Donkey Kong 3 is a shooter video game developed and published by Nintendo. It is the third installment in the Donkey Kong series and it was released for arcades worldwide in 1983, the Family Computer in 1984, then in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. The gameplay departs from previous Donkey Kong games, and it stars an exterminator named Stanley instead of Mario.
Dragon Quest, previously published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005, is a series of role-playing games created by Japanese game designers Armor Project, Bird Studio and Sugiyama Kobo to its publisher Enix, with all of the involved parties co-owning the copyright of the series since then. The games are published by Square Enix since its inception, with localized remakes and ports of later installments for the Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch being published by Nintendo outside of Japan. With its first game published in 1986, there are eleven main-series games, along with numerous spin-off games. In addition, there have been numerous manga, anime and novels published under the franchise, with nearly every game in the main series having a related adaptation.
Ice Climber is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo. It was released in 1985 for both the arcade VS. System and the Famicom / Nintendo Entertainment System console. The characters Popo and Nana, collectively known as the Ice Climbers, scale 32 vertically scrolling, ice-covered mountains to recover stolen vegetables from a giant condor. In some European countries, Ice Climber was bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System.
The PC-8800 series, commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan.
1982 was the peak year for the golden age of arcade video games as well as the second generation of video game consoles. Many games were released that would spawn franchises, or at least sequels, including Dig Dug, Pole Position, Mr. Do!, Zaxxon, Q*bert, Time Pilot and Pitfall! The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, for the third year in a row, while the year's best-selling home system was the Atari 2600. Additional video game consoles added to a crowded market, notably the ColecoVision and Atari 5200. Troubles at Atari late in the year triggered the video game crash of 1983.
Yuzo Koshiro is a Japanese composer and sound programmer. He is often regarded as one of the most influential innovators in chiptune and video game music, producing music in a number of genres including rock, jazz, symphonic, and various electronic genres such as house, electro, techno, trance, and hip hop.
Video games featuring sexual content has been found since the early days of the industry and can be found on most platforms and can be of any video game genre.
Exile (エグザイル, Eguzairu, originally stylized XZR) is an action role-playing video game series developed by Telenet Japan. The first two games in the series, XZR and XZR II were both released in Japan in 1988, with versions available for the NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-9801, MSX2 and the X1 turbo (for the first game only). In 1991, a remake of XZR II simply titled Exile was released for the PC Engine and Mega Drive. These versions were both released in North America the following year, with Working Designs handling the localization for the TurboGrafx-CD version, while Renovation Products published the Genesis version. A sequel exclusive to the Super CD-ROM2 format, titled Exile: Wicked Phenomenon, was released in 1992, which was also localized by Working Designs for the North American market.
Silpheed is a video game developed by Game Arts and designed by Takeshi Miyaji. It made its debut on the Japanese PC-8801 in 1986, and was ported to the Fujitsu FM-7 and DOS formats soon after. It was later remade for the Sega CD and has a sequel called Silpheed: The Lost Planet for the PlayStation 2.
Bomberman is a maze video game developed and published by Hudson Soft. The original home computer game Bomber Man was released in July 1983 for the NEC PC-8801, NEC PC-6001 mkII, Fujitsu FM-7, Sharp MZ-700, Sharp MZ-2000, Sharp X1 and MSX in Japan, and a graphically modified version for the MSX and ZX Spectrum in Europe as Eric and the Floaters. A sequel, 3-D Bomberman, was produced. In 1985, Bomberman was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It spawned the Bomberman series with many installments building on its basic gameplay.
Bokosuka Wars (ボコスカウォーズ) is a 1983 action-strategy role-playing video game developed by Kōji Sumii (住井浩司) and released by ASCII for the Sharp X1 computer, followed by ports to the MSX, FM-7, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-8801 and NEC PC-9801 computer platforms, as well as an altered version released for the Family Computer console and later the Virtual Console service. It revolves around a leader who must lead an army in phalanx formation across a battlefield in real-time against overwhelming enemy forces while freeing and recruiting soldiers along the way, with each unit able to gain experience and level up through battle. The player must make sure that the leader stays alive, until the army reaches the enemy castle to defeat the leader of the opposing forces.
Thexder is a run and gun video game from Game Arts, originally released for the NEC PC-8801 in 1985. It was ported to many systems, including the Famicom.
Cruise Chaser Blassty is a science fiction role-playing video game developed by Square for various Japanese computers, including the NEC PC-8801, PC-9801, and Sharp X1. The game featured mecha originally designed by Mika Akitaka and musical contributions by Nobuo Uematsu, being the very first video game he wrote music for. The game had an unusual battle system, which involved the player controlling a customizable mecha robot from a first-person view. It followed a group of young people from Earth caught up in a war between a solar-system spanning government and a group of rebels. After release, the game's story was adapted to a manga and serialized, then released as a pair of standalone books. The manga received a sequel, though the game itself did not.
Hydlide is an action role-playing game developed and published by T&E Soft. It was originally released for the NEC PC-6001 and PC-8801 computers in 1984, in Japan only; ports for the MSX, MSX2, FM-7 and NEC PC-9801 were released the following year. A Nintendo Switch port based on the PC-8801 version was released on December 21, 2023 by D4 Enterprise.
Koichi Nakamura is a Japanese video game designer. A programming prodigy, Nakamura gained fame while still in high school; in 1982, he entered Enix's first national programming contest and claimed runner-up prize with his entry, Door Door. In 1984, he founded the video game company Chunsoft, where he remains its president.
Door Door is a single-screen puzzle-platform game developed by Enix and published in Japan in 1983. Originally released for the NEC PC-8801, it was ported to other platforms, including the Family Computer. Controlling a small character named Chun, the player is tasked with completing each stage by trapping different kinds of aliens behind sliding doors. Chun can jump over the aliens and climb ladders, and must also avoid obstacles such as large nails and bombs.
Valis II is a 1989 action-platform video game originally developed by Laser Soft, published by Telenet Japan and NEC for the PC Engine CD-ROM²/TurboGrafx-CD. A home computer version was released for PC-8801, MSX2, PC-9801 and X68000. A super deformed-style remake was also released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It is the second entry in the eponymous series. It stars Yuko Asou, a Japanese schoolgirl teenager chosen to become the Valis warrior by wielding the titular mystical sword, after defeating the demon lord Rogles. The dream world Vecanti fell under the rule of emperor Megas, whose hatred towards his brother Rogles and bloodthirsty tendencies seeks to wipe out traces of the former tyrant, including his supporters. Gameplay varies between each version but all share similar elements, as the player explores and search for items and power-ups, while fighting enemies and defeat bosses.
The Portopia Serial Murder Case is an 1983 adventure game designed by Yuji Horii and published by Enix. It was first released on the NEC PC-6001 and has since been ported to other personal computers, the Family Computer (Famicom), mobile phone services and most recently, Windows as Square Enix showing off their natural language processing technology.
Yuji Horii is a Japanese author, video game designer, writer and director best known as the creator of the Dragon Quest franchise, supervising and writing the scenario for Chrono Trigger, and The Portopia Serial Murder Case, released in 1983 as one of the first visual novel adventure games.
Kazuro Morita was a Japanese video game designer known for his work on the Morita's Shogi video game series. Becoming interested in computer programming during high school, he entered magazine competitions during his university years, creating video game versions of board games. He won a competition organised by Enix in 1982 with the video game Morita's Battlefield, which was published the following year to great commercial success.
