Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
In Skyrim, an apple is also a tiny healing item
A green apple restores two health points under the game's food rules. The same inventory can hold weapons, ingredients, and a small portable recovery menu. It…
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Doom's creators built their breakout game on work computers
Before founding id Software, members of the team developed Commander Keen while employed at Softdisk, using the company's machines outside their regular work.…
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Gwent's basic rules came together in a bathtub
Designer Damien Monnier says he had a weekend to develop a card-game proposal for The Witcher 3. The central idea clicked while he was taking a bath: manage a…
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Bridge has an IOC-recognized federation without being an Olympic event
The World Bridge Federation appears among organizations recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Recognition and inclusion in the Games are separate…
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Movie magic often starts with PVC pipes
Because props only need to look convincing and give actors something to grab or lean on, crews can build elaborate-looking thrones and weapons from cheap PVC…
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Train Simulator sells a hobby's worth of optional track
Its add-on catalog includes separate routes, locomotives, and scenarios accumulated over many years. Buying everything treats a specialist hobby like a…
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Neo Geo brought arcade hardware into the living room
The home console used the same internals as the arcade system, so its games could run without compromises such as dropped frames.
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Elite Beat Agents sends dancers to a medical emergency
In the Nintendo DS game, a taxi driver's hospital dash plays out to a cover of Avril Lavigne's ‘Sk8er Boi.’ You tap circles to the beat while secret agents…
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Screen peeking started fights in couch multiplayer
Players could spot where opponents were hiding by glancing at their section of the shared screen, turning screen-peeking into an easy advantage.
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Miyazaki saw freedom in a game that was already struggling
Demon's Souls was having development problems when Hidetaka Miyazaki took charge. He later explained that the project's low expectations gave him room to…
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In Metal Gear Solid 2, bird poop can blow your cover
In Metal Gear Solid 2, walking over a bridge covered in seagull droppings can make the player slip and fall. The loud thud alerts nearby sentries.
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An online avatar changes what strangers know about you
Other players first see a name, a character model, and how you behave—not your offline identity. That makes an avatar both a disguise and a first impression.…
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Charades forces adults to pantomime individual syllables
A tug on the ear can signal “sounds like,” while flapping your arms might stand in for a helicopter. The game turns words into frantic gestures.
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In Tony Hawk games, helicopters are just another ramp
The games treat helicopters as airborne ramps: players can launch over spinning blades and score points with tricks.
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Why Roman from GTA IV always wants to go bowling
Even while Niko is dodging bullets and navigating Liberty City's criminal underworld, Roman keeps calling to ask him to go bowling. The invitations continue…
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Shuffleboard is largely played in retirement homes
Players slide weighted pucks across a salted wooden table, making shuffleboard a low-impact but competitive game.
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I spy builds early childhood cognitive categorization
Picking an object by color makes children scan a scene and sort what they see by an attribute, turning a road-trip game into practice in visual categorization.
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Sudoku's modern grid first appeared as Number Place
American architect Howard Garns is credited with the puzzle published by Dell in 1979, when he was in his seventies. It later traveled to Japan and gained the…
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Uno rules permit matching identical numbers of any color
A green seven can go on a blue seven; the green card’s color is then the one to match on the next turn.
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Content creators getting sued over background music
Automated copyright systems can flag gameplay videos when a licensed song plays in the background, even if the creator isn't featuring the music.
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Megaman slides on his knees to move slightly faster
His knee-slide is a movement trick that lets him travel slightly faster than walking.
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Snooker tables severely dwarf standard sized pool tables
A regulation snooker table measures 12 feet by 6 feet, leaving players with long distances between the cue ball and their targets.
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Checkers allows promoted kings to move backwards
A king can move backward as well as forward, making it harder for an opponent to keep a defensive line intact.
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In two-player Uno, Reverse lets you go again
With only two players, a special rule makes Reverse act like Skip: play it and you immediately get another turn. Reversing the seating order alone would still…
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