Games released in 1987

Capcom releases the first home console game for Famicom and NES, Mega Man, and the modern fighting game granddaddy, Street Fighter, is released into arcades. Konami releases the stealth action game Metal Gear for the MSX2. Sierra suddenly gets adult with Leisure Suit Larry, which becomes a huge hit at homes. A struggling Square was in financial trouble until the release of Highway Star for the Famicom, later released as Rad Racer for the NES. They would go on to make Final Fantasy as a farewell gift, only for it to be not only a huge success, but one that completely reverses their bankruptcy. The Master System is released in Japan, but with a nifty FM chip that no one outside of Japan had the luxury to hear. Along with the Master System comes Phantasy Star, which set Sega's foot into the RPG genre. NEC in collaboration with Hudson Soft releases the PC Engine in Japan. Epoch would drop out of video game hardware with the discontinuation of the Super Cassette Vision. Not only do IBM PC and clone users get VGA and 3.5" floppies, but AdLib sound cards finally introduce the OPL music standard driven by Yamaha's YM3812 sound chip, while Creative Labs releases their first product, the Creative Music System.

Due to struggling sales in the US, and inspired by Nintendo's efforts to sell the NES by disguising it as a toy, Sega chooses Tonka to start publishing the Master System there, which ultimately cements its failure as they did not know how to manage videogames.