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Events

• March — In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super PLAY (SP) starts. The original name is Super Power.
• Midway Games embroiled in controversy for its game Mortal Kombat from 1992 when the game is launched for video game consoles in 1993.
• The first use of motion control photography in video games, used by Stormfront Studios in Eagle Eye Mysteries, produced by Scott Orr and published by Electronic Arts.

Notable releases

• Electronic Arts releases James Pond 3 for all consoles.
• Microprose releases X-Com: Enemy Unknown on December 31.
• Microprose releases the Strategy Game of the Year Master of Orion.^[1]
• Namco releases Super World Stadium '93, Emeraldia, Nettou! Gekitou! Quiztou!!, Numan Athletics, Ridge Racer, 'Great Sluggers '93, Final Lap R, Cyber Sled and Tinkle Pit.
• June: Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle is released by Lucasarts as a sequel to Maniac Mansion and is notable for being one of the acclaimed early titles by designer Tim Schafer.
• July: Domark release Championship Manager 93 the second of the series.
• August — Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Game Boy), which becomes the best-selling handheld game in the series.
• August: Infocom and Activision release Return to Zork.
• September 24 — Broderbund releases the Myst computer game, which goes on to become one of the bestselling games of all time.
• December 10 — id Software releases Doom, a seminal first-person shooter that advanced 3D graphics for computer games.
• Nintendo releases the game Star Fox for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the first game to use the Super FX Chip.
• Sega releases the Virtua Fighter (by AM2) arcade game, which is later displayed at the Smithsonian Institution.
• Stellar Crisis is released, making it the first free multi-player wargame that is entirely browser based.

• Squaresoft releases Secret of Mana for the SNES, the second in a series of role-playing games (the first technically being Final Fantasy Adventure for the Game Boy in 1991).
• Nintendo releases Kirby's Adventure, the second Kirby game and the only one for the NES.
• Nintendo releases the game Super Mario All-Stars for the Super NES. It features the first 3 Super Mario Bros. games together on one. Also, it's the first time the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 is playable in North America.
• March 15 — Sunsoft releases Blaster Master 2 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
• Maxis releases SimCity 2000, sequel to the tremendously popular SimCity.
• December 17 — Sierra On-Line releases Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. It is the first game in the Gabriel Knight series and features the voices of Tim Curry, Mark Hamill, Michael Dorn, and Leah Remini.
• Sega releases Sonic CD, Sonic Spinball and Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.

Hardware

• Atari Corp. releases the Jaguar home console, calling it the first 64-bit video game system
• Commodore Business Machines releases the Amiga CD32 multimedia home console
• Goldstar, Panasonic, and Sanyo release their versions of the 3DO, the first 32-bit home console
• Nintendo releases a smaller redesigned NES, which allows cartridges to now be inserted at the top of the console, instead of the front.
• Pioneer releases the LaserActive multimedia home console
• Sega's Mega CD released in Europe and Australia.
• Tandy releases the Video Information System (VIS) multimedia home console

Business

• Magnavox is acquired by the Carlyle Group
• Microprose Inc. is acquired by Spectrum Holobyte
• New companies: nVidia Corporation, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., Croteam Ltd.

References