1988 in video gaming

Events

*July — Nintendo releases the first issue of "Nintendo Power" magazine.

Notable releases

*Namco releases "World Stadium", "Assault", which is the first game to use sprite scaling and massive sprite rotation, "Assault Plus", "Berabow Man", "Marchen Maze", "Bakutotsu Kijuutei", which is the sequel to "Baraduke", "Ordyne", "Metal Hawk", "World Court", "Splatterhouse", which is the first game to get a parental advisory disclaimer, "Mirai Ninja", "Face Off" and "Phelios".
*Electronic Arts releases "John Madden Football" for the Apple II, starting its highly successful line of American football games. It is also the first major football game to feature full 11-man teams.
*Capcom releases "Mega Man 2" in Japan, the highest-selling installment to date (August 2006) in the entire Mega Man franchise with a total of 1.5 million copies sold. It was honored in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever list, coming in at number 33.
*"Pool of Radiance" (SSI), the first of the "Gold Box" games, the first computer RPG based on "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons".
*Origin Systems releases "". This was the first game in the "Ultima" series to implement a time-of-day system with day/night cycles and daily schedules for non-player characters.
*"Altered Beast" (Sega, arcade), later ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis where it was packaged with the console in North America and Europe.
*Sega releases "Phantasy Star" for the Sega Master System, the first in the company's most successful series of RPGs.
*Nintendo revamps "Doki Doki Panic" and releases it as "Super Mario Bros. 2", for the Nintendo Entertainment System in America and the PAL region. This game would be released in Japan as "Super Mario USA" in 1992.
*Nintendo releases "Super Mario Bros. 3" for the Famicom in Japan.
* Nintendo releases "" in December. The game had been released nearly two years earlier in Japan on the Famicom Disk System, before America even saw the first "Legend of Zelda".

Hardware

*October 29 — Sega Mega Drive released in Japan.

Business

*New companies: Koeo Co., Ltd., Visual Concepts, Stormfront Studios, Walt Disney Computer Software
*Defunct companies: Coleco Industries Inc.
*Activision renamed to Mediagenic.
*Nintendo vs. Camerica Ltd. lawsuit: Nintendo sues Camerica over the clone production of an Advantage joystick controller for the NES console.