1986 IN VIDEO GAMING

Contents

Events

Notable releases

Hardware

Business

Events

Notable releases

★ Namco releases ''Sky Kid Deluxe'', ''Hopping Mappy'', ''Toy Pop'', ''The Return of Ishtar'', which is the sequel to ''Tower of Druaga'', ''Genpei Tōma Den'', and ''Rolling Thunder''.

★ August 6 — ''Metroid'' by Makoto Kanoh, the first in the Metroid series.

★ February 21 — ''The Legend of Zelda'' (designed by Shigeru Miyamoto for the Nintendo Famicom Disk System), the first in The Legend of Zelda series, a spiritual forerunner of console role-playing games

★ ''Arkanoid'' (Taito, arcade), spawned many sequels and remakes

★ ''Bubble Bobble'' (Taito, arcade), spawned many sequels

★ '' was released in October

★ ''Dragon Quest'' (Enix, Famicom), usually considered the foremost console role-playing game, the first in a series that has been phenomenally successful in Japan

Hardware

★ Namco releases the Namco System '86 arcade system board

★ Atari releases the Atari 7800 home console two years after its original test market date

★ Sega releases the Sega Master System home console in the United States; releases the ''Out Run'' arcade game

★ Sharp releases the Twin Famicom home console

★ Nintendo releases the Famicom Disk System (an add-on for the Famicom) in Japan only

Business

★ New companies: Acclaim, Majesco Sales Inc., Ubi Soft Entertainment, Inc., Bethesda Softworks Inc.

★ Activision acquires Gamestar Software

★ Sinclair Research Ltd. is acquired by Amstrad