Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Sierra began in a cabin in the woods
The legendary publisher behind massive point-and-click adventures literally started in a cabin in the woods. Ken and Roberta Williams founded the company…
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First official game of baseball was played in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1846 and the losing team scored one run
And they say baseball has always been a thrilling, high-scoring spectacle. The New York Nine faced off against the Knickerbockers at Elysian Fields in a game…
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Jigsaw puzzles began as geography lessons
Your favorite rainy day activity started as excruciating homework. John Spilsbury mounted a map of Europe onto wood and cut it along national borders. It was…
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Resident Evil's merchant sells eggs from his coat
In the middle of a terrifying village, a mysterious trench-coated man will gladly sell you completely unrefrigerated poultry products from his coat. It is an…
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Why playing cards have a dark layer inside
Otherwise, you could literally see the faces through the back in bright light. Manufacturers sandwich a dark carbon paste between the paper layers to ensure…
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The video game that sparked a congressional panic
Politicians lost their collective minds over a grainy FMV game featuring girls in pajamas and cheap vampires. Congress held highly publicized hearings…
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Why Sea of Thieves pirates eat bananas with the peel
Scurvy is a real threat, so these swashbucklers just unhinge their jaws and consume the entire fruit, skin and all, in a single terrifying crunch. It is an…
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Doom Eternal hides a Dopefish
Amidst the endless heavy metal soundtrack and intense action, there is a secret corner hiding a goofy, buck-toothed aquatic creature. It is the ultimate…
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Why pachinko parlors sound like jet engines
Walking into one of these gambling hubs is a direct assault on human eardrums. The collective crashing of tens of thousands of tiny steel cascading balls…
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Spinning tops depend entirely on heavy gyroscopic stability
By maintaining angular momentum, the object temporarily rejects gravity and balances on a microscopic point. Eventually, friction ruins the party, violently…
Discover morePhoenix Wright cross-examines a talking parrot in court
The legal system is highly forgiving of absurd witnesses. To win a critical murder trial, a wildly gesturing defense attorney will confidently interrogate a…
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Magic's most valuable cards had inconsistent corners
The very first print run of this multi-billion-dollar franchise featured deeply botched borders that varied wildly in roundness. It means the most expensive,…
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The Rubik's Cube pieces that never move
If you ever felt like a fraud solving this thing, here is your validation. The middle squares on each face are permanently fixed to an internal core. You…
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The nine boxes that changed Dungeons & Dragons
Rather than relying on deep character study, designers just plotted ethics on a simple nine-box chart. It permanently gave players a socially acceptable…
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Super Mario must eat mushrooms to grow visibly taller
Plumbing is apparently a profession highly dependent on foraging. To survive even the slightest bump from a slow-moving turtle, our mustachioed hero must…
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Audio engineers actively worsening high quality mixes
Why make a masterpiece if nobody can hear it properly? Audio engineers deliberately test and mix their brilliant, multi-layered orchestral scores on the…
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Double Dutch jump rope involves crossing opposing arcs
Turning two massive ropes in completely opposite directions while someone hops in the middle requires staggering rhythm. It is a breathtaking display of…
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Why studios threw original recordings away
Historical preservation is frequently defeated by a need for extra closet space. Legendary studios have been caught literally tossing original master tapes,…
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Minecraft builders shatter magical stones to craft portals
To visit a terrifying hell dimension, you simply need to find the hardest substance known to block-kind. Punching violently dense volcanic rock until it…
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Why game dialogue multiplies so quickly
Giving players choices is a mathematical nightmare. If a conversation branches in three directions, and each of those branches splits again, writers are…
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Skyrim’s dragons speak a language built from scratch
World-building reaches its peak when you invent grammar for flying lizards. Bethesda didn't just string together cool-sounding gibberish for the dragons in…
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A digital nightclub sold for $635,000 in real money
Why buy real property when you can own a string of code that acts as a nightclub? An entrepreneur in the Entropia Universe purchased a digital club for…
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Sugary drinks cause chemical crashes that slow reaction time
Borrowing energy from the future with horrible interest rates. That massive spike of liquid glucose inevitably results in an insulin dump, leaving your…
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Ultimate weapons demand ninety nine fragments
You cannot simply find a great weapon; you must scour every remote corner of the continent for glowing shards to glue together.
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