Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Sonic was slowed down by the Sega Genesis
Yuji Naka originally programmed Sonic to run faster, but the Sega Genesis couldn’t load the level assets quickly enough; the game would crash if Sonic reached…
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Metroid Prime makes hidden machinery glow through your visor
The Thermal Visor turns the scene into a heat-styled display, revealing targets such as power conduits that are difficult to spot normally. Switching vision…
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The bizarre phrase Victorians used to invite guests
After hiding a small object, the host called guests back with the phrase, “Hot boiled beans and very good butter!”
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The Sims remembers exactly where your sunburn should stop
In The Sims 4: Island Living, sunbathing can leave tan lines matching the outfit a Sim was wearing. Covered skin stays protected while exposed areas change…
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Duck Duck Goose has different rules around the world
In some versions, the tapped player runs in the opposite direction around the circle, making a collision possible.
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Red rover was named after a river steamboat
The playground game takes its name from a 19th-century river steamboat. The name feels apt when you sprint into a line of linked arms.
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Attempting to pause a live multiplayer match fails
In an online match, opening the menu may hide the action, but it doesn't stop the game or the other players.
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Pong's broken paddles became a game feature
Al Alcorn’s circuitry kept Pong’s paddles from reaching the screen’s top edge. He left the flaw in place, saying the resulting blind spot made rallies more…
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How Naughty Dog pushed the PlayStation to its limit
With only 2 MB of RAM, the PS1 needed custom code to stream data from the disc in the background. The aggressive approach risked wearing out the laser drive,…
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Defender makes you watch a map instead of the action
You have to check a miniature scanner at the top of the screen to see aliens abducting people elsewhere in the game.
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No Man's Sky has planets full of bouncing pineapples
Procedural generation can create entire ecosystems of bouncing, eyeball-covered pineapples. It’s a surreal reminder of what happens when a game builds worlds…
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Why gelatinous cubes dissolve careless adventurers
These transparent scavengers sweep dungeon corridors, relying on adventurers not seeing them before they’re engulfed and dissolved.
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Why modern bullets appear on ancient ruins
Modern, high-caliber bullets sometimes turn up on altars built thousands of years before gunpowder existed.
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Tetherball restricts an object to a fixed orbital path
Because the ball is tied to a pole, each hit sends it around a fixed circular path. The game makes centripetal motion visible—and a poorly timed swing can…
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Street Fighter features a master who specifically stretches
Dhalsim's yoga lets him stretch his limbs far enough to punch opponents from across the screen.
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Sweet Johnson refuses to abandon his ruined neighborhood
Sweet’s loyalty to Grove Street drives him to return and reclaim the gang’s impoverished territory, even after his brother CJ gains wealth, government…
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Why Crazy Eights has such a strange name
Returning World War II veterans reportedly named it after the military's Section 8 designation for psychiatric discharges, a reference to the game's chaotic…
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Tomb Raider features an aristocrat stealing old relics
Her adventures turn archaeology into action: she raids ancient tombs and carries priceless cultural artifacts away in an improbably deep backpack.
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Why a Sudoku puzzle needs at least 17 clues
A standard 9-by-9 Sudoku needs at least 17 clues to have a unique solution; no 16-clue puzzle can do so.
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Xbox 360 storage drives require proprietary enclosures
The drive itself was a standard laptop drive, but it sat inside a restrictive custom shell. Replacing it meant opening the casing, which could void the…
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Dutch van der Linde lost his father in a brutal war
Dutch’s hatred of structured government is traced to his father’s death in the American Civil War. He went on to form an armed gang and preach loyalty and…
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The original PlayStation gave you 15 blocks to save your life
A standard memory card held one megabit—128 kilobytes—with 15 blocks available for saves. Games needed different amounts of that space, so starting a new…
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Procedural animation blends moving joints
Inverse kinematics lets a game engine place a character's foot on uneven ground, then calculate how the leg's joints should bend so the foot doesn't float.
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Bloodborne features intricately detailed Victorian buildings
Its spires and cobbled streets evoke 19th-century European architecture, creating a gothic cityscape that contrasts with the game’s hairy, screaming monsters.
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