Notable events of 1995 in video gaming. See also history of computer and video games.
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Events
- May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek (then called Video Game Advisor)
- May 11-16 — The 1st annual E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is held in Los Angeles.
- November 5 — GameFAQs debuts on the web, as an archive of video game FAQs.
Notable releases
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is released, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Mario series.
- November 11; Mindscape releases Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, the first game of the real-time tactics genre and the first fully 3D real-time strategy/wargame.
- September — Westwood Studios releases Command & Conquer, which becomes one of the first popular real-time strategy games and spawns a franchise.
- SquareSoft releases Chrono Trigger for SNES on March 11 in Japan and August 22 in North America, which was their largest game for the system at 32 megabits, and included multiple ways to finish the game.
- Jagged Alliance (Sir-Tech, DOS), the first in a series of turn-based strategy games
- Star Wars: Dark Forces (LucasArts, DOS), the first in a series of Star Wars-based first-person shooters that would take off with Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (1997)
- Descent (Parallax Software, DOS), popularized the use of portal rendering technology and provided the player with six full degrees of freedom.
- Flight Unlimited (Looking Glass Studios, DOS/Windows 95), possibly the first home flight simulator to use fluid dynamic physics.
- EarthBound (Nintendo, Ape, Inc.) is released for the SNES in the US, garnering a cult following.
- Powerhouse is published by Impressions Games, now part of Vivendi SA.
- New World Computing releases Heroes of Might and Magic, which becomes the first game in the popular Heroes of Might and Magic turn-based strategy game franchise.
- Destruction Derby
- Softstar releases The Legend of Sword and Fairy (仙劍奇俠傳) in July.
- Sierra Online releases Phantasmagoria, a controversial game that strays from Sierra's typically family-oriented adventures to engross the player in a dramatic horror-themed, and technologically impressive, interactive movie.
- Origin Systems launches Crusader: No Remorse, an innovative action title featuring an isometric 3rd-person view of a futuristic solder out for revenge. Origin also releases Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, likely to be the most ambitious computer game of the time, with a $12 million USD budget for its interactive-movie/space simulation content.
- Blizzard releases Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, sequel to their initial real-time strategy title, and a far more refined and popular title.
- Cyberdreams release I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, an adaptation of writer Harlan Ellison's short story that won Computer Gaming World's award for "Best Graphic Adventure Game" of the year.
- On December 5th, Rareware and Nintendo releases Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest the sequel to the hugely popular Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
- LucasArts releases the adventure game Full Throttle.
Hardware
- Nintendo releases:
- the Game Boy Play It Loud series, color/clear versions of the Game Boy
- Virtual Boy (by Gunpei Yokoi) 32-bit console
- Satellaview BS-X accessory for the Famicom console in Japan only
- Sega releases:
- May — Sega Saturn home console in North America (released in Japan on November 22 1994).
- Sega 32X add-on for the Sega Mega Drive in Europe
- September 9 — Sony releases the PlayStation console in the United States.
- September 29 — Sony releases the PlayStation console in Europe.
- September 23 nowco releases the joygame console in the United States
- The NES is no longer made in USA.
Business
- Frog City Software, Inc. established
- Mark Jacobs and Rob Denton establish Interworld Productions, which is renamed Mythic Entertainment in 1997.
- Norm Koger founds Talonsoft.
- Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip establish BioWare in Edmonton, Alberta.
- Cyberdreams goes out of business.
