game and one of the first games with fully 3D polygonal characters.
• Flashback is released by Delphine Software on the Amiga. The game is praised for its rotoscoped animation, giving movements fluidity unusual for the time. It is listed in the Guinness World Records as the best-selling French game of all time.
• December 4 – Mega Man 5 is released in Japan. On December 31 Mega Man 5 is released in the US.

Hardware

• January 1 – Atari Corporation drops support for the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit family, Atari 7800, and software for those systems.
• October – Sega releases the Model 1, Sega's first arcade system board supporting 3D polygon graphics.
• December – the Apple IIgs is discontinued, ending the Apple II series.
• Namco releases the System 22, an arcade system board that introduces 3D texture mapping and Gouraud shading.
• Philips releases the CD-i multimedia home console
• Super NES released in Europe and Australasia
• Sega releases the Mega CD as Sega CD (an add-on for the Genesis) in North America, almost a year after the equivalent Japanese launch
• JVC releases the Wondermega console in Japan, a combined Mega Drive and Mega CD.
• Turbo Technologies Incorporated|TTI (Turbo Technologies Inc.) releases the TurboDuo, an updated version of the TurboGrafx-16 with built-in CD-ROM drive and Super System Card for Super CD-ROM² support.
• The Amiga 1200 computer is released. It's the final lower-cost Amiga model before Commodore's bankruptcy.
• Nintendo releases the Super Scope for the Super NES.

Business

• Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America Inc.
• Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc.
• Activision (as Mediagenic) files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
• New companies: Wow Entertainment Inc. (Sega AM1), Humongous Entertainment