The Computer Game Developers Association is formed by Ernest W. Adams. Aerosmith becomes the first major band to premiere a new song on the Internet; over 10,000 CompuServe subscribers download the free track “Head First” within its first eight days of availability. Indonesian censors ban Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.” Sharon Stone files $12 million lawsuit against her jeweler. 6.0 earthquake followed by avalanche destroys Toez, Colombia (about 1000 killed). CD-councillor H Selhorst arrested for hard-drugs trade. Drunken police officer shoots 7 people dead in Falun, Sweden. A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages. O.J. Simpson doesn’t turn himself in on murder charges, LA police chase his Ford Bronco for 1½ hours before he eventually gives up (seen live on national TV); pre-trial hearings begin near the end of the month. Gay Games open in NYC. Ken Griffey Jr. breaks Ruth’s record for most home runs by end of June. Opération Turquoise: 2,500 French troops head into Rwanda to protect civilians under the mandate of the United Nations. South Africa reclaims its seat in United Nations. Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, England opens: Levellers, Elvis Costello, and Peter Gabriel headline; other performers include Spin Doctors, Johnny Cash, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dwight Yoakam, Lucky Dube, Oasis, and Iris Dement. US reopens Guantanamo Naval Base to process refugees. World Wrestling Federation wrestler Hulk Hogan signs a deal with World Championship Wrestling on a live broadcast of WCW Saturday Night.
Music
Honorable mentions:
- Aaliyah: Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number. This isn’t my kind of music, but the history going into this album, and the artist Aaliyah (age 14 or 15 at the time), and R. Kelly (age 27), is something else. As you could probably guess from the album’s title, they were both “doing it,” and got married a couple months later (she had her age faked in documents for this to happen), and a bunch of other drama that ensued from this. The whole thing deserves its own movie with all the stuff that went on before, during, and after, with both parties.
- Suicidal Tendencies: Suicidal for Life
- Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand
- John Mellencamp: Dance Naked
- Rancid: Let’s Go
- Keb’ Mo’: Keb’ Mo’
- Beck: One Foot in the Grave
- 7 Year Bitch: ¡Viva Zapata! See note on Joan Jett and the Blackhearts below. Let’s just say this band made a track that encouraged vigilantism against the killer.
Pride & Glory: Pride & Glory (7)
Another one-and-done band.
Stone Temple Pilots: Purple (7)
Vasoline. Interstate Love Song. A couple big pop culture tunes that stand out from basically all the other tracks on the album. Makes me think they’re too mainstream. But hell, considering the amount of airtime those tracks got, I’m going to have to give this album of the month (though I’d rather give it to Kyuss).
Boston: Walk On (7)
Kind of meant to be listened to all at once rather than just picking out an individual track. For instance, Walkin’ At Night leads into Walk On which leads into Get Organ-ized/Get Reorganized, which then leads to Walk On (Some More). Anyway, this is my kind of rock.
Lush: Split (13)
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: Pure and Simple (14)
A few girl rock bands made a big deal out of Zapata (vocalist for a band called The Gits) who was strangled to death. The killer was eventually found, just not for a long while after the incident.
Spin Doctors: Turn It Upside Down (14)
Helmet: Betty (21)
Masquerade: Surface of Pain (22)
Very nice. Provides my metal fix for the month.
Da Brat: Funkdafied (28)
First female rap artist to go platinum. Whatever.
Widowmaker: Stand By For Pain (28)
Nice.
Kyuss: Welcome to Sky Valley (28)
They’ve been a solid band so far.
The Clarks: Love Gone Sour, Suspicion, and Bad Debt (?)
Movies
Other mentions:
- The Endless Summer II. Not as good as the original, if for no other reason than the amount of forced humor. But it’s still not half bad, just not good enough for me personally to highlight.
- City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly’s Gold. It’s not as good as the first film, I found much of it to be stupid, and I’ll leave it at that.
- The Cowboy Way. Forgettable, and you can tell Hollywood was starting to milk this rodeo genre dry at this point.
- I Love Trouble. Predictably formulaic.
- Blind Justice. Nah.
Fear of a Black Hat (3)
If CB4 wasn’t enough for you, here’s another rap/hip-hop satirical film in the same vane as This Is Spinal Tap (except that was for metal). Didn’t provide enough laughs for me to think it’s great, but I did get chuckles out of it, and you’ll probably get more if you’re more into rap than I am (which is a low bar). If nothing else, the rap videos in this almost pass off for the real thing, more-so than CB4. The best line of the movie to me is, “That’s it! Everybody’s gonna die!” That needs to be a meme.
Renaissance Man (3)
Despite the forced (ie semi-artificial) dialogue, it’s not bad. Might be able to get you into Shakespeare.
The Princess and the Goblin (3)
One of the very few non-Disney animations of the time that is actually good. And believe it or not, it’s not a Don Bluth film either. Surprised it’s not more popular than it currently is.
Speed (10)
One of the definitive 90s action films that was considered a game-changer at the time, in terms of setting the bar for non-stop action.
Getting Even with Dad (17)
A more ethical, and well-made, film compared to Blank Check.
Wolf (17)
I’m just happy a flick exists with Nicholson playing a werewolf.
The Lion King (24)
Arguably the greatest of all the renaissance era Disney animations (next to Aladdin). So good they made a stage play out of it that has become about as iconic as the film it’s based on.
A Man in Uniform (24)
About a man’s psychological downward spiral when he becomes disillusioned in his acting role as a cop. All you ASMR leather-lovers will probably get a bit of a kick during the last 25 minutes or so.
Wyatt Earp (24)
I get the feeling this was made to capitalize on the success of Tombstone. It’s a decent enough film, but Costner is way too one-note the entire time. Show more than one emotion for Christ’s sake! Dennis Quaid is good as Doc Holiday, and probably more historically accurate to his character, but Val Kilmer was far more entertaining and memorable.
Little Big League (29)
It’s just ok, though I do admire that it took the concept a bit more seriously than you would expect.
Games
Other mentions:
- Combat Cars (Sega Genesis). Not good enough.
- Asterix and the Great Rescue (Sega Genesis). Despite the appealing cover, also not good enough.
- Revengers of Vengeance (1994; Sega-CD). Ambitious, but not that great in execution, for making an RPG fighting game hybrid. Someone must have taken this concept and actually made it work sometime down the road.
- Natsume Championship Wrestling (SNES)
- Tommy Moe’s Winter Extreme: Skiing & Snowboarding (SNES)
- Ultimate Fighter (SNES). No relation to UFC.
- Hardball III (SNES, Genesis [1993], PC [1992])
- Final Fight Guy (SNES). Basically the same as the SNES version, but with another character. Game is still the same bland dullness found in the SNES port compared to the superior arcade or Sega CD versions. But this is worth mentioning for being an exclusive release to Blockbuster video stores.
- Hyper V-Ball (SNES)
- King of the Monsters 2 (SNES, Arcade [1992]). Play the arcade version instead.
- Jetstrike (1994: PC, Amiga)
- Kingmaker (1994; PC). Basically a PC port of the Avalon Hill board game. I’m almost always going to prefer a physical board game with other people than the video game experience (and even then the board game is flawed, something the video game port doesn’t fix). Consider this unfortunate foreshadowing of something that would eventually cause the tragic downfall of the Avalon Hill game company.
- Theme Park (1994; PC, Genesis [1995]). Theme Park simulator in the same vane as Zoo Tycoon.
Operation Europe: Path to Victory (June/July; Sega Genesis, SNES [June])
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Echoes from the Past (June; Sega Genesis)
Ok for what it is. Superior to the earlier SNES version.
3 Ninjas Kick Back (June; Genesis, SNES, Sega-CD)
Huh. I wasn’t expecting anything good out of this, but surprise surprise. Plus I think it’s a riot that this got an MA-13 rating, given that the movie itself is clearly made for kids. I thought things were the other way around back then, having kid products for an adult movie.
OutRunners (14; Genesis)
Remake of the arcade racing classic.
Heart of the Alien (June; Sega-CD)
The sequel to Out of This World (aka Another World). Contains both games, which probably made this the definitive way to play the games back then… maybe. The thing is, it did the ending of the first game dirty with how this sequel opens. And the game overall isn’t as good as Another World. Still, it has its merits.
Shining Force CD (1994; Sega CD)
A remake of the first two Shining Force Gaiden games on the Game Gear, and considered the definitive way to experience them. One of the major standout titles on the Sega CD (seems like JRPGs are the main thing its good at in spite of its emphasis on FMV titles). Shining Force is one of the best franchises Sega had going for it next to Sonic and Phantasy Star. Game of the month (even if I can’t be certain it was released this month).
Third World War (1994; Sega CD)
Believe it or not, a hidden gem on the Sega CD that isn’t FMV-based or a JRPG. Some would even go so far as to say it’s the best game on the Sega CD (debatable). You have to be into these economic resource-allocation type global war games. It’s also kinda freaking eerie how relevant some of the shit that goes on in the gameplay is. Reminds me a bit of the board game Imperial 2030 in that regard.
The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates (June; SNES)
Better than you would expect. Has an interesting concept for the platforming gameplay (using a vacuum cleaner).
Saturday Night Slam Masters (June; SNES, Genesis, Arcade [1993])
If you wanted your pro wrestling game to be more like Street Fighter II, in a team match.
The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang (June; SNES)
Hidden gem Zelda-like RPG.
Shock Wave (27; 3DO)
Fucking hard as hell, and I could never get past level 3. But it’s just so damn fun. A highlight title on the 3DO system. The Playstation version that would release later is inferior (I know from personal experience).
Hocus Pocus (June; PC)
You’ve seen this type of game before.
Ironseed (1994; PC)
Unique, slow-paced, difficult, atmospheric, interesting space game. Enough of a (small) cult classic that it got a 25th anniversary edition version on Steam.
Lode Runner: The Legend Returns (1994: PC, Mac)
Great remake of a classic game. But the definitive edition was yet to come.
Shows
Other mentions:
- Personal fX: The Collectibles Show
- Sound fX
- The Howard Stern Show (E!). He got another channel to be on.
This month, the fX channel debuted. As you will soon see with some debut shows.
Breakfast Time (1; fX)
Actually a fun entertaining morning show, before it went mainstream on Fox.
The Pet Department (1; fX)
This takes me back. Wish a show like this was still around. You would think it wouldn’t be that hard considering there’s a channel in existence called Animal Planet.
Inside the Actors Studio (12; Bravo)
Show where a distinguished actor is interviewed for roughly an hour each episode. The host himself (James Lipton) is as much of an icon as the series itself (while it was ongoing). Show of the month.
Dead at 21 (15; MTV)
Interesting concept, finding out you were subjected to experimentation ata younger age, with microchips put into your brain, that makes you super smart, but also means you will die within a year at age 21. Didn’t last longer than one season. This doesn’t exactly have much competition (aside from Breakfast Time, but I’m not counting a morning show), but I’m giving it show of the month.
Edit (10-7-2023): Added Inside the Actors Studio to Shows.
Edit (12-9-2023): Removed Mega Turrican from Games (duplicate from March 2023).
The Anomalous Host 