Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why Jenga towers are designed to wobble
The reason you always lose isn't just your incredibly shaky hands; the game is literally rigged against you. When Leslie Scott created Jenga, she didn't just…
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The 40 Pokémon cut from the original games
Before you complain about the modern games lacking polish, realize you were spared dozens of extra hours of grinding purely by a technical memory limit. The…
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The video game that needed stickers on your TV
The very first home video game console in 1972 didn't actually generate any colorful graphics or complex levels. The Magnavox Odyssey merely pushed two…
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The game creator who hid from sequel demands
Success is a double-edged sword, especially when your publisher demands immediate sequels. Keita Takahashi famously hated the idea of making another title so…
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You could legally abandon a virtual baby
Parenting is incredibly difficult, but digital parenting offers permanent loopholes. If you found your virtual infant too annoying to handle, you could…
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Why players kept locking the butler in the freezer
A universal, unspoken psychological experiment occurred in millions of living rooms. For absolutely no logical reason, every single person who played this…
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The video game where chicken races build a real-estate empire
Building a massive financial empire in a gritty urban underworld requires unconventional investments. To become the wealthiest real estate mogul in the city,…
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The Dreamcast memory card had its own screen
Long before smartphones were a thing, Sega decided your memory card needed its own tiny screen. You could unplug the visual memory unit, shove it in your…
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Why Katamari's chaos comes with cheerful pop
The chaotic act of rolling up entire cities requires a suitably unhinged soundtrack. The creators hired a bizarre mix of famous Japanese pop idols and enka…
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Papers, Please turns paperwork into a survival thriller
Stamping passports sounds like the most boring job imaginable until your digital family is freezing. This masterpiece transforms paperwork into a high-stakes…
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In The Sims, too much happiness can kill
Being too happy is genuinely fatal in the world's premiere life simulator. If your virtual citizens tell too many jokes, take a bubble bath, and watch a…
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When mobsters stopped to sing ballads
The criminal underworld is incredibly stressful, so blowing off steam is absolutely mandatory. Hardened, heavily tattooed mobsters regularly pause their…
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Delete a path and RollerCoaster Tycoon guests wander forever
Theme park guests in this beloved simulator operate on extremely literal pathfinding logic. If you maliciously delete the sidewalk beneath their feet, they…
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The racing game that smelled like a pit stop
Marketing gimmicks in the late nineties appealed to every possible human sense. Sony shipped specific discs of their pristine racing simulator with a…
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Aerosmith earned more from a video game than album royalties
Why bother touring the world when a plastic peripheral can pay your bills? Aerosmith famously made more cash licensing their tracks to a plastic guitar…
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When virtual farmers outnumbered real ones
Digital agriculture somehow became a more popular career path than actual farming. At its peak, this browser-based diversion boasted over eighty million users…
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When Flight Simulator looked too realistic for governments
Accuracy is usually praised, but too much realism can attract the wrong kind of attention. The turn-of-the-century edition was mapped so meticulously that…
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Why skateboard sounds were recorded in an empty pool
Authentic acoustics require extreme measures and a total disregard for trespassing. To get the perfect hollow echo of a skateboard wheel scraping concrete,…
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Crazy Taxi hired an aggressively loud punk rock announcer
Driving a cab is significantly more intense when an unseen man is constantly screaming at you. Sega intentionally mixed the frantic punk rock soundtrack and…
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Theme Hospital had janitors just for patient vomit
Running a medical facility requires managing brilliant doctors, expensive machinery, and incredible amounts of nausea. A significant portion of your budget…
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A cozy farming game lets you pass out at the pub
A cute, family-friendly title about growing turnips hides a surprisingly dark coping mechanism. If the farm life becomes too stressful, you can systematically…
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Gran Turismo 4 could print your virtual cars
Long before instant social media sharing, showing off your digital cars required physical ink. Polyphony Digital included a feature that let you connect an…
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In The Sims, grilled cheese can become a life goal
Life goals usually consist of finding love or achieving immense wealth, but not here. Certain digital humans can roll an aspiration that makes them…
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Cooking Mama's recipes actually work in real kitchens
A frantic screen-tapping exercise genuinely functions as a legitimate culinary instructor. The chaotic minigames are so meticulously structured around proper…
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