1995 in video gaming

Notable events of 1995 in video gaming. See also history of computer and video games.

Events

• 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

• 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, 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.
• Mother 2 (Nintendo, Ape, Inc.) is released for the SNES as EarthBound in the US, garnering a cult following.
• 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, 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 the sequel to the hugely popular Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

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 23 nowco releases the joygame console in the united states

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.

Lawsuits

• Nintendo v. Samsung Electronics; Nintendo sues Samsung for promoting software piracy. The suit is settled.
• Nintendo of America, Inc. v. NTDEC

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