Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
British bingo cards rely on three rows and nine columns
With 15 numbers spread across the long strip, British bingo has a different rhythm from the familiar American 5-by-5 game.
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Standard Klondike Solitaire layouts hide 28 total cards
In the standard layout, those 28 face-down cards are dealt into seven columns; only the top card in each column is face up.
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A king's tiny wheat reward grows to more than 18 quintillion grains
The chessboard legend starts with one grain and doubles the payment on every next square. Across 64 squares, the total is 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains.…
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Doing absurd breakdance moves mid-air on a digital board
In SSX Tricky, a ramp launched riders into a four-second window to spin their boards, flip and perform midair tricks before landing.
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Persona 5 made finding the right train part of the game
Its Shibuya setting recreates enough of a busy station's layout and signage to make navigation an experience in itself. Before saving the world, you have to…
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When a sniper rifle becomes a shotgun
It’s a precision weapon used at point-blank range: a long-range scope on a high-powered rifle, aimed from just two feet away.
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Lindsay Lohan sued over GTA V—and lost
She argued that the game used her likeness. New York's highest court concluded that the disputed depictions were not recognizable as her. A character can…
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Second Life's land boom produced a claimed virtual millionaire
In 2006, Ailin Graef, known in-world as Anshe Chung, announced that her virtual holdings were worth more than $1 million. Her business developed and rented…
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Yoshi lays eggs instantly after consuming sweet berries
In the games, Yoshi can turn a piece of fruit into a spotted egg almost instantly, then hurl it at enemies.
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Why Pictionary turns bad drawings into a race
With only 60 seconds to draw a complex phrase, players have to sketch fast, whether or not the result looks recognizable.
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How foosball brought a stadium game into a tiny flat
A European inventor wanted to bring the feel of a stadium match into his tiny flat. He mounted little wooden players on metal rods, creating a tabletop game…
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Heart rates peak at 120 beats per minute while seated
An intense digital experience can push a seated heart rate to 120 beats per minute—an elevated pulse without the exertion of a workout.
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Leaning toward the screen changes the game on your retina
Move closer and the display fills more of your field of view, making small details appear larger. The familiar gamer lean can therefore change what you see,…
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Candy Crush's maker tried to claim Candy as a game trademark
King's application turned an everyday word into a branding battle. It obtained an EU registration in 2013 but abandoned its US application in February 2014…
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A slot-machine lever no longer pulls the odds
On an electronic slot machine, a handle can trigger a spin just like a button. The outcome comes from the game's electronic system, not from how forcefully or…
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Super Mario Bros. hides an underwater level with no way out
The original game's famous Minus World glitch lets Mario pass through a wall and reach a looping underwater stage. Reaching the pipe at the end sends him…
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PlayStation Portable utilizes tiny encased optical discs
The disc spun inside a white protective casing, which could make a distinct scraping noise during demanding loading screens.
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GTA V sold the same world across three console generations
The game began on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, then reached their successors and later PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles. New editions kept Los Santos…
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The online pass that charged secondhand buyers to play
The publisher made buyers of used games pay a one-time fee to unlock multiplayer, so they could play online with friends.
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Konami was made from three founders' names
Kagemasa Kozuki, Yoshinobu Nakama, and Tatsuo Miyasako combined parts of their surnames to coin “Konami” in 1969; the name roughly means “small waves.”
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The PS2's black case and blue stand were a tiny space metaphor
Sony describes the black console as evoking the vastness of space, with the blue stand inspired by Earth. The design was meant to suggest an entertainment…
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Nintendo Wii internal storage holds extremely few downloads
With only 512 MB of internal storage, the Wii could hold just a few downloaded games at once, so players often had to move files to external storage to make…
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Baccarat deals exclusively with single digit point values
If the cards total 15, baccarat counts it as 5: you drop the tens digit and keep only the ones digit.
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Tetris is named after four and tennis
The name combines “tetra,” for the game’s four-block shapes, with “tennis,” the creator’s favorite sport.
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