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This Month in Gaming 5, 10, 15... Years Ago - May 2020 Edition

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
【2015】
  • The development studio, Spark Unlimited, closed its doors. They developed 5 titles across 13 years with an average metacritic review of 52.6%. Their highest rated game was Call of Duty: Finest Hour back in '04 and released on the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. Their lowest was Turning Point: Fall of Liberty four years later, released on the PS3, 360, and PC.
    • Other games they developed: Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (2014), Lost Planet 3 (2013), Legendary (2008).
  • Bioware celebrated its 20th Anniversary.
  • Remedy lost its head of franchise Development, Oskari Häkkinen.
    • He currently works as the Chief Operating Officer at Bitwise Oy in Finland.
  • Games Released in May:
Bptgd9K.png

Y2045K8.png


【2010】
  • The Humble Indie Bundle released this month and has continued to provide cheap collections of games for 10 years.
  • Games Released in May:
xKLTBhY.png

lpEJ8Tf.png


【2005】
  • MapleStory launched world wide.
  • Microsoft's followup to the Xbox was officially announced on MTV. Dubbed the "Xbox 360", the event was hosted by Elijah Wood.
  • Sony's next generation system, the Playstation 3, was also announced during a pre-E3 press conference.
  • The 11th annual E3 takes place in LA, California. Massive promotions by all major competing console developers were shown as they tried to compete with their new systems.
  • In defense of video games being beneficial for cognitive development, Steven Berlin Johnson published his book Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter.
  • Games Released in May:
W8XnuGF.png


【2000】
  • The 3rd annual Interactive Achievement Awards was hosted and Hironobu Sakaguchi was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.
  • The 6th annual E3 event takes place alongside the 3rd annual Game Critics Awards.
  • Games Released in May:
io2k7AY.png


【1995】
  • The Sega Saturn was shadowdropped during its E3 Presentation!
  • Video Game Advisor (GameWeek) was introduced to the public. It would last seven years before its final issue in 2002.
  • This was the first year of E3 and it was held in LA, California. Check out the Scott The Woz youtube video if you would like to know some more about the event.
  • Two games were released this month - King Arthur and the Knights of Justice (SNES) and Light Crusader (Genesis).
【1990】
  • The side-scrolling 1990 arcade game by Konami, Lighting Fighters, was released in the US and Europe. Another notable release was the release of Solitaire on the Microsoft Windows Version 3.0.
【1985】
  • Namco released Metro-Cross in the arcades, utilizing old Pac-Land hardware. Konami gave Gamers Gradius in the arcades. Finally Capcom released Commando (unrelated to the film of the same name) in JPN in May. It had released the month prior in NA.
【1980】
  • Bug-Byte Software Ltd. was founded in May 1980 by Tony Baden and Tony Milner, two Osford Chemistry Graduates. They would go defunct five years later, but would help develop and release over 90 titles in that time. Their most well known titles are Manic Miner and Twin Kingdom Valley.
  • This was a historic month. Stratovox was the first game released with voice synthesis in the arcades, which was impressive for its time. However, the big release was Namco's Pac-Man. It was the first gaming mascot character, has been credited to opening gaming to female audiences, featured power-ups, cutscenes, and became the highest grossing video game of all time. You can celebrate Pac-man's 40th anniversary on May 22nd.

Source: Wikipedia, Nintendo Power, Playstation Magazine, Xbox Magazine, PCGamer, RetroGamer, and more.

This isn't a comprehensive list, but just what I could pull. If there is anything you think should be added or is missing, post below! What was your favorite gaming memory during these times?
 
Last edited:

D.Final

Banned
【2015】
  • The development studio, Spark Unlimited, closed its doors. They developed 5 titles across 13 years with an average metacritic review of 52.6%. Their highest rated game was Call of Duty: Finest Hour back in '04 and released on the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. Their lowest was Turning Point: Fall of Liberty four years later, released on the PS3, 360, and PC.
    • Other games they developed: Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z (2014), Lost Planet 3 (2013), Legendary (2008).
  • Bioware celebrated its 20th Anniversary.
  • Remedy lost its head of franchise Development, Oskari Häkkinen.
    • He currently works as the Chief Operating Officer at Bitwise Oy in Finland.
  • Games Released in May:
Bptgd9K.png

Y2045K8.png


【2010】
  • The Humble Indie Bundle released this month and has continued to provide cheap collections of games for 10 years.
  • Games Released in May:
xKLTBhY.png

lpEJ8Tf.png


【2005】
  • MapleStory launched world wide.
  • Microsoft's followup to the Xbox was officially announced on MTV. Dubbed the "Xbox 360", the event was hosted by Elijah Wood.
  • Sony's next generation system, the Playstation 3, was also announced during a pre-E3 press conference.
  • The 11th annual E3 takes place in LA, California. Massive promotions by all major competing console developers were shown as they tried to compete with their new systems.
  • In defense of video games being beneficial for cognitive development, Steven Berlin Johnson published his book Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter.
  • Games Released in May:
W8XnuGF.png


【2000】
  • The 3rd annual Interactive Achievement Awards was hosted and Hironobu Sakaguchi was inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.
  • The 6th annual E3 event takes place alongside the 3rd annual Game Critics Awards.
  • Games Released in May:
io2k7AY.png


【1995】
  • The Sega Saturn was shadowdropped during its E3 Presentation!
  • Video Game Advisor (GameWeek) was introduced to the public. It would last seven years before its final issue in 2002.
  • This was the first year of E3 and it was held in LA, California. Check out the Scott The Woz youtube video if you would like to know some more about the event.
  • Two games were released this month - King Arthur and the Knights of Justice (SNES) and Light Crusader (Genesis).
【1990】
  • The side-scrolling 1990 arcade game by Konami, Lighting Fighters, was released in the US and Europe. Another notable release was the release of Solitaire on the Microsoft Windows Version 3.0.
【1985】
  • Namco released Metro-Cross in the arcades, utilizing old Pac-Land hardware. Konami gave Gamers Gradius in the arcades. Finally Capcom released Commando (unrelated to the film of the same name) in JPN in May. It had released the month prior in NA.
【1980】
  • Bug-Byte Software Ltd. was founded in May 1980 by Tony Baden and Tony Milner, two Osford Chemistry Graduates. They would go defunct five years later, but would help develop and release over 90 titles in that time. Their most well known titles are Manic Miner and Twin Kingdom Valley.
  • This was a historic month. Stratovox was the first game released with voice synthesis in the arcades, which was impressive for its time. However, the big release was Namco's Pac-Man. It was the first gaming mascot character, has been credited to opening gaming to female audiences, featured power-ups, cutscenes, and became the highest grossing video game of all time. You can celebrate Pac-man's 40th anniversary on May 22nd.

Source: Wikipedia, Nintendo Power, Playstation Magazine, Xbox Magazine, PCGamer, RetroGamer, and more.

This isn't a comprehensive list, but just what I could pull. If there is anything you think should be added or is missing, post below! What was your favorite gaming memory during these times?

Amazing research
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
2000 gets me for sure. Perfect dark!

Yes! Absolutely adored how they did difficulty for that game and some others during that time. Giving you a longer list of objectives that made you explore more of hte map, leading you to more dangers that you may not have experienced on a lower level difficulty level.

Wish more games did that these days. Thief Trilogy in particular did this so damn well.


Shows the explosion of how many more games are released now over the past 2 decades as well.

Was much easier to work through games when there were less of them. #BacklogIssues

Yep. This is doubled if you can speak another language like Japanese. So many damn games across the world that have increased since the turn of the millennium.
 

D.Final

Banned
Yes! Absolutely adored how they did difficulty for that game and some others during that time. Giving you a longer list of objectives that made you explore more of hte map, leading you to more dangers that you may not have experienced on a lower level difficulty level.

Wish more games did that these days. Thief Trilogy in particular did this so damn well.




Yep. This is doubled if you can speak another language like Japanese. So many damn games across the world that have increased since the turn of the millennium.

Good job
 

drganon

Member
Christ, I remember watching that xbox 360 thing on MTV with Elijah wood. I vaguely remember perfect dark getting most of the hype on that thing. That was all before it eventually came out and most people went "meh".
 
Great idea for a new series of threads! I also like the history of video games.

It's crazy to think that Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption, and Shrek all released on the same day.
 

Geki-D

Banned
There was a time when May was the month of E3. It only got moved to July in 2007 but from 1995 to 2006, it was May.
 
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