Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
The D&D campaign still running since 1982
Talk about a scheduling miracle. While most Dungeons & Dragons groups fall apart after three sessions because someone has 'a thing' on Tuesday, Robert…
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Why Miyamoto rejected being called gaming’s Spielberg
The legendary creator of Mario and Zelda is frequently dubbed 'The Steven Spielberg of Video Games' by the western press. You'd think he'd be flattered, but…
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What Vault Boy's famous thumbs-up was really measuring
That cheerful blond mascot giving you a thumbs-up isn't actually offering encouragement while you wander the radioactive wasteland. According to old nuclear…
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Why Mass Effect's elevators took so long
Those uncomfortably long elevator rides with your squad weren't for deep character bonding, they were just stalling for the Xbox's agonizingly slow hard…
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John Madden wouldn't endorse football with seven players
Electronic Arts initially wanted to make a heavily simplified 7-on-7 arcade game because processing 22 digital sprites was a hardware nightmare for 1980s…
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Portal began as a student project called Narbacular Drop
The cake may be a lie, but the ruthless corporate talent scouting was incredibly real. Valve executives saw a quirky student project called Narbacular Drop at…
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Destiny's Loot Cave turned boredom into a game strategy
The absolute apex of human gaming achievement in 2014 was standing perfectly stationary in front of a rock formation in digital Russia. Bungie's early loot…
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Mario’s hat and mustache solved a pixel problem
Mario doesn’t wear a cap and overalls because he is a high fashion icon; he wears them because drawing moving hair and arms on a 16x16 pixel grid was absolute…
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Barbie Horse Adventures shares an engine with GTA
Underneath the wholesome veneer of brushing virtual ponies beats the exact same technological heart as GTA. Developers literally reused the RenderWare engine,…
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Jenga simply means “build” in Swahili
There is absolutely no profound meaning behind the name of this anxiety-inducing block tower. The British creator just picked the Swahili word 'jenga,' which…
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Wii Bowling punishes you for throwing backward
Nintendo went out of their way to program a digital guilt trip for clumsy players. In Wii Sports Bowling, if you hold onto the B button too long and release…
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D&D was funded by a shoe-repair shop
The game that paved the way for modern nerds was bankrolled by repairing dirty soles. When Gary Gygax and Don Kaye couldn't find a publisher for Dungeons &…
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Why every Rubik's Cube position is solvable
And somehow, your weird cousin can still solve it in twelve seconds. A standard 3x3 Rubik’s Cube has exactly 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible…
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The secret second player in Duck Hunt
Thirty years later, you finally realize why those 8-bit mallards were so good at dodging your plastic gun. In the original NES version of Duck Hunt, plug a…
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You can win Uno without saying Uno
Your childhood arguments were based on a lie fabricated by illiterate players. The official rules of Uno state that a player must yell "Uno" when they have…
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The Nintendo 64 logo hides a perfect 64
The most mathematically satisfying piece of 90s branding wasn't just a clever name. The iconic 3D "N" logo for the Nintendo 64 was carefully modeled to have…
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The world's tallest arcade machine is over 14 feet high
If standard arcade machines weren't quite enough to trigger a sense of physical inadequacy, Jason Camberis spent two years building a monster. Holding the…
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Poker was once played with animal bones
Before casinos provided neatly stacked, color-coded clay discs, you literally played poker with garbage. In the early 19th century, standard currency was too…
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Playing cards were designed for pure gambling
Wholesome family decks were originally crafted strictly for illicit wagers in dimly lit taverns. The suits represented different societal classes,…
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Chess pieces weren't standardized for centuries
Before the Staunton shape became universal, every region carved its own bizarre wooden pieces. Players frequently sat down for international matches and had…
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Tossing sharp projectiles at walls
Standing far away and lobbing pointed metal spikes at a cork circle somehow perfectly synergizes with drinking pints of stout in a crowded pub. Taverns…
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Throwing heavy spheres at wooden pins
Attempting to knock over a group of precisely arranged wooden clubs with a drastically heavy resin ball perfectly combines frustration with terrible rented…
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Concealing facial twitches to win money
The entire concept of a blank card-playing expression exists solely because humans are terrible at lying naturally. If you do not completely freeze your face,…
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Pac-Man was designed to bring women to arcades
The creator thought arcades were too dark and male-dominated, so he drew a circular yellow mascot. He intentionally avoided violent themes and focused on…
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