Game Histories

In 1993, the video game industry was crowded with would-be mascots. Mario and Sonic had already demonstrated the value of […]

By the closing years of the 1980s, the Nintendo Entertainment System had become a natural destination for licensed entertainment. Movies, […]

When Al Unser Jr.’s Turbo Racing reached the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States in March 1990, the game […]

When Alien 3 reached theaters in 1992, it gave video game designers an unusual problem. The film placed Ellen Ripley […]

When Alex DeMeo’s Race America reached American Nintendo Entertainment System owners in 1992, its premise was easy to understand. Choose […]

Long before HAL Laboratory became closely associated with Kirby, the company produced a collection of unusual games that experimented freely […]

By the end of the 1980s, the Nintendo Entertainment System had become a natural destination for licensed entertainment. Cartoons, films, […]

More than a century after Mark Twain introduced Tom Sawyer to readers, the boy from the Mississippi River found himself […]

In 1989, the Nintendo Entertainment System was crowded with games built around action. Players jumped across pits, shot enemies, explored […]

On store shelves near the end of 1990, The Adventures of Rad Gravity was difficult to mistake for anything else. […]

By the early 1990s, Rocky and Bullwinkle had already survived more than three decades of television reruns, syndication, and changing […]

By the time Adventure Island II appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991, Hudson Soft had already transformed an […]

By the time Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Hillsfar reached American Nintendo Entertainment System owners in 1993, the game already belonged […]

By the summer of 1992, the Nintendo Entertainment System was no longer the newest machine in American living rooms. Nintendo’s […]

By the time Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance reached the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States in […]

For many American Nintendo Entertainment System players, Adventures of Dino Riki was simply one more strange cartridge on a crowded […]

By the time Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance reached the Nintendo Entertainment System in early 1991, the […]

For many Nintendo Entertainment System players, Hudson’s Adventure Island seemed to have an identity all its own. Master Higgins ran […]

In 1990, Nintendo Entertainment System owners were handed an unusual invitation. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy were preparing for […]

When The Addams Family returned to movie theaters in 1991, the characters were already several generations removed from their beginnings […]

In 1989, American Nintendo Entertainment System owners were introduced to a hero who seemed designed to leap directly from an […]

By the time Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: DragonStrike reached the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992, Dungeons & Dragons had already […]

By the beginning of the 1990s, the Addams Family had returned from television history to popular culture in a major […]

In 1989, scrolling shooters were already well established on home consoles. Players had flown through alien worlds, military installations, mechanical […]

By the end of the 1980s, Freddy Krueger had become one of the most recognizable figures in American horror. What […]

Long before Madden NFL turned professional football into an annual video game institution, and before Tecmo Bowl became one of […]

In the crowded library of the Nintendo Entertainment System, some games became permanent fixtures of video game history. Super Mario […]

In 1987, Capcom returned to the skies of the Pacific with 1943: The Battle of Midway, a vertically scrolling arcade […]

Years before the name Square became nearly inseparable from role-playing games, the company was still searching for the kinds of […]

When 1942 appeared in Japanese arcades in December 1984, Capcom was still far from the international video game giant it […]