1985 IN VIDEO GAMING

Contents

Events

Notable releases

Hardware

Business

Events

Notable releases

★ Brøderbund releases ''Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?'', the first game of the prolific ''Carmen Sandiego'' series

★ Nintendo releases ''Super Mario Bros.'' on September 13 1985. Before the year was out Super Mario Bros. became the highest selling game of that year, selling 10 millon copies then eventually selling 40 millon copies making it the highest selling video game of all time.

★ Namco releases ''Dig Dug II'', ''Metro-Cross'', ''Baraduke'', ''Motos'', and ''Sky Kid''.

★ Alexey Pajitnov creates the ''Tetris'' video game in the USSR. Nintendo released its most popular versions (for the NES and Game Boy) in 1989.

★ Atari Games releases ''Gauntlet'' (by Ed Logg), the first dungeon crawl arcade game.

★ ''Ghosts 'n Goblins'' by Tokuro Fujiwara (Capcom, arcade), one of the most popular arcade games of the year, spawned a series of later games

★ ''Adventure Construction Set'' by Stuart Smith and Racing Destruction Set by Rick Koenig are both released by Electronic Arts and become hits, following on the success of 1982's Pinball Construction Set by Bill Budge.

★ Elite Systems UK releases ''Roller Coaster'', a platformer in the mould of the previous year's best seller, ''Jet Set Willy''. ''Roller Coaster'' was the first game to ever simulate fairgound rides.

★ Bubble Bus software release the popular arcade adventure ''Starquake'' for several 8-bit computers. In later years, it is ported to 16-bit platforms.

★ Pete Cooke's ambitious, sprawling science-fiction game ''Tau Ceti'' is published in the United Kingdom.

★ The Learning Company releases the first commercial version of ''The Oregon Trail'' on the Apple II.

Hardware

★ Atari releases the 520ST personal computer

★ Commodore releases the Amiga personal computer

★ INTV Corp. releases the INTV III home console

★ Telegames releases the Dina home console, a Colecovision clone

★ Nintendo does a limited test release of the NES video game console in the United States and the Robotic Operating Buddy (ROB) robot and video game for the NES home console

★ Sega's SG-1000 Mark III released in Japan

Business

★ New companies: Titus Interactive, Code Masters, Westwood Studios, Inc., Square Co., Ltd.

★ Edu-Ware closes; David Mullich and several other laid-off employees form Electric Transit, which becomes the first company to join Electronic Art's new affiliated publisher program.

★ Defunct companies: RDI Systems