1987 in video gaming

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Events

Notable releases

• January 14, Nintendo releases Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in January for the Famicom Disk System in Japan only. The game would go unreleased in America for nearly two years afterwards.
• February 20, Konami releases Contra
• May 1, Konami releases Castlevania
• July 5, the Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards adventure is released by Sierra Entertainment.
• July 7, Konami Corporation releases Metal Gear
• August, Capcom releases the Street Fighter video game, the first in a long series of games.
• October, LucasArts releases Maniac Mansion, the first game to use the SCUMM engine, innovating the point-and-click interface for the adventure game genre.
• December 17, Capcom releases the first Mega Man game in the long-standing series for the NES/Famicom.
• December 18, Square's Hironobu Sakaguchi releases Final Fantasy for the Famicom in Japan. This was originally intended to be the company's last game, since it was facing bankruptcy, but the game's major success allowed them to turn it into a prolific series ironically titled Final Fantasy. It was released in the U.S.A. 3 years later.
• December 20, Sega releases Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System, it was one of the first RPGs to have a Sci-Fi/Fantasy setting and also the first to bear a female protagonist.
• Namco releases Wonder Momo, which is their last 8-bit game, Yokai Douchuuki, which is their first 16-bit game, Dragon Spirit, Blazer, Quester, Pac-Mania, Galaga '88 and Final Lap.
• Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda in America and Europe, the first of one of their longest-running and most popular series of games.
• Technos Japan Corp. releases the Double Dragon arcade game, which is distributed internationally by the Taito Corporation.
• Taito also releases Operation Wolf in this year.
• FTL Games releases Dungeon Master.
• Incentive Software releases Driller a milestone in 3D gaming and a precursor to modern first-person 3D games.
• Ocean Software releases Head Over Heels, an isometric arcade adventure, to critical acclaim and huge popularity.

Hardware

• Namco develops the Namco System 1 arcade system board.
• At the end of the year, Namco also releases the Namco System 2 arcade system board.
• October 30 — NEC releases the PC-Engine console in Japan.
• Acorn releases the Acorn Archimedes 32-bit home computer, which brought the game Zarch (later known on other platforms as Virus) to prominence.
• Commodore release the Amiga 500, the first 'low-end' Amiga which became a significant gaming machine, particularly in Europe, and would become the best-selling Amiga.
• Atari Corp. releases the XE Game System (XEGS) home console.
• Sega Master System released in Japan.
• The VGA standard developed for IBM's new PS/2 line gave the PC the potential for 256-color graphics.
• AdLib set an early defacto standard for sound cards with its card based on the Yamaha YM3812 sound chip. (This would last until the introduction of Creative Labs' Sound Blaster in 1989.)

Business

• New companies: Maxis, GameTek Inc., Apogee Software, Ltd., Empire Interactive PLC
• Activision acquires Infocom.
• Electronic Arts acquires Batteries Included.
• Electric Transit closes.
• Atari Games establishes the Tengen division.
• Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Blockbuster Entertainment lawsuit: Nintendo sues Blockbuster for photocopying complete NES manuals for its rental games. Nintendo wins the suit, and Blockbuster includes original manuals with its rentals.
• SSI President Joel Billings acquires the license to the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game, setting the stage for the Gold Box line of D&D games.