Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Real trauma inspired Dead Space’s monsters
Designing genuinely terrifying cosmic horrors is hard, so the developers of Dead Space decided to traumatize themselves instead. To make the necromorphs look…
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In Mass Effect, the ship stays still while space moves
Sci-fi immersion is completely ruined when you realize the grand spaceship Normandy isn't actually flying anywhere. Because of engine limitations, when you…
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Left 4 Dead nearly used rioters instead of zombies
The adrenaline-pumping undead horde shooter almost lacked the one thing that makes it terrifying: zombies. Early prototypes of Left 4 Dead featured the…
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Pac-Man was designed to be endless, but a severe integer overflow bug in the original arcade cabinet's code makes the 256th level physically impossible to beat.
Pac-Man was designed to be endless, but a severe integer overflow bug in the original arcade cabinet's code makes the 256th level physically impossible to…
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Michael Jackson secretly composed the soundtrack for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in 1994, but he ultimately went uncredited because he was allegedly furious with how heavily compressed…
Michael Jackson secretly composed the soundtrack for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in 1994, but he ultimately went uncredited because he was allegedly furious with how…
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Gandhi's infamous obsession with nuclear weapons in the original Civilization game was caused by an integer underflow glitch.
Gandhi's infamous obsession with nuclear weapons in the original Civilization game was caused by an integer underflow glitch. His aggression rating was set to…
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Minecraft creator Markus Persson accidentally created the iconic Creeper while trying to code a completely normal pig.
Minecraft creator Markus Persson accidentally created the iconic Creeper while trying to code a completely normal pig. He mixed up the height and length…
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The famous Tomb Raider nude code was never real
Pre-internet gamers were the most gullible creatures on earth. For years, a rumor circulated that inputting a specific button combo would strip Lara Croft…
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GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 revolutionized first-person shooters on consoles, yet its legendary multiplayer mode was secretly added at the very last minute by a rogue programmer.
GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 revolutionized first-person shooters on consoles, yet its legendary multiplayer mode was secretly added at the very last…
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Sony created the PlayStation only because Nintendo spectacularly betrayed them at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991.
Sony created the PlayStation only because Nintendo spectacularly betrayed them at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991. Sony had spent years developing a…
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The underwater Monopoly game that lasted 70 days
As if a standard game of Monopoly wasn't already a suffocating experience. In 1983, a dive club in Buffalo, New York, decided to play the game in a high…
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The backup CD that saved Tomb Raider
The gaming industry's data preservation is held together by thoughts and prayers. The original source code for 1996's Tomb Raider was completely lost by…
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Will Wright originally designed the blockbuster game The Sims to be an advanced architectural design simulator called Jefferson, where the little virtual people were only added…
Will Wright originally designed the blockbuster game The Sims to be an advanced architectural design simulator called Jefferson, where the little virtual…
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Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue holds a sacred place in hacker lore because it contained a specific exploit used to permanently mod and crack the original Microsoft Xbox.
Barbie Horse Adventures: Wild Horse Rescue holds a sacred place in hacker lore because it contained a specific exploit used to permanently mod and crack the…
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Reddit user Lycerius played a single, uninterrupted game of Civilization II for over ten real-world years, progressing the in-game calendar to the year 3991 AD.
Reddit user Lycerius played a single, uninterrupted game of Civilization II for over ten real-world years, progressing the in-game calendar to the year 3991…
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Toru Iwatani famously conceived the iconic shape of Pac-Man in 1979 while staring at a pizza with a single slice removed during his lunch break.
Toru Iwatani famously conceived the iconic shape of Pac-Man in 1979 while staring at a pizza with a single slice removed during his lunch break. He wanted to…
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Parker Brothers claims that the longest recorded continuous game of Monopoly in human history lasted an excruciating 70 straight days.
Parker Brothers claims that the longest recorded continuous game of Monopoly in human history lasted an excruciating 70 straight days. One has to wonder what…
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Space Invaders launched in Japanese arcades in 1978 and became such an immediate cultural obsession that it sparked a widespread urban legend claiming the game caused a nationwide shortage of 100-yen coins.
Space Invaders launched in Japanese arcades in 1978 and became such an immediate cultural obsession that it sparked a widespread urban legend claiming the…
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Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo all the way back in 1889 as a humble business producing handmade Hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto.
Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo all the way back in 1889 as a humble business producing handmade Hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto. Long before they were…
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The Egyptian board game thought to reach the dead
Because modern gaming isn't toxic enough, imagine playing a board game where the ultimate prize is chatting with a ghost. Senet was played in Egypt circa 3100…
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Pokémon once planned for Gold and Silver to be the finale
It’s hard to imagine willingly pulling the plug on a multi-billion dollar money printer. Tsunekazu Ishihara, the president of The Pokémon Company, stated that…
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Hasbro patented turning cards sideways
Imagine successfully claiming legal ownership over rotating a rectangle 90 degrees. In 1994, the creators of Magic: The Gathering filed US Patent 5,662,332,…
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Skyrim's map is a live view of the world
When you open the map in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to fast travel, you aren't looking at a beautifully painted 2D illustration. The developers just attached…
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Master Chief’s armor got its color from a Honda
The savior of humanity and the face of the Xbox brand owes his signature look to a completely random vehicle modification. When Bungie was struggling to nail…
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