Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
The gossip columnist who popularized scavenger hunts
The chaotic party activity was practically engineered for drama. A prominent New York gossip writer in the nineteen thirties popularized the concept of…
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What Nintendo DS was really supposed to stand for
While absolutely everyone assumes it stands for 'Dual Screen' due to the literal pair of displays, the internal codename stood for giving creators new tools.…
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A paused game can use refrigerator-level power
Keeping a digital world rendered while you sleep is an environmental crime. High-end processors pull enough wattage to power a refrigerator just to endlessly…
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Animal Crossing began on Japan's Nintendo 64
Your absolute favorite pandemic-era anxiety relief simulator actually started as a clunky, low-polygon debt-trap in the early 2000s. Known as Dobutsu no Mori,…
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Community managers absorbing incredible amounts of rage
Acting as a friendly bridge between creators and fans primarily involves getting yelled at. Paid community managers spend their entire workdays smiling…
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Katamari Damacy makes you roll a sticky ball to pick up cows
You start by rolling up thumbtacks and loose change, and eventually snowball into a massive sphere composed entirely of screaming livestock, cars, and office…
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Guybrush was named after a file extension
The most legendary pirate in adventure gaming history is literally named after a software file extension. When developers were designing the protagonist for…
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Why a ring corner is no place to rest your head
When a combatant smashes their face into the protective corner pads, they are flirting with a concussion. Beneath the thin layer of branded foam lies a…
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Sardines turns hide-and-seek into a human pile
Regular hide and seek is about isolation, but Sardines is about forced intimacy. One person hides, and as others find them, they must quietly pack into the…
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Why Pokémon games ban bikes indoors
Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a young monster tamer quite like an invisible voice scolding them. Try pedaling your two-wheeler inside a carpeted…
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Guess Who turns facial features into clues
Narrowing down potential suspects based entirely on baldness and big noses is a hilarious childhood staple. Flipping down tiles because the person looks…
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Synthetic sable brushes are essentially tiny plastic hairs
Paying exorbitant prices for fake animal fur. To mimic the fluid retention of an actual weasel tail, factories extrude microscopic nylon filaments that bend…
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Gone Home turns snooping through drawers into a mystery
You return from a year abroad to find your family home completely empty. Gone Home turns aggressive snooping into a compelling narrative. There are no ghosts…
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The children's game with quintillions of possibilities
While it looks like a simple pastime for children, those alternating colored squares hold an astronomical amount of varying possibilities. It took advanced…
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Why pool tables are so hard to move
That smooth rolling surface is not just sturdy wood. Premium tables feature thick beds of heavy slate rock directly underneath the cloth, which perfectly…
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Pro foosball strictly positions three goalie defenders
While casual tables might feature a single lonely goalkeeper, professional variants stack a row of three figures directly in front of the goal. It ensures…
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The cheat code born from a developer's frustration
Even the people who make software are terrible at it. A programmer testing an impossibly hard side-scroller got sick of constantly losing his lives, so he…
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The skyscraper lights that inspired a puzzle
Shading in tiny grid squares based on numerical clues is peak architectural inspiration. This beloved logic challenge was actually created by a deeply…
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The dots on dice have a proper name
Instead of just calling them dots or spots, the official gambling terminology insists on the word 'pips'. It makes throwing a handful of cubes sound…
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SNK stands for New Japan Project
When you want to revolutionize digital entertainment, subtly is apparently not an option. The creator of the Neo Geo and classic fighting franchises…
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A washing machine can ruin a motion-capture suit
Cutting-edge technology is consistently defeated by standard laundry machines. Studios spend thousands of dollars on highly sensitive motion capture suits,…
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Scrabble grid contains exactly 225 play squares
Your aunt taking forty-five minutes to place a three-letter word has exactly two hundred and twenty-five potential real estate spots to choose from. A fifteen…
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Cardboard play boards require significant deforestation
Turns out paper has to come from somewhere. The dense chipboard required to make durable physical game pieces consumes thousands of tons of virgin wood pulp,…
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Why Silent Hill sounds like a dentist's office
To perfectly encapsulate sheer psychological terror, the composer heavily sampled real dental equipment. By layering the whining grind of dentist drills into…
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