1985 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Super Mario Bros. and Kung Fu, along with new titles such as Commando, Duck Hunt, Gauntlet, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Gradius, Hang-On, Space Harrier, Tetris and The Way of the Exploding Fist. The year's highest-grossing arcade video games were Hang-On and Karate Champ in the United States, and Commando in the United Kingdom. The year's bestselling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for a consecutive year, while the year's bestselling home video game was Super Mario Bros.
Financial performance In the United States, annual home video game sales fell to ( adjusted for inflation) in 1985. Meanwhile, the arcade video game industry began recovering in 1985.
Highest-grossing arcade games Japan In Japan, the following titles were the top-grossing arcade video games on the bi-weekly Game Machine charts in 1985.
Month Table arcade cabinet Upright/cockpit arcade cabinet Title Points Title Points Spartan X (Kung-Fu Master) TX-1 V8 Samurai Nipponichi Return of the Invaders I'm Sorry Senjō no Ōkami (Commando) Wyvern F-0 Ping Pong King TX-1 V8 Sandlot Baseball Hang-On Exciting Hour Choplifter ASO: Armored Scrum Object
United Kingdom and United States In the United Kingdom and United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1985.
Rank United Kingdom United StatesPlay MeterRePlay AMOA Title Type Arcade Route/Street Video 1 Commando Hang-On Karate Champ Dedicated Nintendo VS. System Karate Champ Spy Hunter 2 Kung-Fu Master Dedicated Kung-Fu Master, Karate Champ, Pac-Land, Pole Position II English Mark Darts, Crowns Golf, Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Kung-Fu Master Kung-Fu Master, Pole Position, Trivia Master, Karate Champ 3 Commando 4 Yie Ar Kung-Fu Conversion 5 Hogan's Alley System 6 Excitebike System colspan="3" rowspan="3" 7 rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Pole Position, Spy Hunter Dedicated 8
Best-selling home systems RankSystem(s) ManufacturerType Generation SalesJapanUSAUKWorldwide1Nintendo Entertainment System / FamicomNintendoConsoleThird6,500,00090,0006,590,0002Commodore 64 (C64)CommodoreComputer8-bit 1,000,000 2,500,0003IBM Personal Computer (PC) / IBM PCjrIBMComputer8-bit / 16-bit1,400,0004Atari 2600AtariConsoleSecond1,000,0005Apple IIApple Inc.Computer8-bit900,0006Commodore 128CommodoreComputer8-bit500,0007NEC PC-88 / PC-98NECComputer8-bit / 16-bit,000 ,000+8ZX SpectrumSinclairComputer8-bit 390,000+9Sega SG-1000 / Mark III (Master System)SegaConsoleThird280,000280,000+10Amstrad CPC / Amstrad PCWAmstradComputer8-bit 250,000+
Best-selling home video games Japan The year's best-selling game was Super Mario Bros. for the Family Computer (Famicom), later known as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) outside Japan. The game sold copies and grossed more than ( at the time, or adjusted for inflation) within several months. It eventually sold cartridges by the end of 1985.
Game Machine magazine reported that more than ten Famicom games released between 1983 and 1985 had each sold over cartridges in Japan by the end of 1985. The Magic Box lists fourteen Famicom games released between 1983 and 1985 that crossed lifetime sales in Japan. At least 11 of the following 14 Famicom million-sellers released between 1983 and 1985 crossed sales in Japan by the end of 1985.
Title(s) Publisher Sales Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 3,000,000 4 Nin Uchi MahjongBaseballNintendo rowspan="13" Excitebike F1 Race Golf Kung Fu Mahjong Mario Bros. Soccer Tennis Kinnikuman: Muscle Tag Match Bandai Xevious Namco Lode Runner Hudson Soft
United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1985, according to the annual Gallup software sales chart. The top ten titles were all home computer games.
Rank Title Developer Publisher Genre Sales 1 The Way of the Exploding Fist Beam Software Melbourne House Fighting 500,000 (Europe) 2 Soft Aid Various Quicksilva Compilation rowspan="9" 3 Elite AcornsoftAcornsoft Space trading 4 Ghostbusters ActivisionActivision Action 5 Finders Keepers MastertronicMastertronic Platformer 6 Frank Bruno's Boxing Elite Systems Elite Systems Fighting (boxing) 7 Commando Capcom Elite Systems Run-and-gun shooter 8 Formula 1 Simulator Spirit Software Mastertronic Racing 9 Daley Thompson's Decathlon Ocean Software Ocean Software Sports (Olympics) 10 Impossible Mission Epyx U.S. Gold Platformer
Fighting games topped the UK software sales charts for two years in a row in the mid-1980s, with The Way of the Exploding Fist in 1985 and then the home computer conversions of Yie Ar Kung-Fu in 1986.
United States In the United States, the Software Publishers Association (SPA) began tracking home computer game sales in 1985. The following fourteen computer games received Gold Awards from the SPA for sales above 100,000 units in 1985 (but below the 250,000 units required for a Platinum Award).
Titles Alphabet ZooChoplifter DeadlineF-15 Strike EagleFraction FeverFroggerGhostbustersKids on KeysLode RunnerMath Blaster! The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Zork IZork IIZork III
Events August – The final issue of Electronic Games magazine is published.
Major awards The Way of the Exploding Fist won Game of the Year at the third Golden Joystick Awards (for best home computer game), and received the "Voted Best Game" award at the Saturday Superstore Viewer Awards. The sixth Arcade Awards are held, for games released during 1983–1984, with Star Wars winning best arcade game, Space Shuttle best console game, Ultima III: Exodus best computer game, and Zaxxon best standalone game. In Computer Gamer magazine's Game of the Year Awards, Elite won best home computer game of the year (with The Way of the Exploding Fist as runner-up) and Commando won best coin-op game (with Paperboy as runner-up).
Business New companies: Cinemaware. Codemasters, Square Co., Titus, Tradewest, Westwood Studios Defunct: Adventure International, Bug-Byte, Edu-Ware, RDI Video Systems David Mullich and several other laid-off employees from Edu-Ware form Electric Transit, the first company to join Electronic Arts' new affiliated publisher program.
Games released in 1985
Release date Title Platform Developer / Publisher January 30 Ice Climber (JP) NES January Yie Ar Kung-Fu Arcade Konami GameCenter CX - 1st Season, Episode 09. Retrieved on September 19, 2009 February 4 Ice Climber (JP) Arcade March 1 Hogan's Alley (JP) Arcade March Excitebike (NA) Arcade March Gridiron Fight Arcade Tehkan March Ice Climber (NA) Arcade March Kung Fu (NA) Arcade April 9 Soccer (JP) NES April 23 Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? April Hogan's Alley (NA) Arcade April Paperboy Arcade Atari Games April Racing Destruction Set (NA) C64 April Thexder (JP) PC88 April Karuizawa Yūkai Annai PC88 Enix May Commando Arcade Capcom May Gradius (JP) Arcade Konami May Metro-Cross Arcade Namco June 18 Wrecking Crew (JP) NES June 21 Kung Fu (JP) NES June Thexder (JP) PC80 July Baraduke (JP) Arcade Namco July Hang-On Arcade Sega, Sega AM2 August Hogan's Alley (EU) Arcade August Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Arcade Atari Games August Racing Destruction Set (UK) C64 September Return of the Invaders Arcade Taito, UPL September 9 Battle City (JP) NES September 13 Super Mario Bros. (JP) NES September 16 Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (NA) APPII September 19 Ghosts 'n Goblins Arcade Capcom September 20 Motos Arcade Namco October 18 10-Yard Fight NES October 18 Baseball NES October 18 Clu Clu Land NES, Arcade October 18 Duck Hunt (NA) NES October 18 Excitebike (NA) NES October 18 Golf (NA/EU) October 18 Gyromite NES October 18 Hogan's Alley (NA) NES October 18 Ice Climber (NA) NES October 18 Kung Fu (NA) NES October 18 Pinball (NA) NES October 18 Soccer (NA) NES October 18 Stack-Up NES October 18 Super Mario Bros. (NA) NES October 18 Tennis (NA) NES October 18 Wild Gunman (NA) NES October 18 Wrecking Crew (NA) NES October 27 Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II (JP) PC88 October Gauntlet Arcade Atari Games October Ice Climber PC88 October Thexder (JP) FM7 November 3 Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II (JP) X1 November 21 Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II (JP) PC80, PC98 November Hydlide II: Shine of Darkness PC88 November Ice Climber X1 November Kung Fu APPII, C64 December 19 Thexder (JP) NES December Sky Kid Arcade Namco December Space Harrier Arcade Sega, Sega AM2 1985 At the Gates of Moscow 1941 APPII Strategic Games Productions 1985 Clues'o' 1985 Kung Fu (EU) Arcade 1985 Mercenary ATR 1985 Roller Coaster ZX 1985 Starquake ATR, C64, CPC, MSX, TEIN, ZX 1985 Tau Ceti ZX 1985 Tehkan World Cup (JP) Arcade Tehkan 1985 Tetris Electronika 60 Alexei Pajitnov 1985 The Oregon Trail APPII 1985 Thexder (JP) X1 1985 Wrecking Crew Arcade
Hardware releases
Arcade July – Sega releases the Space Harrier arcade hardware (also known as Sega Hang-On), the first of Sega's "Super Scaler" arcade system boards that allow pseudo-3D sprite-scaling at high frame rates.IGN Presents the History of SEGA: World War , IGN It displays 6144 colors on screen out of a 32,768 color palette. Namco begins development on the Namco System 21 around this time, as the first arcade board dedicated to 3D polygon graphics.
Computer January – Commodore releases their final 8-bit computer, the Commodore 128. June – Atari Corporation releases the 520ST, the first personal computer with a bit-mapped, color GUI. July 23 – Commodore releases the Amiga 1000 personal computer, the first in the Amiga family. It was not widely available until 1986. Atari replaces previous models in the Atari 8-bit computer series with the 65XE and 130XE, the latter of which has 128K bank-switched RAM. Discontinued: Coleco Adam, VIC-20
Console July 26 – Nintendo releases the Family Computer Robot, a peripheral for their Family Computer (Famicom) home video game console, in Japan. October 18 – the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) home video game console, the export version of the Famicom, is launched for a limited test market in the United States, along with the R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) peripheral. Not only that Super Mario Bros was released in North America around this time. October 20 – the Sega Mark III home video game console is launched in Japan. INTV Corporation releases the INTV III console. Telegames releases the Dina, a ColecoVision clone. Discontinued: ColecoVision
See also 1985 in games
References