Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
In Spyro, roasted sheep turn into butterflies
In Spyro the Dragon, breathing fire on sheep makes them vanish and leave behind butterflies, which Spyro's dragonfly companion eats to restore health.
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A save point can warn you before the game does
When a game puts a checkpoint, supplies, and a quiet room together, experienced players start expecting trouble. Those helpful objects communicate what the…
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Why video game villagers can't find items beside them
A villager may pay an armed stranger a fortune to retrieve a frying pan sitting just 20 feet from home.
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3DO was marketed as a luxury multimedia device
The 3DO launched as a high-end multimedia system, but its bloated positioning failed to win over consumers.
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Barbie's horse-rescue game turns a storm into an obstacle course
In Wild Horse Rescue, frightened horses scatter after a storm, and Barbie rides out to find them. Foals must be calmed, larger horses rounded up, and blocked…
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Why the 7–10 split is bowling's nightmare
To convert the 7–10 split, a bowler must knock one corner pin across the lane to hit the other—one of bowling's rarest shots.
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Skyrim can turn a cave mushroom into a healing potion
Blisterwort has a Restore Health alchemical effect, which can be combined with a matching ingredient at an alchemy lab. The same mushroom also carries other…
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The kitchen appliance behind Mass Effect's alien voices
The alien growls were made by recording kitchen appliances grinding up trash, then slowing down the audio.
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Mario collects gold coins that serve no real purpose
Coins aren’t useless: Mario can trade them for an extra life, though they won’t cover his plumbing bills.
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The game that made launching birds seem like engineering
Angry Birds made players feel like amateur engineers as they launched birds at beams and watched structures collapse—though success often came down to a…
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A-star pathfinding makes digital AI walk
It’s not making tactical decisions: A* searches an invisible grid for a route from point A to point B while avoiding obstacles.
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Why Steve Jobs was sent to Atari’s night shift
Atari managers moved him to nights because coworkers disliked his aggressive behavior and poor hygiene, sparing the rest of the staff from working alongside…
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Spinning into wooden crates to collect floating red apples
Crash Bandicoot made crate-smashing part of its signature: spin through wooden boxes to find floating fruit, often inexplicably placed in the jungle.
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The game that got Minecraft’s creator sued by Bethesda
Bethesda argued that the title "Scrolls" could confuse players with its Elder Scrolls series, even though Notch's game was a fantasy card game.
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A game's economy needs places for money to disappear
If rewards continually create currency, developers need ways to remove it, such as repairs, fees, or purchases from the game itself. Otherwise balances can…
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Blank domino tiles mathematically function as pure zeroes
A blank face has zero pips, but in some games, holding the tile at the end can still count against you.
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In Skyrim, a bucket can blind a shopkeeper
In Skyrim, putting a bucket over a shopkeeper’s head can block the character’s view, letting players steal nearby goods without being seen.
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Half-Life's opening grew from asking what its ruined rooms looked like before
Writer Marc Laidlaw recalled touring damaged levels with designer Brett Johnson and proposing that players first see the facility intact. The disaster could…
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A loop of string can carry a whole tradition
String figures appear in cultures across the world, with different names, patterns, and associated stories. Fingers turn a portable loop into animals,…
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In Tomb Raider, saving means finding blue crystals
In some Tomb Raider games, saving your progress means finding a large, spinning blue crystal in a cave; the game won't record your survival until you reach one.
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A platform ban can affect more than the match where it started
A suspended or terminated account may lose access to platform services and purchased digital content under the service's rules. The exact consequences depend…
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Making virtual breakfast with complex joystick motions
In Heavy Rain, ordinary tasks like making orange juice or frying bacon required slow, precise half-circles with the joystick. A broken yolk could feel like a…
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Hit stun scaling actively punishes long consecutive hits
With each successive hit, the opponent stays stunned for less time, eventually dropping out of the combo before it can continue indefinitely.
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In Old Maid, winning means not losing
There’s no first place in Old Maid: the aim is to pass along the penalty card so you’re not left holding it at the end.
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