Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
The Dreamcast controller had a tiny console inside
Because nothing says 'cutting-edge gaming innovation' like staring at a pixelated LCD mini-screen while getting absolutely destroyed on your television. The…
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Video game cutscenes hijack your camera in real time
Instead of loading a video file, developers simply strip away your control to manipulate the active lens. Real-time cinematics freeze user input, hijack the…
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Fair dice are carved from solid blocks
Molding plastic leaves tiny internal air bubbles that ruin the center of gravity, so the obsessive demand for fairness requires them to be carved from solid…
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Why the banker bet is best in baccarat
In Baccarat, simply wagering that the banker will win offers the best statistical probability of not going broke. The casino actually has to charge a five…
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How card cheats deal from the bottom
Cheating is a deeply physical skill. Extracting the absolute lowest layer without disturbing the massive stack resting heavily on top of it requires inhuman…
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Why movie guns never seem to jam
You can drag an assault rifle through mud, water, and raw sewage for six months, and it will still fire flawlessly every single time.
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Why movie assassins land in hay bales
Leaping off the top of an incredibly tall cathedral should instantly shatter every bone in your body. Fortunately, diving face-first into a relatively shallow…
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Luigi operates a vacuum cleaner to clean dark mansions
Housekeeping is apparently the most effective method of exorcism. To rescue his famous brother, the cowardly green plumber straps a heavily modified household…
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The bizarre anatomy test behind the marshmallow challenge
Human cheeks have a maximum capacity, but this party staple intentionally pushes them to their literal breaking point. By forcing participants to stuff…
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Walking to Minecraft's edge takes 34 days
If you hate the outdoors so much that you'd rather walk across a digital landscape, be prepared to lose a month of your life. The "Far Lands" at the edge of…
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Street Fighter cars wait completely empty to be smashed
In the middle of an intense martial arts tournament, combatants take a brief mental break to just aggressively destroy someone's personal vehicle. A perfectly…
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Why gamers expect treasure behind every waterfall
Decades of level design conditioning have taught players that flowing water obscuring a wall is an undeniable promise of treasure. If you bravely walk into a…
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Why cockroaches eat cardboard boxes
The animal kingdom loves your neglected collection. The industrial starch adhesives used to bind thick paper layers together are an absolute buffet of sweet…
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Why a dead controller makes characters spin
The exact moment your peripheral loses power, your character essentially suffers a catastrophic inner ear failure. They will continuously rotate in place,…
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The GameCube isn't actually a cube
Despite the incredibly literal name, the console's dimensions are an absolute lie. It is technically a rectangular prism, measuring slightly wider than it is…
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Red Dead Redemption 2 makes horses react to the cold
While most developers struggle to make standard dialogue trees function, Rockstar Games actively forces their employees to focus on the things that truly…
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Forza's crowds are flat—and the cars aren't
While the cars are rendered down to the molecular level with stunning reflections, the spectators cheering them on are completely flat cardboard cutouts. It…
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Paying to unlock content before it disappears
The evolution of monetization is paying for chores. The 'Battle Pass' system revolutionized the industry by charging upfront fees not for items, but for a…
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In cribbage, missed points can go to your opponent
If you fail to mathematically claim all your earned points, this ruthless optional rule allows your opponent to literally steal them. It turns casual counting…
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The Xbox 360 accessory with just 50 megabytes
An absolutely pitiful amount of space for the high-definition era. These tiny launch modules filled up almost instantly, making them completely obsolete mere…
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When Canasta decks outsold regular playing cards
Fads were weird before the internet. In the nineteen fifties, society became so obsessively unhinged over this specific rummy variation that specialized…
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Quest givers stand perfectly still for weeks
NPCs lack all basic human needs, choosing to stand in the exact same spot day and night waiting for you to deliver a minor parcel.
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Pass the Pigs relies entirely on the resting poses of swine
Instead of rolling standard numerical cubes, players literally toss tiny rubber swine onto a table and pray they land on their snouts. Earning points based on…
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When a game makes you lose after you win
You can spend ten minutes flawlessly dodging attacks and pummeling an antagonist into the dirt, only for the cinematic to immediately show your character…
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