Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why Goat Simulator kept its glitches
The creators left in collision errors and physics glitches because the unpredictable results made the game more entertaining.
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Whimsies are jigsaw pieces shaped like objects
Some wooden puzzles include pieces cut into recognizable silhouettes, such as dogs. The challenge is fitting those shapes into a picture made up of abstract…
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Fortnite turns an emote into a shared performance
Synced emotes let players join an animation together, such as a dance or a greeting. For that moment, strangers coordinate without aiming, building, or…
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Skipping cinematic scenes leaves players totally lost
Skipping exposition can leave players unsure who they’re fighting or why when gameplay resumes.
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A magnet can make a Nintendo DS think it is closed
The handheld detects the lid position using a magnetic sensor. Bring a suitable magnet near that sensor and it can trigger sleep mode even with the screens…
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Baccarat has a version where you pretend to be the bank
In Chemin de Fer, players take turns supplying the money for wagers instead of relying on the house.
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Bidding nil in Spades risks a potentially massive penalty
A nil bid means promising to take no tricks. Success earns a bonus, but winning even one trick can put the bid at risk.
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Magic cards strictly divide wizard spells into five colors
The five-color system ties spells to different kinds of mana: red spells, for example, use mana associated with Mountains.
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Interpolation forces software to guess missing visual frames
It compares two rendered frames and calculates what the in-between image might look like, creating synthetic frames to smooth motion when a simulation can’t…
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Crazy eights penalizes players who forget to declare
When you have one card left, you must announce it; if an opponent catches you staying silent, they can make you draw extra cards.
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Why video games make you fetch twenty pelts
Some games pad quests with repetitive collection tasks—like gathering 20 bear pelts before the king will even speak to you.
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Why voice directors dodge invisible lasers
When actors record action scenes before the animation is finished, directors use big gestures to show the pacing. They may wave their arms and pretend to…
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Chrono Trigger's ending music came to its composer in a dream
Yasunori Mitsuda said he used to sleep at the studio with his equipment left on. If a melody arrived in a dream, he could jump up and work on it before it…
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Craps began with a game called Hazard
Over time, French and American gamblers streamlined Hazard’s complicated rules into the faster dice game played today.
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Why spinning foosball rods is illegal
Tournament rules ban spinning the rods like helicopter blades, requiring players to use controlled shots instead.
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How worthless party hats became RuneScape fortunes
The hats were given out during a 2001 holiday event and meant to be worthless. Once they were discontinued, scarcity made them status symbols traded for…
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Why tournaments hide players' drink labels
Organizers remove unauthorized labels or pour drinks into plain cups so other brands don't appear alongside tournament sponsors.
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Chess has more possible games than atoms in the universe
The estimate, called the Shannon number, puts the number of possible chess games at about 10^120, compared with roughly 10^80 atoms in the observable universe.
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A record-sized arcade cabinet needed its own version of Tetris
MadLab's machine, verified by Guinness in Zaragoza in 2021, stood 4.9 meters tall. A version of Tetris was developed for its screen and controls. Enlarging an…
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Why a digital threat can trigger a real stress response
A digital threat can trigger a real stress response: the adrenal glands release hormones even while you sit still. Your body reacts to the perceived threat,…
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Why dominoes can't topple faster than a brisk walk
Gravity and friction limit how quickly one falling domino can trigger the next, keeping the cascade to about a brisk walking pace at most.
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Penny lag involves systematically tossing currency at walls
Players throw a coin at a wall and try to make it land as close to the wall as possible after it bounces.
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Whist was the intellectual obsession of the 18th century
Players had to remember which suits had already been played, making the quiet trick-taking game a test of memory.
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A plain stone may be a 1,300-year-old chess rook
Excavated at Humayma in Jordan in 1991, the sandstone piece has two projections resembling early Islamic rooks. Archaeologist John Oleson presented that…
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