Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
An advertising flyer helped popularize word searches
Norman Gibat published a word-search puzzle in Oklahoma's Selenby Digest in March 1968. It gave readers a reason to spend time with a free publication:…
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Thumb wrestling has a world-championship rulebook
The World Thumb Wrestling Championships turns a playground duel into an organized contest with formal rules and tournament rounds. The equipment is still just…
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Augustus wrote about gambling in letters to his family
Suetonius preserves accounts of the emperor playing dice and discussing his wins and losses. One quoted letter describes a pool of money decided by particular…
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Why Ghost in the Graveyard means screaming in the dark
One player hides while everyone else waits near a tree; then the group searches the dark lawn, where a sudden reveal can send everyone screaming.
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Why tag may have begun as an infection drill
One theory traces tag to games of dodging the touch of someone believed to be infected. The playground game may echo old fears of contagion.
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Petanque began with a player who couldn't walk
A French café owner adapted an existing game so his aging friend, who had arthritis, could keep playing without walking.
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A lacrosse game could bring hundreds onto the field
In the 1830s, George Catlin described Choctaw players competing on a field about half a mile long. Indigenous versions of the game varied widely and could…
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Arm wrestling can break the upper arm without either player hitting it
Opposing forces can twist the humerus, the long bone between shoulder and elbow, until it fractures in a spiral. Reviews of reported cases include many…
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Cricket's early history includes a grown man recalling a childhood game
A 1598 court record contains testimony about cricket played by boys at Guildford decades earlier. That gives historians something firmer than the picturesque…
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Ancient game boards survived more clearly than their rulebooks
Cross-in-square designs carved into Roman-era stone surfaces are often interpreted as boards for a three-piece alignment game. Ovid mentions a game of three…
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Bobbing for apples once predicted marriage
In an old marriage-divination tradition, the first person to bite a floating apple was believed to be the next to wed.
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A piñata can turn from party object into a museum installation
Artist Justin Favela uses piñata-making techniques to build large sculptures and immersive spaces. His Maize Chapel installation at the Smithsonian's Renwick…
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How farmers' bags became a racing game
Farm workers turned leftover burlap sacks into a hopping race, using the packaging from their labor for a bit of competition.
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Volleyball was invented as a gentler sport
William G. Morgan created volleyball at a YMCA in 1895 as an alternative to the more strenuous contact of basketball. The net separated opponents, letting…
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An actor's digital double can perform without a new shoot
Scans and facial-animation tools can supply a recognizable likeness for shots that were never filmed with the performer. That separates creating an image from…
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Motion capture actors perform scenes on empty stages
In bare warehouses without props or scenery, performers have to imagine what they’re interacting with—sometimes turning a foam block into a roaring dragon.
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Why movie snow crunches like cornstarch
Sound teams make the crunch by squishing baking cornstarch in leather pouches near a microphone.
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Digital tournament teams possess terrifying mascots
At major events, oversized foam mascots work the crowd and can block spectators’ view of the screen. Players onstage often ignore them.
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Pokémon called a rice ball a jelly doughnut
In the English dub, Brock famously offers food recognizable as Japanese onigiri while calling it jelly-filled doughnuts. The spoken localization and the…
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The artists who make game menus readable
Interface artists work to keep menus and inventory text readable against chaotic, explosive backgrounds, so players can find options like “Equip” without…
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The wet-towel trick behind movie body impacts
To create the thud of a body hitting pavement, sound engineers slap water-soaked bath towels against the studio floor.
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How disappointed fans rewrite entire endings
Some disappointed fans write, illustrate, and publish their own versions of how a story should have ended.
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German translations break original lip sync animations
A short English line such as “hello” can take several more seconds in German, leaving the character’s mouth closed while the voice continues.
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A collapsed lung has sidelined professional gamers
Spontaneous pneumothorax occurs when air enters the space around a lung and prevents it from expanding normally. Cases involving esports players attract…
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