03/19/2023 at 00:01 by Carsten Spille and others – Konami, one of the most well-known developers for video games, is on the scene – that happened on March 19th. Every day, PC Games Hardware takes a look back at the young but eventful history of the computer.
…1973: The Japanese company Konami has existed since 1969, but has so far specialized in renting and repairing jukeboxes. That changes on March 19, 1973: On this day, Konami realigns itself and from then on produces arcade machines, and in 1978 the first video game machine finally comes out. In 1981, Konami celebrated tremendous success in arcades with Frogger, followed later by games for the PC and finally for Nintendo game consoles. Konami would later be responsible for some of the most successful video game franchises of all: from Castlevania to Contra to Metal Gear, Silent Hill and Pro Evolution Soccer.
…2001: Microsoft officially announces its Hailstorm project. The collection of .NET-based web services is intended to help developers to program e-commerce applications that support the upturn in global trade around the still new mass medium Internet. At the beginning of the initiative, Microsoft named prominent partners such as American Express, ClickCommerce, expedia and ebay. In the press release, however, it quickly becomes clear retrospectively why the project is doomed to fail and the New York Times reported on April 11, 2002, a good year later, that Hailstorm had been discontinued. Because Microsoft’s Group Vice President for .NET Services, Bob Muglia, is quoted as saying:
“Hailstorm” turns the industry debate over online privacy on its head, “said Muglia.” It starts with the fundamental assumption that the user owns and controls their personal information so only the user decides with whom they share their information and under what terms.
From today’s point of view, ten years later, it is no longer a great surprise that the information collectors of the Internet would not like something like this.
…2009: According to the official announcement of the in-house website, Frogster’s MMORP game Runes of Magic starts today in the race for the favor of the players – and to compete with Blizzard’s top dog World of Warcraft for paying customers: Runes of Magic lures with free-2-play offers , but offers better equipment and co. for cash in the so-called item shop. Runes of Magic is being developed by the Taiwanese company Runewaker Entertainment and is based on the Asian MMORPG Radiant Arcana, to which Frogster acquired international marketing rights in 2008.
