This is GAMING X HISTORY EX, the weekly show that looks at birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates. Join host Cyril Lachel as he chronicles the best (and worst) events that happened this week in video game history. New episodes go live every Monday, and don't forget to subscribe to the Defunct Games YouTube channel!


It's August 19, the 53rd anniversary of Strelka's ride into space on Spudnik 2 and the 44th birthday of former-Friends star Matthew Perry. Somebody should ask him what it's like to be stuck in second gear. I mean, it hasn't been his day, his week, his month, or heck, even his year. Oh well, at least we have another action-packed episode of GAMING X HISTORY EX to get to. But we don't have much time, so let's dive right in.

The big anniversary this week has to be the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, who is celebrating the big 22. This was Nintendo's first foray into the 16-bit market and came out two full years after the Sega Genesis. The Super NES launched with Super Mario World as a pack-in, retailing for $199 (or around $340 in today's money).

Beyond Super Mario World, the Super NES also launched with Pilotwings, a tech-demo masquerading as a full-fledged game. Critics were wowed by the system's mode 7 scaling and rotation, but even at the time they noted that the actual game was paper thin.

Speaking of showpiece games, the Super NES launch also brought us F-Zero. After years of games like Rad Racer and Pole Position, the smoothness of the scaling and overall control made this a landmark racing game. It also holds up. While all of the F-Zero sequels emphasized speed, this first game is still my favorite, if only because it's the one I actually felt in control of.

On the third-party side, the Super NES saw the launch release of Final Fight, one of Capcom's most beloved arcade games. Unfortunately, Capcom neutered this console port in some significant ways. It was missing stages, only offered two of the arcade's three main characters, eliminated some of the enemies and removed the two player support. These days there's no reason to play the Super NES port of Final Fight.

And that's not all. SimCity was a big deal when it hit store shelves 22 years ago this week. Nintendo Power gave it a score higher than even Super Mario World. For what it's worth, the Super Nintendo's best launch window game, Act Raiser, didn't come out until November.

Speaking of games celebrating birthdays this week, The Legend of Zelda will see its 26th anniversary on August 22nd. With more than a dozen main series sequels and just as many spin-offs, remakes and ports, this remains one of Nintendo's goto franchises. My favorite? A Link to the Past, but we'll talk about that in November.

In far less exciting news, the abysmal NES port of NARC is celebrating its 23rd birthday this week. This is the game that purports to be down on crime, yet you spend the entire time blowing drug users into tiny little pieces with a rocket launcher. If the game was any more hypocritical they would have to call it Ted Nugent.

This week also marks the 22nd anniversary of Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom. While not the best Ninja Gaiden game on the NES, this is nowhere near as bad as Tecmo's recent Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. And while we're on the subject, if you haven't watched my Ninja Gaiden: The Mini Series trailer, please click the video and do so now.

While not a gaming announcement, it's worth noting that Nintendo announced what would become the Nintendo 64 exactly twenty years ago this week. On August 23, Nintendo and Silicon Graphics announced that they were working together to create Project Reality, which would later become the Ultra 64 and then, at the very last second, became the Nintendo 64. The system was released three years later.

While we're off the subject of game birthdays, this week also sees the founding of Valve. The Washington-based publisher officially went into business on August 24, 1996. These days they are best known for Steam and not publishing Half-Life 3.

In one last gaming birthday, GoldenEye 007 came out exactly 16 years ago this week. It did marginal business and hasn't been heard from since. Oh, who am I kidding? GoldenEye was a huge hit for Nintendo and it helped shape first-person shooters on home consoles ... at least until Halo came out.

Over on the magazine side, we have this August 1998 issue of Next Generation asking four very important questions. PlayStation: How long does it have?; Dreamcast: Can it be stopped?; Nintendo 64: Can it survive?; and Project X: Is it for real? The answers, in order: Another 8 years, yes, maybe and ehhh?

In August 1992 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the editors give Axelay the game of the month over Out of this World, On the Ball and Taz-Mania.

And that brings us to the end of our second episode of Gaming X History EX. I'm still tweaking the format a bit, so definitely let me know what you want to see going forward. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the channel, give the video a thumbs up, share it with all your friends and turn it into a homebrew text-based role-playing game along the lines of Zork. I'll be back next Monday, but don't forget to tune into Defunct Games dot com on Wednesday for the season finale of Lifetime Movie Network on Wednesday. You won't want to miss it. See you next week!