1990

1990 was a year of continued expansion of the computers and video game console markets.

Home computers

The home computer market in the United States of America was dominated by IBM PC compatibles. These had an 84% market share, followed by Commodore 64, Apple Macintosh, Atari ST, and Commodore Amiga.

Intel released the i386 SL, a low-powered version of the i386 DX. It also released an update to the i486 DX which fixed a bug that could cause computers to hang.

Intel also filed a countersuit to AMD's 1987 arbitration over the loss of a contract to be a second-source manufacturer of Intel microchips. The countersuit sought to renegotiate the contract, which caused AMD to do a clean room design of their future chips without using any Intel microcode.

Video game market

Video game consoles

The 8-bit console market was still active. The official distributor of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in India, Samurai Electronics, began selling Family Computer (Famicom) clone systems from TXC Corporation. The Micro Genius IQ-501 was rebranded as the Samurai IQ-501 and the Micro Genius IQ-2000 was rebranded as the Samurai IQ-2000.

The 16-bit console market was expanded. The NEC PC Engine was released in Spain. Likewise, the Sega Mega Drive saw a worldwide expansion in 1990 with releases in Brazil, Europe, Oceania, and South Korea. Additionally, Nintendo released the Super Famicom in Japan.

The Compact Disc-Interactive format by Philips and Sony extended CDDA and CD-ROM to combine audio, text, and graphics. CD-i systems would not be released for home consumers until 1991, however, Sony released a hybrid home and portable CD-i player for the professional market.

Video games

Several series premiered their first video game in 1990. This included Dr. Mario, which received both a NES version and a Game Boy version. Other franchise firsts were Fire Emblem with the then-Japan-only release of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light for the Famicom, StarTropics with its title game for the NES, and the NES adaptation of the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers animated television series, and the F-Zero title game for the Super Famicom.

Arcade market

Arcade games remained popular. To regulate the market, a law in Japan was passed that required that all arcade cabinets had to be shipped with a working game so that purchasers could plug it in and immediately test whether the cabinet was functional.

Thus, companies created simple games with cheap hardware that could be included and then disposed of by the purchaser. Sega created Dottori-kun as the game that was included with its Astro City arcade candy cabinets.

Companies and organizations founded

On October 24, 1990, North Korea opened the Korea Computer Center (조선컴퓨터센터, Chosŏn Computer Center), the front-facing information technology research center run by the isolated nation.

In October 1990, the Japanese film company Matsushita Promotion was founded.

Sonic Team, the development group within the Japanese video game developer Sega that created Sonic the Hedgehog, was formed.

Rare Manchester was formed after the English video game developer Rare purchased Zippo Games, a video game development company that Rare had subcontracted to develop several Nintendo Entertainment System games.

The American multimedia company, Lucasfilm, consolidated Lucasfilm Games, Industrial Light and Magic, and Skywalker Sound into LucasArts.

Companies and organizations closed

Hasbro closed Axlon, a toy maker and video game developer that Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell founded in 1980.

• Application software released in 1990‏‎
• Arcade games released in 1990‏‎
• Arcade hardware released in 1990‏‎
• Companies and organizations closed in 1990‏‎
• Companies and organizations formed in 1990‏‎
• Computers and consoles released in 1990‏‎
• Computer and video game conventions in 1990‏‎
• Computer and video game peripherals released in 1990‏‎
• Operating systems released in 1990‏‎
• Video games released in 1990‏‎