This week, let’s take a step back through time and look at some notable releases and events throughout gaming history.
February 9th
- 1977 Game of Life – Altair 680 version released. (US)
- 1982 The Boston suburb of Marlborough, Massachusettes, passes an ordinance barring the use of video games by anyone under age 18 during school class hours or late at night, and bans placement of the games within 1500 feet of public schools.
- 1988 Contra – NES version released. (Japan)
- 2004 Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles – GameCube version released. (US)
- 2010 Bioshock 2 – PS3 and Xbox 360 released. (US)
February 10th
- 1988 Dragon Warrior III – NES version released. (Japan)
- 1994 Wolfenstein 3D – SNES version released. (Japan)
- 1994 Nintendo announces it will not release a CD-based video game system, but will continue to use cartridges for its next-generation system.
- 1997 Mario Kart 64– Nintendo 64 release. (US)
- 2004 EverQuest: Gates of Discord – Windows version released. (US)
February 11th
- 1985 Digital Equipment concedes it has ceased production of the Rainbow computer.
- 1991 Apple Computer announces a revised Portable computer with backlighting.
- 1999 Final Fantasy VIII – Playstation release. (Japan)
- 2002 Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 – Game Boy Advance version released. (Canada, US)
- 2005 World of Warcraft – Windows release. (Germany, Sweden, Poland, UK, Croatia, Finland, France)
February 12th
- 1967 Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison begin work on TV Game Unit 2, to continue developing ideas for a video game system.
- 1992 X-Men – Arcade version released. (Japan)
- 2001 Rune – Windows version released. (Russia)
- 2002 Sonic Adventure 2 Battle – Released on GameCube and PS2. (US)
- 2003 Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon – GameCube version released. (US)
February 13th
- 1994 Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire – PC-98 version released. (Japan)
- 1995 Oregon Trail II – Windows version released. (US)
- 2002 Immersion files a lawsuit against Microsoft and Sony for patent infringement of joystick force-feedback technology in the Xbox and PlayStation 2 controllers.
- 2006 At a White House ceremony in Washington D.C., US President George W. Bush awards Ralph Baer a National Medal of Technology for “groundbreaking and pioneering creation, development, and commercialisation of interactive videogames”.
- 2007 EverQuest: The Buried Sea – Windows version released. (US)
February 14th
- 1995 US District Court Judge Stanley Sporkin rejects the consent decree settlement worked out between Microsoft and the Department of Justice, regarding Microsoft’s alleged unfair trade practices. He claims the proposed settlement does not go far enough in addressing Microsoft’s licensing practices, and is not in the public interest.
- 1996 Microsoft releases the Windows 95 Service Pack 1 operating system update.
- 1997 Tomb Raider – PlayStation version released. (Japan)
- 2000 Disney’s Tarzan – Nintendo 64 version released. (US)
- 2006 Resident Evil: Deadly Silence – Nintendo DS version released. (US)
Sources: Ken Polsson, and MobyGames.
