Video game developer Masahiro Sakurai considers 1986 the most incredible year for the video game industry. He cited the release of several games that were the beginning of popular and long-lasting franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Castlevania, and Kunio-kun. He attributed their release to new hardware like the Famicom Disk System and megabitROMs that afforded developers with greater memory storage, which allowed for more creative possibilities. Sakurai noted that the better games in the competitive market generated more appeal.[1]
In Japan, home video games that sold at least one million copies in 1986 include The Hyrule Fantasy: Zelda no Densetsu (The Legend of Zelda), which sold 1 million copies for the Famicom Disk System (FDS) on its first day of release in February;[18]Dragon Quest, which sold over 1 million cartridges for the Famicom (Nintendo Entertainment System) within six months between May and November;[19] and Gradius, which sold over 1 million between April and December.[20][21]
According to Famicom Tsūshin (Famitsu) magazine, the following titles were the top ten best-selling 1985-1986 releases during the three-year sales tracking period between May 1986 (when Famitsu began tracking sales) and mid-1989.[22]
The following titles were the best-selling home video games on the bi-weekly Famitsu charts in 1986. Famicom Tsūshin magazine began tracking sales from May 1986.
In the United Kingdom, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1986, according to the annual Gallup software sales chart. The top ten titles were all home computer games. The best-selling game was Yie Ar Kung-Fu, making it the second year in a row that a fighting game topped the annual charts, after The Way of the Exploding Fist in 1985.[37]
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.
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.
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.
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.[53]
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!"
^Sakurai, Masahiro (host) (April 19, 2024). 1986: The Year of Legend [Grab Bag] (Web Video) (in Japanese). Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games. Retrieved April 19, 2024 – via YouTube.
^"Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25: '86 下半期" [Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25: Second Half '86] (PDF). Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 300. Amusement Press, Inc. January 15, 1987. p. 16.
^"総合TOP50" [Total Top 50]. ファミコン通信 〜 '89全ソフトカタログ [Famicom Tsūshin: '89 All Software Catalog]. Famicom Tsūshin (in Japanese). September 15, 1989. p. 78.
^ abDeMaria, Rusel; Meston, Zach (1991). Super Mario World Game Secrets. Prima Publishing. p. 6. ISBN978-1-55958-156-1. Super Mario Bros. featured Mario in a romp through eight delightfully varied worlds, each one jam-packed with action and adventure. The game sold more than one million copies in 1986 alone. (Today, Super Mario Bros. comes packaged with the NES.)
^"週刊ファミ通クロスレビュープラチナ殿堂入りソフト一覧" [Weekly Famitsu Cross Review Platinum Hall of Fame Software List]. Geimin (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 27, 2008. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
