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1990
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- Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. 3, the best selling game of
all times, grosses $500 million.
- The rental of videogame cartridges becomes more widespread.
- Street
Fighter II becomes the first
fighting game that sells big.
- Microsoft releases Windows 3.0.
- Nintendo releases the SuperFamicom in Japan. Sega releases
almost at the same time the Megadrive. Both are 16-bits game
computers. SNK releases the NeoGeo a 24-bits game computer. Both
hardware and software for this system were so expensive, that it
disappeared within the year.
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1991
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- Sega introduces Sonic the Hedgehog, a blue hedgehog which
is their new charismatic mascot. It has a large impact on the sales.
- Nintendo releases the SuperFamicom in the rest of the
world. Some adjustments have been made, and it is now called SuperNES.
- Tim Berners-Lee from the Swiss research centre CERN launches the
World Wide Web. Philip Zimmerman introduces the encryption software PGP
(Pretty Good Privacy).
- Linus Torvalds develops the first kernel of Linux, for his own
fun and comfort.
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1992
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- Sega introduces the optical disc, the Sega CD. Sega aims
for interactive movies, but the system does not exist for very long,
partly because there wer almost no games developed for this system.
- Nintendo dominates the market with Street Fighter II.
- Seven students at the University of Illinois, under the guidance
of Marc Andreessen, develop a graphical interface for the CERN world
wide web protocol: the Mosaic webbrowser.
- Sony starts the development of the Playstation, a 32-bits
game computer.
- Microsoft releases Windows 3.1P. This version of the
interface becomes very popular for general use. Developers start to
design games to run under Windows 3.1 instead of MS-DOS.
- Philips introduces the CD-i. It turns out to become a complete
failure.
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1993
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- Sega and its version of Mortal Kombat dominates Nintendo. The game gives rise to a
lot of discussion due to its blood-soaked gameplay. Two United States
senators threaten to ban violent videogames. Through the introduction of
a rating-system the games industry secures the continuation of (even
more) violent games.
- Debut of the 3DO, the first 32-bit game computer.
- Atari launches the Jaguar, a 64-bits game computer, which
is graphically only slightly better than the 16-bits game computers of
that time.
- Andreessen puts Mosaic on the Internet, and gains in no
time more than a million users. Andreessen and six of the original seven
developers write Netscape Navigator.
- NBA
Jam is the most
succesful arcade game of the year.
- Both Sega and Nintendo announce a new game computer, the Saturn
and the N(intendo)64.
- Introduction of the Pentium-computers.
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1994
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- The PC CD-ROM becomes a serious medium for the distribution of
games.
- Sega releases the 32X, an add-on for the Megadrive
computer. It was designed to make it possible to play with special
32-bits cartridges. In het absence of software support this system
disappears quickly again.
- Nintendo releases the Super Game Boy, an adapter to play
Game Boy software on the SuperNES.
- Release of the Sega Saturn and the Sony Playstation
in Japan.
- In the United States it is possible to order a pizza online at
Pizzahut.
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1995
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- Nintendo dominates the market with the SNES and Donkey Kong
Country 2.
- Virtua
Fighter 2 is released, a
3D-fighting game with real looking movements.
- Release of the Sega Saturn and the Sony Playstation
in the rest of the world. Nintendo announces a delay in the release of
the N64. The playstation is
introduced with a very expensive marketingcampaign, and wins a larger
part of the market. The playstation uses cd's instead of cartridges.
- Microsoft releases Windows 95, which is the end of MS-DOS
games. A lot of games are developed to be used with Windows 95, meaning
that they would not work with Windows 3.1 or MS-DOS.
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1996
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- Finally Nintendo releases the N64. First in Japan, later in the
rest of the world. The amount of software for the platform is at the
beginning very poor, only two games in the first few weeks. None of the
released titles this year makes it to a top-title, also due to the high
price of the console. The N64 is better than the Playstation, but it
continues to use cartridges. For that reason the N64 is not able to use
all its capacities. The market share of Nintendo is insecure, only hypes
as Mario Brother save the brandname.
- Start of the browser war between Microsoft and Netscape with the
introduction of Internet Explorer 3.0.
- Nintendo buys the Pokemon rights from Gamefreak. The
computergame is the first to be launched, later followed by the trading
cards, furry animals, films, etc. October 1999 Pokemon is
introduced in the Netherlands.
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1997
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- The amount of software for the Nintendo64 stays poor.
- Sony launches the Yaroze, a black Playstation that has the
possibillity of programming your own videogames.
- Enormous increase of games with multi-player internet options.
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1998
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- Sony announces the Playstation 2, Sega announces Dreamcast
a 128-bits game computer.
- The pentium computer is swapped for the pentium II.
- Introduction of the 3D-video cards, a major improvement for the
image quality.
- The majority of the games offer a multi-player internet option.
- Microsoft releases Windows 98, an upgrade for the Windows
95 graphical interface.
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1999
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- Intel introduces the Pentium III.
- The 31 year old David Smith is arrested for the writing of the
Melissa-virus and the distribution of it through Internet. Probably he
will be convicted to an emprisonment of 15 years and a fine of over $
400.000,=
- Sega introduces the Dreamcast. Also the Dreamcast is
technically better than the Playstation. In the United States it becomes
a success, in Europe the marketing campaign never comes to a good
result.
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