Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday’s everyone! The 2025 video game season is pretty much over at this point, with another year of notable releases and events going by and entering the history books, but what about video games of year’s past? As I do every week, where I highlight a notable title released 10, 20, 30, and sometimes 40 years ago, I thought it would be fun to look back at not only the biggest games from each year, but also some of the most noteworthy and interesting things that happened in the video game industry.

What’s different this year, however, is that I will be breaking this up into two parts. As I was writing up the 2005 events, it became clear to me that it was getting far too long to be a comfortable read. While I could have just started omitting things, I felt it was better to instead give you all the events from 1985 & 1995 today, then do a separate write-up on the events from 2005 & 2015 tomorrow.

Alright, with that out of the way, please take a break from all that crass materialism the Holiday’s demand of us, if only for a few minutes, and read about some of the big things that happened in gaming from 1985 and 1995!

1985:

Two years after the great video game crash of 1983, things were starting to look up for the industry. The arcade business was seeing an increase in revenue, thanks to a string of critically acclaimed and technologically impressive titles like Commando, Paper Boy, Spy Hunter, Gradius, Hang-On, Ghosts ‘n Goblins and Gauntlet. However, it was one company in particular that pulled the entire industry from the brink of disaster, Nintendo.

After a successful launch of the Famicom in Japan in 1983, Nintendo were ready to enter the North American market and wanted to get their console into stores by the end of 1983. To do this, the company formed a partnership with Atari, who would distribute the Famicom in the U.S. under the name the “Nintendo Enhanced Video System”. However, when the console rights to Donkey Kong went to Atari’s main rival, Coleco, the company felt Nintendo had betrayed their trust and they would hastily pull out of the deal.

In hindsight, this was a great thing for Nintendo, as Atari would soon find itself in major financial distress due to a string of misfires in 1983, which would lead to the big crash. In the aftermath, much of Nintendo’s market research indicated that the video game industry in North America was dead, particularly in the home console sector. Despite the warnings, Nintendo still felt like there was a market for the Famicom in the U.S., so the company began to roll out new arcade cabinets that they called the VS. System. These were, in essence, arcade cabinets with Famicom hardware built inside. The VS. System proved incredibly popular with arcade owners, as the ease of switching out games was very simple, essentially changing cartridges, and proved popular with players, who were treated to brand new Nintendo games on a regular basis.

Many of the NES’ launch titles began their life on the VS. System, including Excitebike, Hogan’s Alley, Duck Hunt, Clu Clu Land, Wrecking Crew, and more. The success of these VS. System games were key to the NES’ launch, as it allowed Nintendo to preview their titles to the public, hyping up the new console that was on the horizon. However, many retailers were still wary of video games, thinking they were just another fad that had come and gone. To help alleviate their concerns, Nintendo redesigned the console to appear more like a sleek appliance, with neutral gray colors (as opposed to the Famicom’s red and gold color scheme), renamed it “Nintendo Entertainment System”, and played up the toy aspect of the device by putting R.O.B. the robot front and center in the NES’ marketing.

The NES would launch in select North American markets on October 17th, 1985 to minor fanfare and major skepticism. In the largest market, New York City, Nintendo employees were looked upon with disdain and, in some cases, hatred, due to growing anti-Japanese sentiment in the U.S., particularly as their cars began to dominate the auto industry. Hesitant retailers only agreed to carry the console and its games because of a very generous buy-back policy from Nintendo, which allowed the retailers to return any and all unsold units for a full refund, and were able to take the merchandise on credit, which meant they didn’t have to pay for anything until 90 days after receiving the items. In one retailers words, this was Nintendo’s funeral.

With 100k units going to New York, Nintendo employees were responsible for setting up and merchandising their own product while disgruntled store employees told customers that they were “forced to sell this Japanese crap“, in no uncertain terms. Sales were slow to start but, by the end of the year, 90k of the initial 100k units in NYC were sold while, across all markets, nearly half a million games were sold. Nintendo were very pleased with this outcome and vowed to have the console in every U.S. market by the end of 1986.

I don’t think it can’t be said enough, Nintendo saved the video game industry in North America; period. As 1986 rolled around, the popularity of the NES only grew, thanks in large part to its slate of high quality games that were 1:1 “arcade accurate”, due to the VS. System cabinets using the exact same versions that were released for home use. The one game that caught everyone’s attention was, of course, Super Mario Bros., the side scrolling masterpiece that defined video games for decades. It is, hands down, the best launch title on the NES and would become the best selling video game of 1985, easily trouncing anything put out for the dying Atari line of consoles.

I know we just spent a ton of time talking about the NES, other stuff did happen in 1985, I promise, but I don’t think any of us would be sitting here, discussing video games or even playing them at the same level/frequency if it wasn’t for Nintendo. I don’t believe it’s hyperbole to say that Nintendo is the most important company in video game history. Other companies came before Nintendo and others did it better afterward (in some ways), but the entire video game hobby would likely be dead or incredibly niche if Nintendo doesn’t release the NES in 1985.

Alright, so what else happened in 1985? Well, even though things were looking up in the industry overall, the effects of the video game crash of 1983 were still being felt. The pioneering publication Electronic Games, one of the first video game magazines, ceases publication after debuting in 1981. This also means that their annual “Arkie” awards do not take place. The only major prizes given out in 1985 were from The Golden Joystick Awards, a UK based organization, with the ceremony hosted by musician Jools Holland (ask your parents). The big winner of the night was The Way of the Exploding Fist, an action title for the Commodore 64. Other winners included Little Computer People for Best Original Game, Red Moon for Adventure Game of the Year, Theatre Europe for Strategy Game of the Year, and Commando for Arcade-Style Game of the Year.

Adventure International, one of the pioneering developers in the PC adventure game genre, shuts down in 1985 after being founded in 1979. Heavily inspired by the success of the text-based adventure game Colossal Cave Adventure, Adventure International founder Scott Adams (not THAT Scott Adams) developed their first game, Adventureland, in 1979, receiving major critical acclaim. Adams would continue to make games for the company through its lifespan and, because of their success, would strike a licensing deal with Marvel Comics, as well as with the producers of the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, adapting it into a video game.

While Nintendo hits a grand slam with the NES, Coleco discontinues their console, Colecovision, after only three years on the market. The company finds itself in major financial trouble when their home PC, the Adam, fails miserably, and they assume the video game & PC market to be dead (probably saw that same market research Nintendo did). Coleco feels confident, though, after finding great success in the traditional toy market with their Cabbage Patch Dolls, as well as in the board game market with the iconic 80’s party game Trivial Pursuit. The success would be short lived, however, with Coleco going bankrupt in 1988, seeing many of their product lines purchased by rival toy company Hasbro.

It’s not all bad news, though. Three major companies are founded in 1985; French developer/publisher Titus, publisher Tradewest, and developer Westwood Studios. While it would take a couple years for each company to release a title or find a hit, they would all go on to be major players in video games for the next 10 to 20 years.

While they would later be well known for their RPG series Final Fantasy, Squaresoft releases their first game for the Famicom in Japan, an action title called Thexder. Strangely, the game would never get an NES localization but it would come to North America on the PC in 1987, with the publishing/distribution rights going to Sierra On-Line (of King’s Quest fame).

Finally, in the world of home PCs, aside from the failed Adam from Coleco, Atari Corporation releases the 520ST, a consumer grade PC that is trying to compete with the Apple Macintosh. The monochrome version would retail for $800, while the color version would retail for $1,000. Commodore releases two PCs in 1985, the 8-bit Commodore 128 (for $300) and the Amiga 1000, a 16/32-bit machine that was considered quite powerful for the era. It retailed for $1,285. While all three of these machines are impressive, they don’t do much in the market. Their presence, however, does continue to raise the profile of the home PC.

Top Games of 1985:

• 10-Yard Fight (NES)
• 1942
• A Mind Forever Voyaging
• Arm Wrestling
• Clu Clu Land
• Commando
• Duck Hunt

• Excitebike
• Gauntlet
• Ghostbusters (Atari)
• Ghosts ‘n Goblins
• Golf (NES)
• Gradius
• Gun.Smoke

• Gyromite
• Hang-On
• Hogan’s Alley
• Ice Climber
• Karate Champ
• King’s Quest II
• Kung Fu

• Little Computer People
• The Oregon Trail
• Paperboy
• Pinball (NES)
• Rush ‘n Attack
• Soccer
• Super Mario Bros.

• Tennis (NES)
• Tiger-Heli
• Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
• Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
• Wild Gunman
• Wrecking Crew
• Yie Ar Kung-Fu

1995:

If Nintendo saved the video game industry in 1985 with their debut console, the NES, Sony ushered it into the 21st century in 1995 with their debut console, the PlayStation. What began as a partnership between Sony and Nintendo to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES, ended in bitterness when the Big N turned their back on Sony, opting to instead partner with the company Philips.

The breaking of the deal infuriated Sony’s president, Norio Ohga, and he tasked one of their executives, Ken Kutaragi, with developing a console that would challenge Nintendo’s dominance in the video industry. This new machine, called PlayStation, was a huge risk for that company that, frankly, not everyone at Sony was on board with. However, the disrespect from Nintendo was seen as so egregious that there was no way that Sony could just let it go. While 2D, 16-bit gaming was the dominant format at the time, Sony was very impressed with the success of Sega’s 3D fighting game Virtua Fighter and decided that the PlayStation would have a strong focus on 3D titles.

With no in-house video game development studio, Sony would rely heavily on third party developers for the launch of the PlayStation and, in their effort to court them, found that many held incredibly negative views of Nintendo. It had been common knowledge in the video game industry that Nintendo were very strict about how third-party companies released games on their console. There were strict quality standards that had to be met, which helped make the NES stand out against Atari’s consoles in the 1980’s. However, by the 1990’s, Nintendo’s policies seemed antiquated and draconian. The cost of working with Nintendo was also high, particularly in the price of developing cartridges.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Sony made lucrative offers to these third-party developers, leading to a strong partnership with Namco, ensuring that popular games like Ridge Racer, Air Combat (the precursor to Ace Combat) and Tekken would arrive in the launch window for the system in the US. In total, nearly 250 third-party developers would sign on to create games for the PlayStation.

Initially releasing in Japan in 1994, the PlayStation would arrive in North America on September 9th, 1995 for $299.99 (a price that was famously revealed at E3 the following Summer). The console was a smash hit at launch, selling out across the country and boasting an impressive 4 to 1 attach rate for its software (that means four games were purchased for every one console sold; get it?). Critics felt the machine was far superior to Sega’s 3D system, the Saturn, with Ridge Racer and Battle Arena Toshinden being better made than Sega’s Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter.

After a year on the market, the PlayStation would capture 20% of the video game marketplace, grossing $22 billion, worldwide, in both console & software sales. As Sega did with the launch of the Genesis in 1989, Sony positioned the PlayStation as the console for “grown-ups”. It’s CD-ROM technology made it seem more high tech and allowed it to function as not just a game console but also an audio CD player. Its games were more mature than what you’d see on a Nintendo console and the marketing played up this fact, with edgy commercials that contained the slogan “YOU ARE NOT READY”, with “ready” being a single letter “E” in a red font, which you read as “Red E”.

We’ll go over this more next year, following the release of the Nintendo 64, but Sony really did disrupt the industry and caused the once powerful Nintendo to question their place in consumers living rooms. However, while Nintendo was the intended target of their ire, the real loser in all of this was the other video game company; Sega. With rumors flying around wildly about Sony’s PlayStation console, Sega, who was already in a losing battle with Nintendo, wanted to get a jump on the competition by releasing their own 3D capable console. They quickly cobbled together the Sega Saturn and unleashed it on a public that, quite literally, had no idea it existed.

Announced and released in May of 1995, the Saturn caught everyone off guard, including many retailers, who were not made aware of the consoles launch. The only retailers to seem to have any Saturn consoles were Toys R Us and EB Games, infuriating others, like Best Buy and Walmart. KB Toys was so incensed that they refused to carry the Saturn or any of its software. At a price of $399.99, the Saturn was easily the most expensive major console on the market and, as I mentioned earlier, Sony capitalized on this by announcing, just minutes later, that the PlayStation would retail for $299.

By October, 2nd, about two weeks before the launch of the PlayStation, Sega dropped their price to $299, but the damage was done. The Saturn was dead on arrival due to its high price, surprise launch, and poor third party support, as many companies opted to go with PlayStation, finding the deals more lucrative and the console easier to develop for. In another crushing blow, Sony would lower the price of the PlayStation to $199 one year later, forcing Sega to lower their price, which cause them significant financial harm as the Saturn was a costly machine to produce. This was the beginning of the end for Sega, as a console manufacturer, despite a valiant attempt at a comeback with the Dreamcast in 1999.

While the modern VR headset craze kicked off around 2016, we had a precursor to that in 1995 when three products released that purported to deliver “virtual reality” in one way or another. The most high profile of these, and also the biggest loser, was Nintendo’s Virtual Boy. Released in North America on August 14th, 1995, the Virtual Boy was Nintendo’s stop-gap console that was supposed to keep them relevant between the final year of the Super NES and their upcoming Ultra 64 (renamed Nintendo 64).

This semi-portable device was Nintendo’s first 32-bit console and promised to deliver immersive gameplay with some of Nintendo’s best characters. The console consisted of a headset that players would look into as they used a standard controller to play the games. Not truly VR and not truly 3D, the Virtual Boy instead displayed 2D sprites in a monochrome red hue that was jarring to the eye. Couple that with a very heavy, uncomfortable headset that you were expected to set on a pedestal that you then set on a tabletop, and you had one unpleasant experience.

The Virtual Boy was, as you expected, a huge disaster for Nintendo and gave the company its first major loss in the video game industry; and I mean true disaster, with only 770k units sold worldwide. It was discontinued after only 1 year on the market and has been largely ignored by Nintendo since then. However, the company has recently embraced the Virtual Boy, declaring that they will release several of the games through the Nintendo Switch Online service and will even sell a headset modeled after the original design, which will allow you to place your Switch console into, simulating the experience.

Budget handheld gaming company Tiger also released a “virtual reality” device, the R-Zone, positioning itself as the much (much) cheaper alternative to the Virtual Boy. Consisting of a head strap that had a small, transparent screen attached to it, the R-Zone was able to display the traditional Tiger Electronics graphics on this little sheet of plastic, giving the illusion that it was happening in front of you. At on $30 bucks, it was a cute novelty but was, of course, a complete piece of shit. It was able to eke out an existence for two years, though, finding itself removed from store shelves in 1997.

The only true VR headset to be released for consumer use in 1995 was the VFX1 Headgear from a company called Forte. While there were a handful of FPS games on PC that supported the headset over the next few years, including Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, and Dark Forces II, the device was prohibitively expensive, retailing for $700 (about $1,500 today), and did not ever reach mainstream appeal. Forte would eventually be folded into another company called IIS, who are now called Vuzix. The company still works in the VR/AR field and have released several products over the last 30 years.

We had three major game companies founded in 1995, the biggest of these is BioWare, who would release their first game in 1996, Shattered Steel. BioWare would, of course, go on to great success in the ensuing years, first with Baldur’s Gate, then with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age. Also founded in 1995 is Mythic Entertainment, and are best known as the creators of multiple MMOs in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, such as Aliens Online, Godzilla Online and Dark Age of Camelot. In 2006, the company would be purchased by EA and then, funny enough, become a support studio for BioWare; Mythic would be shut down in 2014. Lastly, Finnish developer Remedy is founded and will release their first game, Death Rally, in 1996. Remedy would first find major success with the Max Payne series, while having more recent success with the Alan Wake and Control franchises.

While video game magazines are still going strong in 1995, the internet is fast becoming a place for gaming fans to congregate and discuss their hobby. One of the most prolific video game websites in the early days of the internet is founded in 1995, GameFAQs; a place where users can write and upload their own video game strategy guides and share cheat codes. I remember spending hours and hours on GameFAQs looking up how to get through various RPGs, chatting on their message boards, and taking part in their infamous user polls. The website, which is currently owned and operated by the media conglomerate Fandom, is still going strong today.

Rounding things out for 1995, let’s go over some of the games recognized as the best of the year by the three major video game magazines in North America. First up, Electronic Gaming Monthly (or EGM) named Twisted Metal Game of the Year. GamePro called Doom the best PlayStation Game, Donkey Kong Country 2 the best SNES game, Vectorman the best Genesis game, Virtua Fighter 2 the best Saturn game, and Donkey Kong Land the best Game Boy game. Nintendo Power named Chrono Trigger the best SNES game and also named Donkey Kong Land the best Game Boy game.

Top Games of 1995:

• Area 51
• Battle Arena Toshinden
• The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery
• Blood Bowl
• Bust-a-Move
• Castlevania: Dracula X
• Chrono Trigger

• Comix Zone
• Command & Conquer
• Destruction Derby
• The Dig
• Discworld
• Earthbound
• Fatal Fury 3

• Final Fight 3
• Full Throttle
• Gex
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
• Jagged Alliance
• Jumping Flash!
• King of Fighters ’95

• Kirby’s Dream Land 2
• Marathon 2: Durandal
• Mario’s Picross
• Mega Man 7
• Mortal Kombat 3
• Panel de Pon
• Panzer Dragoon

• Phantasmagoria
• Police Quest: SWAT
• Rayman
• Return Fire
• Ridge Racer
• Ristar
• Samurai Shodown III

• Soul Edge
• Space Quest 6
• Star Wars: Dark Forces
• Street Fighter Alpha
• Super Bomberman 3
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
• Tekken (PlayStation)
• Tekken 2

• The Terminator: Future Shock
• Time Crisis
• Twisted Metal
• Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
• World Heroes Perfect
• Worms
• You Don’t Know Jack

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That’s two years down, two more to go! Thank you for taking the time to read up on some of the biggest moments in video games from 1985 and 1995, I hope you’re ready for even more craziness to come from 2005 and 2015. See you tomorrow!