This Day in Video Game History: September 18

This Day in Video Game History: September 18
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This Day in Video Game History

1983

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Release 18 of the Infocom interactive fiction game for IBM-compatible computers was published. It was Infocom’s seventh game.

1986

Release 4 of the Infocom interactive fiction game Moonmist for IBM-compatible computer was published for personal computers. It is Infocom’s twenty-second game.

1987

Release 221 of the Infocom interactive fiction game The Lurking Horror for IBM-compatible computers was published. It was was written by Dave Lebling and inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. In it, a student at G.U.E. Tech braves a snowstorm to travel to the school’s computer lab to work on the report, only to find it has been partially overwritten by the Department of Alchemy’s files. Soon after, the student stumbles upon the powerful evil that lies within the school’s depths.

1992

id Software released the single-player first-person shooter Spear of Destiny for personal computers. Spear of Destiny was a prequel to id Software’s landmark game Wolfenstein 3D. The game cast player in the role of B.J. Blazkowicz, allied spy who must recapture the Spear of Destiny from the Nazis.

1993

The animated series Sonic the Hedgehog, based on the video game franchise of the same name, premiered in the U.S. as part of ABC’s Saturday morning cartoon line-up. The series, which expanded on the backstory of the video game, ran for two seasons and a total of twenty-six episodes.

Due to a time-related algorithm error, eight of Sierra On-Line’s Macintosh games are rendered unplayable, causing the system to lock-up. The incident will leave Mac users hesitant to purchase future Sierra titles for years to come and be generally viewed as a sign of the industry’s disdain for the Mac market.

1998

Sega of Japan announces that its upcoming Virtua Fighter 3TB and Sega Rally 2 will be developed as “arcade perfect” adaptations for the yet-to-be-released Dreamcast system.

2001

Red Faction

THQ released the first-person shooter Red Faction for Windows. The game’s claim-to-fame is its “Geo-Mod” technology. Geo-Mod, which is short for “geometry modification,” allowed players to destroy certain sections of the game’s scenery. (ESRB: M)

2002

Eidos Interactive released the single-player real-time tactics game Commandos 2: Men of Courage for the Xbox in North America. (ESRB: T)

2006

Nintendo released Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team for the Nintendo DS and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team for the Game Boy Advance in North America. Inside of a year, Ble Resue Team alone will sell 3.08 million copies. (ESRB: E)

2007

Intel, a leading processor developer, announced that would acquire Havok, a leading developer of video game animation and physics tools. Analysts speculated that Havok technology, which has been used in games such as BioShock, Halo 2, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and MotorStorm as well as movies such as The Matrix, will help Intel make a crucial a role as content creator for itself in the future.

It was publicly announced in a press release that Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs’ purchase of Club NEVERDIE for one hundred thousand dollars in real world currently in the MMORPG Entropia Universe would be entered into the 2008 Guinness World Records book under “Most Expensive Virtual World Object.”

Stranglehold

Midway Games released the third-person shooter Stranglehold for Windows in the Europe. The game serves as a sequel to the 1992 John Woo film Hard Boiled. It’s the first game to use Midway’s Unreal Engine 3 game engineer, which was developed with the help of director John Woo specifically to translate the acrobatic choreography of his films into a game. Upon release, critics largely agreed that the engine had accomplished its task. The game is well received and highly praised for its slick presentation and dynamic fighting sequences. (BBFC: 18)

Namco Bandai released the game compilation Namco Museum DS for the Nintendo DS in North America. The compilation included seven classic arcade games: Dig Dug II, Galaga, Galaxian, Mappy, Pac-Man, Super Xevious, The Tower of Druaga, and Xevious.