Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
Why Jenga towers are designed to wobble
Jenga creator Leslie Scott had the manufacturer make the 54 blocks slightly different in thickness and weight. Those variations make friction unpredictable,…
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Pokémon's original games left room for creatures that never arrived
The first-generation games contain unused internal Pokémon slots alongside the familiar species. Those gaps help explain the strange MissingNo. encounters…
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The video game that needed stickers on your TV
The Magnavox Odyssey displayed only white squares, so players added static-cling overlays to their TVs to make games look like tennis or roulette.
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Katamari's sequel turned sequel demands into the joke
Keita Takahashi resisted simply repeating Katamari Damacy. We Love Katamari instead made its own popularity part of the premise: fans ask the King of All…
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The Sims 3 lets parents outsource the school years
Generations introduced boarding schools for children and teens, including military, arts, and sports options. Students leave the active household while…
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Tomb Raider players found a second mission: trap Winston in the freezer
The butler follows Lara around Croft Manor, so players can lure him into the walk-in freezer and shut the door. It became a recurring joke among fans rather…
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Yakuza 0 lets a bowling-prize chicken manage your property
Bowl three strikes in a row and Kiryu wins a live chicken, which he names Nugget. The bird then becomes available as a manager in the real-estate business. A…
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The Dreamcast memory card had its own screen
The removable Visual Memory Unit let you carry a digital pet in your pocket and play with it away from the console.
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Why Katamari's chaos comes with cheerful pop
The creators paired the chaos of rolling up cities with catchy, upbeat songs sung by Japanese pop idols and enka singers—even as pedestrians get swept up.
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Papers, Please turns paperwork into a survival thriller
In Papers, Please, checking documents becomes a survival test: miss a forged visa and your family may go hungry.
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The Sims 4 lets a good mood become a fatal one
Playful moodlets can stack until a Sim becomes Hysterical, which can trigger death by laughter. It's a specific extreme of the emotion system, not ordinary…
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When mobsters stopped to sing ballads
Even hardened, tattooed mobsters paused gang disputes to sing emotional ballads in neon-lit booths.
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A missing sidewalk can strand RollerCoaster Tycoon guests
Guests navigate using the park's path network. Delete the connection beneath a busy area and people can end up lost or unable to reach an exit. The park may…
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The racing game that smelled like a pit stop
Some copies of Sony’s racing simulator came with a scratch-and-sniff label that released the sharp smell of a real pit stop.
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Aerosmith’s game earned more revenue than any of its albums
Activision said Guitar Hero: Aerosmith generated more revenue than any individual Aerosmith album. The songs became something people could perform on a…
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When virtual farmers outnumbered real ones
At its peak, the browser game had more than 80 million users tending virtual crops with clicks.
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Flight Simulator can stream the landscape while you fly
Its detailed world uses online geographical data and photogrammetry—turning photographs into three-dimensional scenery. That is why connection settings and…
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A skateboarding game's sound is built from layers of real skating
For Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, sound designer Justin Joyner described field and studio recordings using real skateboards. Individual layers follow the…
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Crazy Taxi hired an aggressively loud punk rock announcer
Sega paired a frantic punk-rock soundtrack with an over-the-top announcer, making every ride feel more intense.
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Theme Hospital turns vomiting into a management problem
Patients can leave messes that janitors must clean, while the same workers also maintain the hospital. Neglect that unglamorous job and the building gets…
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A cozy farming game lets you pass out at the pub
The game lets you drink enough at the local pub to pass out on the floor—a surprisingly dark option in a cozy farming sim.
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Gran Turismo 4 could print your virtual cars
You could connect an Epson USB printer to the console and print glossy photos of your digital vehicles.
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The Sims 4 lets three sandwiches unlock a life ambition
Eating three grilled-cheese sandwiches in a row can reveal the hidden Grilled Cheese aspiration. What begins as an ordinary meal becomes a sequence of…
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Cooking Mama's recipes actually work in real kitchens
Its minigames follow real food-preparation steps closely enough that you can use them to make an edible pie in a real kitchen.
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