L´ANNEE JEU VIDEO 1992

L'Année Jeu Vidéo is a collection of books that looks back at a specific year in video games, exploring the games, trends and key events that took place during that twelve-month period.

Retrogaming may be a worthy subject today, but it is not without its problems. While video games are now generally accepted as a mainstream leisure activity and a serious industry, they have only become more professional over time. As a result, it is not uncommon for information, preparatory documents and abandoned prototypes to be hard to find. In any case, it seems very complicated to go back into the context of an old game's release. In such cases - and as is often the case - we have to turn to the developers of the time, who always have an answer, or at least an anecdote, to share with us.

The year 1992 was the year of the video game, right in the middle of the console war. The release of the Super Nintendo in France meant that its manufacturer could be sure of countering its Mega Drive rival, which had become more dangerous than expected, as quickly as possible. To achieve this, Nintendo pulled out all the stops, releasing such legendary titles as Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Street Fighter II and Super Castlevania IV throughout the year. Before that, SEGA had unleashed Sonic as a riposte to Mario. On the PC, LucasArts took adventure gaming to new heights with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Finally, 1992 also marked the birth of the FPS genre with the cult Wolfenstein 3D.