A look back on Video Game Industry

Feb.12, 2009 in Computers

Here’s what people were saying about games in 1994.

Manufacturer’s representatives, under growing pressure from Congress to voluntarily start a rating system, are meeting in Las Vegas to begin work on a labeling system.During a statement to the Senate, on January 1994 the software association promised the industry that it would take action on its own.

He said Sega has put ratings, assigned by a panel of educators and child psychologists. Brudvik - Lindner added further that he hope it serves as a model for an industry-wide rating system that gives parents the guidance they want or need about the age appropriateness and content of home video games. Two games distributed by Sega and others have been singled out for attack by lawmakers for depictions of particularly gruesome violence. In one of them, Mortal Kombat, which has a large number of computer cheat codes, martial arts warriors kill their victims by ripping out their hearts, spinal columns and heads.

In another, Night Trap, scantily clad sorority sisters are shown in live-action video as they’re being stalked by bloodsucking villains. The player’s job is to trap the black-suited ghouls by activating trap doors as they stalk their victims.

Zito wrote a column in Washington post defending his game from lawmaker’s criticism. He said he has sold 100,000 copies of the game in the United States without a single letter of complaint.