This Week in Video-Game History: March 20

This week in video-game history, EGM we play a little catch up with the more loosely defined dates that happen in March. This is a busy month, so we don't want to overlook anything.

March, 1989: Electronic Gaming Monthly prints their first issue two months before GamePro.

March, 1996: Midway acquires Atari Games. Midway also makes a giant leap from focusing on the arcade to home consoles. The Atari acquisition fueled the transition.

March 20

1988: Arcade owner Eric Rothner challenges Chicago's city council after they pass an ordinance disallowing anyone under the age of 17 to use "automated machines." Their goal was to keep children out of arcades, but the court system quickly overturns the ordinance as unenforceable and tremendously vague.

1990: Philip Morris sues Sega over the unauthorized use of Marlboro ads in Super Monaco GP. The suit also accused Sega of marketing cigarettes to children with the ads.

March 21

1959: Nobuo Uematsu, the iconic composer behind several soundtracks in the Final Fantasy series, is born.

1969: Kagemasa Kozuki founds Konami Corporation. Before Konami incorporated and started producing arcade machines, the company manufactured board games and collectible cards -- much like Nintendo did before the video-game boom.

March 22

1988: Howard Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa make a deal with Electronorgtechnica (ELORG) for the exclusive worldwide publishing rights to Tetris. This gave Nintendo an edge in the already bitter fight to make an officially licensed version of the game. This deal also cut out ELORG's previous deal with Atari, leaving them with warehouses full of Tetris cartridges they couldn't legally sell.

March 24

1995: Capcom releases Mega Man 7 in Japan. Nearly a year later, the company localizes it for Western distribution.

2003: Interplay announces that they're working on Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.

March 26

1993: Jaleco releases Dead Dance in Japan. Known as Tuff E Nuff in the U.S., it's one of the myriad fighting games on the Super Nintendo. Think of it as The Road Warrior meets Super Street Fighter 2.