Here's the first in a little something that I got
inspired to do after browsing the net at lunchtime.
The first one I'm doing is lifted directly off that site there, but from next month onwards, I'll be compiling my own.
So sit back, and check out what happened in this month in gaming history...
SEPTEMBER!1st
1966 – Ralph Baer begins developing his idea for an interactive game played using a home television. This idea would eventually result in the Brown Box prototype, the first ever video game console, which also had the first ever light gun attachment. Magnavox would later adapt Baer’s prototype as the Magnavox Odyssey.
1988 – Super Mario Bros. 2 is released for the NES in North America. Unlike the Japanese SMB2, the version seen to the rest of the world is a remix of a game called Doki Doki Panic with Mario universe sprites and presentation. The reason for this was because Nintendo of America believed it looked too similar to the original and was too difficult.
1992 – Super Mario Kart is released on the SNES.
2005 – The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Missouri, rules that the DMCA forbids altering games published by Blizzard to connect to any server other than Battle.net.
2009 – Guitar Hero 5 is released for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii.
3rd
1996 – Nintendo releases the Game Boy Pocket in North America.
4th
1989 – The first episode of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show airs. The show includes live-action sequences, along with cartoon shorts. In the live-action segments, Mario is played by the late "Captain" Lou Albano, while Luigi is played by Danny Wells.
7th
1983 – AT&T announces a joint venture with Coleco to develop a service that would deliver games over phone lines. A similar product was made available for the Atari 2600, by another company, in 1983. That product was called Gameline, which may very well be the first attempt at what we know now as digital distribution.
1997 – Final Fantasy VII is released on the PlayStation in North America. The game still remains the most popular of the series.
1999 – Final Fantasy VIII is released on the PlayStation in North America.
9th
1989 – Captain N: The Game Master airs its first episode. The cartoon features a teenager named Kevin, who is sucked into a vortex and taken to Videoland. He travels alongside Simon Belmont, Mega Man, and Pit, as they go through various NES games, fighting monsters and villains, in an attempt to stop Mother Brain and rescue Princess Lana.
1991 – The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is officially released in North America. Even though some areas had the system as early as August 23, with some sources reporting August 13. Launch titles include Super Mario World, F-Zero, Pilotwings, SimCity, and Gradius III.
1994 – Mortal Kombat II is released for the SNES.
1995 – The Sony PlayStation is released in North America. Launch titles include Battle Arena Toshinden, Ridge Racer, Twisted Metal, and Warhawk.
1999 – The Sega Dreamcast is released in North America. Launch titles include Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, and NFL 2K.
2004 – Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen are released on the Game Boy Advance in North America.
10th
2000 – Sega launches SegaNet, the online gaming service for the Dreamcast.
13th
1985 – Super Mario Bros. is released for the Nintendo Famicom in Japan.
1992 – In the case of Nintendo vs. Atari over copyright infringement, the US Court of Appeals rules that reverse engineering is a legitimate business practice. However, it also rules that Atari still violated Nintendo copyright for other reasons.
1993 – On the day that Acclaim dubbed "Mortal Monday", the company released Mortal Kombat on the SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, Amiga, Sega CD, IBM PC, and Sega Master System.
14th
2004 – Fable is released on the Xbox.
2008 – Rock Band 2 is released for the Xbox 360. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo Wii releases came in the following months.
16th
1996 – 3DO announces their intention to sell the rest of their game hardware business and shift their focus to a third-party software developer.
2008 – Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS.
19th
2005 – The Game Boy Micro is released in North America.
2006 – Okami is released on the PlayStation 2.
20th
2002 – Microsoft buys Rare, a British development company. Nintendo had previously owned 49% of Rare, but once Microsoft bought the remaining 51% from the Stamper brothers, Nintendo sold their stake, as well.
21st
1996 – Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, a cartoon based on the popular fighting game series, airs its first episode. The series lasts 13 episodes.
23rd2005 - Meteos is released for the Nintendo DS in Europe.
25th
2007 – Halo 3 is released for the Xbox 360.
27th
1983 – Atari sends 14 truckloads of computer equipment and game cartridges to a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Six million E.T. cartridges are included in the load.
29th
1995 – The Sony PlayStation launches in Europe.
1996 – The Nintendo 64 is released in North America. Launch games included Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64.
30th
1998 – Pokemon Red and Blue are released for the Game Boy in North America.
2001 – Ico is released on the PlayStation 2. The game sells poorly, but is a critical success. Garnering praise from most gaming media sources, as well as three GDC awards, and five Interactive Achievement Awards.
