Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
A gossip columnist sent high society on scavenger hunts
Elsa Maxwell popularized the party game in Paris in the 1920s and New York in the 1930s. Instead of merely standing around an elegant room, guests had to go…
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Nintendo DS had a second meaning for developers
At its 2004 unveiling, Nintendo promoted DS as 'Developers' System,' alongside its obvious dual-screen identity. Two displays, touch input and a microphone…
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A paused game can use refrigerator-level power
High-end processors can draw enough power to run a refrigerator while keeping a game's menu rendered on screen.
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Animal Crossing began on Japan's Nintendo 64
It debuted in Japan as Dobutsu no Mori with a special N64 cartridge whose internal battery kept the real-time clock running. A GameCube version later brought…
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Community managers absorbing incredible amounts of rage
Community managers act as a bridge between creators and fans, but they can end up fielding complaints about changes they had no role in making.
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Katamari Damacy makes you roll a sticky ball to pick up cows
Small objects like thumbtacks and coins join the ball first; as it grows, it can scoop up cows, cars, and buildings.
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Guybrush got his name before anyone had properly named him
During Monkey Island's early development, the protagonist was simply 'the guy.' Artist Steve Purcell saved images as brushes in Deluxe Paint, and the repeated…
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Why a ring corner is no place to rest your head
A steel hook beneath the padding keeps the ring cables taut, making the corner far less forgiving than its foam covering suggests.
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Sardines reverses hide-and-seek: find the person, then hide with them
In Sardines, one person hides and everyone who finds them squeezes into the same hiding place. The growing crowd turns hide-and-seek into a cramped human pile.
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Why Pokémon games ban bikes indoors
The game treats indoor spaces as no-cycling zones: try to ride inside, and an unseen character tells you to get off your bike.
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Guess Who turns facial features into clues
Players narrow the field by eliminating faces based on traits such as baldness or a big nose—an absurdly cheerful first lesson in profiling.
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Synthetic sable brushes are essentially tiny plastic hairs
They’re made from fine nylon filaments designed to imitate the bend and fluid-holding ability of real sable hair.
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Gone Home turns snooping through drawers into a mystery
After a year abroad, you find the house empty. Searching notes and belongings reveals that your teenage sister has fallen in love, with no ghosts or intruders…
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Computers spent 18 years proving perfect checkers ends in a draw
Jonathan Schaeffer's team completed its solution in 2007. From the standard starting position, neither player can force a win if both play perfectly. The…
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A pool table hides a slab of rock under the cloth
Slate provides a rigid, flat playing surface that resists the warping a wooden top can develop. The cloth changes how the balls roll, but the stone underneath…
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Pro foosball strictly positions three goalie defenders
Professional tables can use three goalkeepers instead of the single goalkeeper common on casual tables, creating a denser barrier in front of the goal.
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The Konami Code began as a developer's way through his own game
Kazuhisa Hashimoto added the sequence while working on the NES version of Gradius because the game was difficult to test. It granted power-ups there; Contra…
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The skyscraper lights that inspired a puzzle
A Japanese designer turned the pattern of lights left on in high-rise buildings into a number-clue grid puzzle.
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The dots on dice have a proper name
The dots on dice are called “pips”—a fancy-sounding word for what you count during a game of Yahtzee.
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SNK stands for New Japan Project
The name comes from Shin Nihon Kikaku, the company's original name, which translates as “New Japan Project.”
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A washing machine can ruin a motion-capture suit
Motion-capture suits can shrink if washed on the wrong setting, leaving actors in tight spandex and disrupting studio work.
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Scrabble grid contains exactly 225 play squares
Its 15-by-15 layout gives every word 225 possible starting squares—plenty of room for arguments over whether a word is real.
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Cardboard play boards require significant deforestation
Durable game boards use dense chipboard, which can require thousands of tons of virgin wood pulp—real forests turned into miniature game worlds.
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Silent Hill turned a dentist's drill into boss-fight audio
Composer Akira Yamaoka used unpleasant real-world sounds as musical material. A distorted dental drill appears in the original game's final battle, while…
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