Games
Discover facts about games. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Games
How Oregon Trail made dysentery a classroom lesson
An entire generation of school children learned about the devastating realities of severe dehydration and medical failure, completely masking a brutally…
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Wordle began as a lockdown anniversary gift
Before it was bought by a major publication to make you feel intellectually inferior every morning, it was literally just a custom web project created by an…
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Why fairground hammers are so hard to hit
Proving your immense physical strength at a fairground requires swinging a sledgehammer that weighs more than a toddler, ensuring that the average untrained…
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The secret trick hiding inside escape-room props
That seemingly ancient mystical book that opens a secret door is just a cheap electromagnet hiding in a prop, easily defeated by anyone carrying a strong…
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The strange bar origins of escape rooms
Paying to be locked in a room and yelled at by a clock started in dilapidated European pubs, where operators would lock drunk tourists in basements and demand…
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Laser tag started as military training
Running around a neon-lit carpeted maze shooting your friends was born from genuine tactical preparation systems developed in the late seventies to teach…
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Truth or Dare began with a financial penalty
Forcing your friends to confess their deepest secrets or eat a spoonful of hot sauce has strict medieval origins, originally known as 'Questions and Commands'…
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Why Wipeout keeps its water and mud near freezing
Watching people violently bounce off giant red rubber balls wasn't sadistic enough, so producers ensure the mud and water are kept near freezing temperatures…
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Your airsoft pellets may be made from corn
Those tiny plastic spheres you find embedded in your drywall for years are largely just synthesized crop waste, ensuring that while you cause minor welts on…
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Old tilt sensors relied on toxic liquid mercury
Before digital accelerometers ruined all the physical abuse you could inflict on a machine, they relied on literal toxic liquid splashing against an electrode…
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Mad Libs began with a missing adjective
Hollywood writers are notoriously creatively bankrupt, which is exactly how this staple was born in 1953. Two writers couldn't think of an adjective for a…
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Why New York banned pinball for 30 years
Apparently, flinging a silver ball around a chaotic table was too corrupting for the youth. The mayor literally smashed machines with sledgehammers, treating…
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Eating rotten flesh prevents immediate virtual starvation
Culinary standards take an absolute nosedive when survival is on the line. Shoving toxic meat down your digital throat poisons you briefly but successfully…
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Before the toy, Twenty Questions was a radio hit
Before it was a handheld electronic toy that infuriatingly guessed your thought every time, interrogating someone with yes-or-no queries was premier national…
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The clue escape-room players keep ignoring
The greatest obstacle in puzzle-solving isn't the complex riddle, but rather humanity's sheer refusal to read a basic instruction sign taped directly over a…
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Capture the flag began as military training
Running across a grassy field to steal a piece of fabric is just a sanitized version of medieval warfare, initially popularized as a literal training exercise…
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Silly String was almost a medical product
Spraying toxic-smelling neon foam all over a birthday cake was supposed to be a legitimate medical application. It was originally engineered to instantly cast…
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Minecraft obsidian punishes you for mining by hand
Imagine punching a solid volcanic rock for over four minutes straight, only for it to shatter into absolutely nothing. The engine specifically punishes…
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Charades began as aristocratic literary riddles
Flailing your arms aggressively to act out a movie title started as a highly sophisticated parlor exercise where the French aristocracy would speak in poetic…
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Paintball began by marking trees and cattle
Shooting your coworkers with highly unpleasant gelatin spheres began as a remarkably boring way for loggers and cattle ranchers to safely tag distant objects,…
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When RollerCoaster Tycoon mowers erased the park
Hiring a digital groundskeeper could result in the catastrophic destruction of your theme park's infrastructure, as an unchecked mowing mechanic could…
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When photobooths were arcade attractions
Taking a mildly flattering picture of yourself used to be considered a thrilling mechanical diversion, placed alongside coin-operated fortune tellers because…
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Hot potato was once played with actual hot vegetables
Before tossing a plastic musical toy around a circle, people literally burned their hands on freshly roasted root vegetables pulled straight from the fire,…
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How carnival workers guess your weight
Those carnies aren't psychic, they just have a terrifyingly keen eye for human skeletal anatomy. By looking at wrist thickness and shoulder spans, they easily…
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