Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
10 questions No timer
70 free 90s Video Game trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
57 free 90s Video Game trivia questions with answers. Fifty-seven questions on the video games of the 1990s, the decade that took gaming from 16-bit sprites to 3D worlds. The set covers the console wars between the Super NES and Sega Genesis, the arrival of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, the Game Boy and its Pokémon boom, and the PC classics that shaped whole genres: Doom, Myst, Civilization, Warcraft II, StarCraft, Half-Life and Quake. Easier questions ask about characters and consoles almost everyone remembers, like Sonic's two-tailed sidekick or the number of Pokémon in Red and Blue. Harder ones dig into the history: which console started life as a Nintendo CD add-on, which game shipped the first Rumble Pak, why the ESRB was created in 1994, and which arcade fighter was the first with fully 3D polygon graphics. It works for a pub quiz round, a retro game night or a nostalgic solo run. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's article on the game or console, and the sentence that establishes it is shown with each explanation, so you can trust the answers even when they surprise you.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Unlike the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, the Nintendo 64 stored its games on what?
ROM cartridges
Nintendo cited faster loading and piracy concerns, but the small, costly format pushed third-party publishers such as Square toward Sony.
Q 02Sony's PlayStation grew out of a failed deal to build a CD-ROM add-on for which console?
Super Nintendo
Sony engineer Ken Kutaragi had already supplied the SNES sound chip; when the CD deal collapsed, Sony turned the project into its own console.
Q 03At the first E3 in 1995, Sega surprised retailers by launching the Saturn in the US that day at what price?
$399
Sony's answer from the same stage was a one-word price for the PlayStation, $299, and stores left out of the early launch such as KB Toys refused to stock the Saturn.
Q 04How many Power Stars are there to collect in Super Mario 64?
120
Collect all of them and Yoshi appears on the castle roof with a message from the developers and 100 extra lives.
Q 05In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, what is the name of the fairy who guides Link?
Navi
Navi's job was partly to explain Z-targeting to players, and pressing the top C-button calls her for a hint.
Q 06Which British studio developed the 1997 Nintendo 64 shooter GoldenEye 007?
Rare
Director Martin Hollis's team visited the film set, and MGM let them add sequences and characters that never appeared in the movie.
Q 07Doom (1993) was distributed under which model, with its first episode given away free?
Shareware
id Software gave away episode one and sold the other two, a trick that had already worked for Wolfenstein 3D.
Q 08Sonic the Hedgehog made his 1991 debut on which console?
Sega Genesis
Sega built Sonic to give the Genesis a mascot fast enough to rival Mario, and his blue matched the company logo.
Q 09Which company developed the 1991 arcade hit Street Fighter II: The World Warrior?
Capcom
More than 6.3 million SNES copies were sold, making it the company's best-selling single game for the next 20 years.
Q 10Which 1992 fighting game's gory finishing moves helped prompt the creation of the ESRB rating system?
Mortal Kombat
Its digitized actors and Fatalities, along with Night Trap, were the star exhibits at the 1993 US Senate hearings on video game violence.
Q 11How many Pokémon are there to catch in Pokémon Red and Blue?
151
Neither version contains them all; players had to trade over a link cable to complete the Pokédex.
Q 12Which puzzle game was bundled with the Game Boy in North America and Europe?
Tetris
The Game Boy version went on to sell 35 million copies, making it the best-selling edition of the game.
Q 13Which Derby-based studio created Lara Croft and the original Tomb Raider (1996)?
Core Design
Toby Gard, credited as Lara's creator, was the game's lead artist and left the studio soon after its release.
Q 21Which company created the 1994 3D fighting game Tekken?
Namco
Designer Seiichi Ishii had worked on Sega's rival 3D fighter before switching sides.
Q 22Outside North America, what name did Sega use for the console sold in the US as the Genesis?
Mega Drive
It launched in Japan in 1988 and did poorly there against the Super Famicom and PC Engine, but thrived in Europe, Brazil and the US.
Q 23Which 1993 SNES rail shooter was Nintendo's first polygon game, using a Super FX chip?
Star Fox
The Super FX was the first 3D graphics accelerator sold in a consumer product, and Argonaut's Jez San led its design.
Q 14Who is the spiky-haired mercenary protagonist of Final Fantasy VII (1997)?
Cloud Strife
Cloud claims to be a former 1st Class SOLDIER, a claim the game slowly unravels.
Q 15Which studio developed the original Crash Bandicoot (1996) for the PlayStation?
Naughty Dog
Crash is a genetically enhanced bandicoot created by Doctor Neo Cortex, and the studio later made Crash Team Racing before moving on to Jak and Daxter.
Q 16Which FOXHOUND member in Metal Gear Solid (1998) famously 'reads' the player's memory card?
Psycho Mantis
The fight was designed by Hideo Kojima's team of about 20 people; switching your controller to port two breaks his mind-reading.
Q 17Which 1996 Shinji Mikami game traps S.T.A.R.S. officers in a zombie-filled mansion?
Resident Evil
Its inventory limits, save system and heartbeat monitor became conventions of the whole survival horror genre.
Q 18The very first Mario Kart game, released in 1992, ran on which console?
Super NES
Its Mode 7 tracks and battle mode set the template; a top-four finish earned nine, six, three or one points.
Q 19In Donkey Kong Country (1994), who is Donkey Kong's small sidekick hunting the stolen bananas?
Diddy
The game's pre-rendered 3D look came from Silicon Graphics workstations, and Nintendo commissioned it partly to answer Sega's Aladdin.
Q 20Which 1993 first-person puzzle adventure by Cyan was the best-selling PC game for nearly a decade?
Myst
Brothers Rand and Robyn Miller made it on Macs; it sold more than six million copies before The Sims overtook it.
Q 24Which theoretical physicist does the player control in Valve's Half-Life (1998)?
Gordon Freeman
Half-Life was Valve's debut product, and it told its story without a single cutscene.
Q 25StarCraft (1998) is famous for its three balanced playable races. Which of these is one of them?
Zerg
Terran, Zerg and Protoss each play completely differently, an approach widely credited with revolutionizing real-time strategy.
Q 26Diablo (1996) sends players beneath which small town to fight through 16 dungeon levels?
Tristram
The town grew up next to a ruined monastery, and its theme music became one of PC gaming's most recognisable pieces.
Q 27Which musician and his band composed the soundtrack for id Software's Quake (1996)?
Trent Reznor
Nine Inch Nails' ambient drones set the tone, and the game's nail-gun ammo boxes carry the band's NIN logo.
Q 28What is the name of the Allied spy who escapes Castle Wolfenstein in Wolfenstein 3D (1992)?
B.J. Blazkowicz
William Joseph Blazkowicz is an American of Polish descent, and id followed his escape with Doom a year later.
Q 29Sega's Dreamcast launched in Japan in November 1998 at what price, selling out by the end of the day?
¥29,000
It reached North America on 9 September 1999, the '9/9/99' launch, and was Sega's last home console.
Q 30Which 1997 PlayStation racing sim sold 10.85 million copies, the console's best-seller?
Gran Turismo
It took Kazunori Yamauchi's team five years, and the studio was renamed Polyphony Digital just before the Western release.