Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Left 4 Dead utilizes an invisible, algorithmic game master known as the AI Director that constantly monitors your stress levels, health, and ammo to dynamically adjust the pacing…
Left 4 Dead utilizes an invisible, algorithmic game master known as the AI Director that constantly monitors your stress levels, health, and ammo to…
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Yuji Naka programmed Sonic the Hedgehog to instantly sink and drown in water because he incorrectly assumed that real-world hedgehogs were physically incapable of swimming; in…
Yuji Naka programmed Sonic the Hedgehog to instantly sink and drown in water because he incorrectly assumed that real-world hedgehogs were physically…
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Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin created Crash Bandicoot for the original PlayStation, utilizing hacking techniques so unbelievably aggressive that it technically voided the warranty on the Sony development kits.
Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin created Crash Bandicoot for the original PlayStation, utilizing hacking techniques so unbelievably aggressive that it technically…
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Mario Kart developers explicitly invented the infamous Blue Shell as a brutal equalizing force to ruthlessly punish whichever player possessed the audacity to maintain a solid lead.
Mario Kart developers explicitly invented the infamous Blue Shell as a brutal equalizing force to ruthlessly punish whichever player possessed the audacity to…
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Skyrim speedrunners and casual players alike quickly discovered a legendary exploit where placing a wooden bucket over an NPC's head completely blinds them, allowing the player…
Skyrim speedrunners and casual players alike quickly discovered a legendary exploit where placing a wooden bucket over an NPC's head completely blinds them,…
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Scrabble competitions are notoriously so aggressive that players memorize thousands of obscure, completely useless two-letter words just to weaponize the tiny blank spaces on the board.
Scrabble competitions are notoriously so aggressive that players memorize thousands of obscure, completely useless two-letter words just to weaponize the tiny…
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Portal developers utilized the phrase 'The cake is a lie' to motivate the player through its physics-based puzzles, a joke that originated from the team trying to figure out a reason for the protagonist to keep going.
Portal developers utilized the phrase 'The cake is a lie' to motivate the player through its physics-based puzzles, a joke that originated from the team…
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Minecraft features eerie ambient cave sounds that randomly trigger when a player is in the dark, explicitly designed by the game's audio team to induce mild paranoia.
Minecraft features eerie ambient cave sounds that randomly trigger when a player is in the dark, explicitly designed by the game's audio team to induce mild…
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Settlers of Catan was designed by Klaus Teuber, a German dental technician who was so stressed by his miserable job and mounting financial debts that he created board games in his basement as a coping mechanism.
Settlers of Catan was designed by Klaus Teuber, a German dental technician who was so stressed by his miserable job and mounting financial debts that he…
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Cards Against Humanity was entirely funded through a Kickstarter campaign by eight high school alumni who just wanted to formalize a horribly offensive version of Apples to Apples they played over winter break.
Cards Against Humanity was entirely funded through a Kickstarter campaign by eight high school alumni who just wanted to formalize a horribly offensive…
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Danish government officials painstakingly built a massive, fully interactive replica of their entire country inside Minecraft to teach children about geography, only for American…
Danish government officials painstakingly built a massive, fully interactive replica of their entire country inside Minecraft to teach children about…
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Researchers published a paper in 2019 proving that Magic: The Gathering is officially the most computationally complex real-world game ever created, literally making it Turing complete.
Researchers published a paper in 2019 proving that Magic: The Gathering is officially the most computationally complex real-world game ever created, literally…
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Ancient Indian iterations of chess originally featured a war elephant instead of the bishop, which makes vastly more sense from a historical military perspective than an armed…
Ancient Indian iterations of chess originally featured a war elephant instead of the bishop, which makes vastly more sense from a historical military…
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Id Software composer Bobby Prince heavily plagiarized the iconic, adrenaline-pumping heavy metal soundtrack for the original 1993 Doom from world-famous bands like Metallica, Slayer, and Pantera.
Id Software composer Bobby Prince heavily plagiarized the iconic, adrenaline-pumping heavy metal soundtrack for the original 1993 Doom from world-famous bands…
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Konami Code, the famous sequence of up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, was created solely because developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto was terrible at his own video game.
Konami Code, the famous sequence of up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, was created solely because developer Kazuhisa Hashimoto was terrible…
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Bungie composers literally recorded themselves singing in a bathroom to create the iconic Gregorian monk chant that plays over the main menu screen of the original Halo game.
Bungie composers literally recorded themselves singing in a bathroom to create the iconic Gregorian monk chant that plays over the main menu screen of the…
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John Romero modeled the iconic box-art pose for the original Doom by aggressively ripping off his own shirt and forcing an illustrator to take reference photos of him flexing with a toy gun.
John Romero modeled the iconic box-art pose for the original Doom by aggressively ripping off his own shirt and forcing an illustrator to take reference…
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Players in the science fiction massively multiplayer game EVE Online genuinely fought a massive virtual space war called the Bloodbath of B-R5RB that destroyed the real-world…
Players in the science fiction massively multiplayer game EVE Online genuinely fought a massive virtual space war called the Bloodbath of B-R5RB that…
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Sega originally stood for Service Games, a company founded in Hawaii in 1940 to provide coin-operated amusement machines to military bases during the Second World War.
Sega originally stood for Service Games, a company founded in Hawaii in 1940 to provide coin-operated amusement machines to military bases during the Second…
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Spyro the dragon was originally conceptualized as a green reptile during his early development phase for the original PlayStation.
Spyro the dragon was originally conceptualized as a green reptile during his early development phase for the original PlayStation. The developers at Insomniac…
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Poker's legendary 'Dead Man's Hand,' consisting of a two-pair of black aces and black eights, earned its ominous title because it was allegedly the exact hand held by Old West…
Poker's legendary 'Dead Man's Hand,' consisting of a two-pair of black aces and black eights, earned its ominous title because it was allegedly the exact hand…
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Operation, the anxiety-inducing board game where you use tweezers to remove plastic bones from a naked man, was invented in 1964 by an industrial design student named John Spinello.
Operation, the anxiety-inducing board game where you use tweezers to remove plastic bones from a naked man, was invented in 1964 by an industrial design…
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Halo's iconic M12 Warthog vehicle was originally conceptualized as a civilian off-road vehicle for a completely different game about exploring a ringworld before Microsoft bought Bungie.
Halo's iconic M12 Warthog vehicle was originally conceptualized as a civilian off-road vehicle for a completely different game about exploring a ringworld…
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Bethesda developers faced a massive technical hurdle while building the Broken Steel expansion for Fallout 3 because their outdated game engine had absolutely no idea how to…
Bethesda developers faced a massive technical hurdle while building the Broken Steel expansion for Fallout 3 because their outdated game engine had absolutely…
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