1986 in video games
1986 has seen many sequels and prequels in video games and several new titles such as Metroid, Out Run and Bubble Bobble.
| |||
---|---|---|---|
Business
- New companies: Acclaim, Majesco Entertainment, Ubi Soft, Bethesda Softworks, Tradewest
- Defunct: Imagic.
- June 13 – Activision merges with Infocom.
- Activision acquires Gamestar Software.
- Sinclair Research Ltd. is acquired by Amstrad.
Events
Gauntlet takes Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards.
Notable releases
- Arcade
- February – Namco releases Sky Kid Deluxe, their first game to use a Yamaha YM2151 FM sound chip.
- February – SNK releases Ikari Warriors, which shares many elements with Taito's Front Line from 1982, but adds two-player simultaneous play and visuals closer to 1985's Commando. It is SNK's breakthrough game in the US.
- April – Sega releases Wonder Boy, the first in the series.
- August – Taito releases Bubble Bobble.
- July 8 – Namco releases The Return of Ishtar, which is the sequel to The Tower of Druaga.
- July – Ten years after Atari's Breakout, Taito releases Arkanoid, which adds power-ups and unique levels and generally reinvigorates the concept.
- September 20 – Sega releases the Out Run racing game.
- October 1 – Namco releases Genpei Tōma Den.
- December – Namco releases Rolling Thunder, distributed outside Japan by Atari Games.
- Console
- February 21 – Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda (designed by Shigeru Miyamoto for the Family Computer Disk System), the first game in The Legend of Zelda series.
- May 27 – Enix releases Dragon Quest for the Famicom, which is usually considered the foremost Japanese role-playing video game, and is the first game in a series that has been phenomenally successful in Japan.
- June 3 – Nintendo releases Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels as the sequel to the Super Mario Bros. The game was not released in North America, partially because it was deemed too difficult.
- August 6 – Nintendo releases Metroid by Makoto Kano, the first in the Metroid series.
- September 12 – Hudson Soft releases Adventure Island.
- September 26 – Konami releases Akumajō Dracula for the Famicom Disk System, the first game in the Castlevania series.
- November 1 – Sega releases Alex Kidd in Miracle World. It is the first game in the Alex Kidd series created for this character, and the most popular of all Alex Kidd games.
- December 10 – Namco releases Pro Baseball: Family Stadium for the Famicom, the first in the Famista series.
- December 19 – Nintendo releases Kid Icarus.
- Computer
- January 1 – Commodore releases Mind Walker for the Amiga. It keeps running, unmodified, on all versions of the Amiga hardware and OS.
- May 6 – Infocom releases the highly regarded Trinity.
- August 15 – Electronic Arts releases open-ended space exploration adventure game Starflight, which goes on to sell a million copies.[1]
- October – Sierra On-Line expands their "Quest" line with King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human and Space Quest I: The Sarien Encounter.
- New World Computing releases Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum for the Apple II, the first installment in the Might and Magic series.
- Activision releases Labyrinth: The Computer Game. Developed by Lucasfilm Games, this is the first of the LucasArts adventure games.
- Froggy Software releases La femme qui ne supportait pas les ordinateurs, one of the first video games about cyber harassment and female experience on the internet,[2] and one of the first games with an overtly feminist message.[3]
Hardware
- September, Apple releases the final computer in the Apple II line, the 16-bit Apple IIgs with professional synthesizer-quality audio.
- Namco releases the Namco System 86 arcade system board.
- Atari Corporation releases:
- The 1040ST personal computer, the second in the ST line. With a megabyte of RAM and a price of US$999, it is the first computer with a cost-per-kilobyte of under $1.[4]
- The Atari 7800 console two years after its original test market date.
- A smaller model Atari 2600 for under US$50. The TV campaign proclaims "The fun is back!"
- Sega releases the Master System console in the US.
- Sharp releases the Twin Famicom home console only in Japan.
- Nintendo releases the Family Computer Disk System (an add-on for the Famicom) in Japan only.
- Texas Instruments releases the TMS34010, a CPU with graphics-oriented instructions. Eventually it powers arcade games such as Hard Drivin', Smash TV, Mortal Kombat, and NBA Jam.
References
- Hoffman, Erin (January 19, 2010). "When the Stars Align". The Escapist. Retrieved November 21, 2012.
- Jankowski, Filip (April 15, 2019). "The Presence of Female Designers in French Video Game Industry, 1985–1993". Games and Culture. 15 (6): 5. doi:10.1177/1555412019841954. ISSN 1555-4120. S2CID 150836593.
- Jankowski, Filip (2017). "Political and Social Issues in French Digital Games, 1982–1993" (PDF). TransMissions. 2: 167.
- Robinson, Philip; Edwards, Jon R. (March 1986). "The Atari 1040ST". BYTE. p. 84. Retrieved July 4, 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.