1986 was the year I went to college which likely distracted me from the NES and SMS releases. I was most concerned with my Apple computer that year, but I'll go through all I've subsequently gotten into and some notable facts (notable to me anyway).

Companies Founded

Majesco, Ubi Soft, Bethesda Softworks, Famitsu magazine, and FromSoftware. Quite a list there this year.  

Arcade 

Sky Kid Deluxe - Never saw one in the wild, but I've played it on Capcom [cor. NAMCO] collections and really liked it.  

Ikari Warriors – SNK's Front Line, now with co-op play.  I had the NES ports in the 90s but never played it in the arcade.

Arkanoid – As with Sky Kid Deluxe, I never saw one in my arcades in '86, but I've played the ports of it and would love to find a cabinet to play now.   

PC 

I took an Apple Macintosh Plus to college with me this year. Somehow, I don't remember how, I got a copy of Wizardry I and Dark Castle for it. This is what the system looks like:  

Home Console 

Atari 2600 – Solaris, a fantastically advanced game for the system. The Atari 7800 came out. It's launch titles and most of what came out for it were arcade ports. Robotron 2084 is one I'd like to play.  

NES – Test launched in L.A. in February and nationwide in September. Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong Jr., Mario Bros, 1942, Commando, Ghosts n' Goblins and Gradius are of interest to me now. Back then I didn't even know about it or the next one below.

Sega Master System is out in North America, little did I know at the time. Today I'm interested in Choplifter and Fantasy Zone out this year.  

Board/Card 

Castle Risk which adds castles to the game. I saw one at a Goodwill the other week and almost bought it. It's a big box though and takes up too much space.  

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a board game version of the FightingFantasy gamebook. This is the title of the DS game I have as well.  

Blood Bowl is a game of fantasy football, like literal fantasy with orcs, elves, ogres and whatnot battling it out on the gridiron. What a thing! I had a coworker talk to me about this a lot back in the late 90s. 

Zelda gets a board game with Legend of Zelda Hyrule Fantasy. What doesn't get a board game version? 

Casino Yahtzee seems like an interesting complication of Yahtzee which is a pretty simple game.  

BattleTech: CityTech. The first BattleTech game was in '84. I mention it because a bookstore owner friend of mine told me the BattleTech novels, the first one being in '86, are pretty good.  

Those are the games of interest to me now, but I didn't play any board games that I can recall in '86.  

TV/Film 

I remember being really against watching TV when I went to college. I wanted to get away from it since I'd watched so much during high school and was such a constant presence at home. So, I didn't see: It's Garry Shandling's Show, PeeWee's Playhouse, ALF or Sledge Hammer until much later.  

Film was a different story and my best friend and I watched a few like: Quicksilver (theme song by Tony Banks, of Genesis and Fish, of Marillion, two bands I liked at the time), Pretty in Pink (Psychedelic Furs theme song and a band I liked), Highlander (YES!), Top Gun, Raw Deal ("you should not drink and bake", all-time one liner), Labyrinth, Big Trouble in Little China, Aliens, Transformers, The Fly, Star Trek IV and The Three Amigos (Martin Short, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase starred and were three comedians we both liked).  

Bonus 

British Television – In the early 80s Monty Python's Flying Circus was in syndication in the U.S. which got me into watching British TV shows, especially comedies like: Blackadder, The Young Ones, Red Dwarf (which lasted through the 90s and beyond), A Bit of Fry & Laurie and French and Saunders. Those last two were skit comedy shows, a favorite genre of mine.

Next time is 1987.