Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Half-Life lets you overhear a very ordinary lab complaint
Right before a massive interdimensional incident occurs, you can just wander around a top-secret laboratory listening to brilliant minds loudly whine about a…
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Corporate wikis entirely dedicated to tracking missed dates
It is truly a testament to brand loyalty when your customers meticulously document your inability to read a calendar. The community coined 'Valve Time' to…
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Dominoes were once used to tell the future
Ancient monks in China originally utilized these dotted tiles to map out astrological paths and divine the future. Centuries later, we strictly use them to…
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Halo's Warthog uses real-world tire treads
In the distant future, interstellar humanity has mastered slipspace travel but still buys tires from standard manufacturers. The iconic, physics-defying jeep…
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When Lara Croft's hair brought PCs to their knees
Who needs stable frame rates when your protagonist's ponytail looks absolutely fabulous? In 2013, AMD partnered with developers to introduce TressFX, a system…
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How bumping an Xbox 360 could ruin a disc
If you slightly bumped this massively popular console while it was running, it would carve a perfect, destructive ring into your expensive optical media. It…
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Tetris four line clears provide maximum score jumps
Erasing a single row is for cowards. The game heavily incentivizes hoarding an entire vertical column to drop the long straight piece and clear four rows…
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How croquet brought men and women onto the same field
Smashing wooden balls through metal hoops was the ultimate nineteenth-century equalizer. Brought to England in the 1850s, it served as one of the very first…
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Your playing cards hide a cast of historical figures
Your late-night poker game is actually a history lesson. Standard face cards are rooted in Parisian design from the 1500s, where the King of Diamonds is…
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Option selects automatically choose optimal attacks for you
Why guess what the opponent will do when the engine can just cheat on your behalf? By pressing multiple inputs simultaneously in a specific rhythm, players…
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In this game, tiny floor spikes beat tank blasts
Taking a direct hit from artillery removes half your health, but touching a single tiny spike on the floor causes immediate, dramatic death.
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Why gamers spin around before leaving spawn
For reasons that baffle ordinary observers, the very first instinct upon loading into a competitive map is to wildly shuffle in circles around your teammates.…
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Plastic disc cases take centuries to completely decompose
Your terrible purchasing decisions will outlast your bloodline. The cheap polypropylene used for physical media packaging is entirely impervious to biological…
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Pokemon centers heal monsters in exactly three seconds
Modern medicine pales in comparison to flashing lights. Hand over your severely battered, unconscious magical beasts to a cheerful nurse, and a quick cheerful…
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Macaques understand objects moving across a screen
Primates have no problem understanding that a physical swipe translates to digital momentum. They easily track moving artificial shapes and anticipate…
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The game cartridge was created by Jerry Lawson
Jerry Lawson revolutionized the entire industry by figuring out how to swap software without buying a whole new machine. Despite creating the foundational…
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Sony built the DualShock to answer Nintendo's rumble
Innovation is often just highly motivated corporate jealousy. When Nintendo released the Rumble Pak in 1997, allowing players to actually 'feel' the game,…
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Mass Effect's galaxy was mapped with real astronomy
Nothing screams 'unnecessary crunch' quite like doing actual astrophysics for a video game about kissing aliens. BioWare developers consulted actual celestial…
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Counterfeit cards can copy microscopic dimples
Criminals are getting really good at pressing tiny bumps into cardboard. Black market printers now perfectly replicate the microscopic dimples on cards that…
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Sorry pawns strictly move backwards on specific card draws
Drawing a four in this classic ruin-your-friendships simulator forces you to move in reverse. It completely violates the ingrained human instinct to always…
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Why Super Smash Bros. Brawl sounds apocalyptic
Instead of a lighthearted orchestral melody, this party brawler opted for an intense choir screaming operatic Latin verses. It makes throwing a banana peel at…
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Among Us crewmates have surprisingly simple anatomy
The anatomy of a tiny digital astronaut is dreadfully simple. Whenever an imposter eliminates a brightly colored worker, their body splits completely in half,…
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Why casino carpets look so chaotic
The horrific, chaotic floral floor designs are chosen completely on purpose. The visual noise is meticulously engineered to keep you intensely awake while…
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The helmet reveal that changed Samus Aran
Decades ago, blowing up space pirates was considered strictly male territory. The creators decided to play a brilliant trick on audiences by having the…
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