137 Fun Facts About Video Game

What company released the original PlayStation console?

Sony went it alone after Nintendo walked away from their CD add-on deal; the PlayStation launched in Japan on 3 December 1994 and became the first console to ship 100 million units.

In what year was the original Nintendo Game Boy first released in Japan?

The original Nintendo Game Boy, an 8-bit portable console, was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989. It later launched in North America in July 1989.

Which 1980 Namco arcade game has a yellow disc gobbling dots through a maze while four ghosts give chase?

Pac-Man, released by Namco in 1980 and designed by Toru Iwatani, has four ghosts with distinct chasing behaviours; the red ghost Blinky pursues the player directly while the others cut off escape routes.

Geralt of Rivia is the protagonist of which popular video game series?

Geralt of Rivia is the protagonist of The Witcher, CD Projekt Red's game trilogy adapted from Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski's novels; he is a mutated, magically enhanced monster hunter.

What year did Microsoft release its first Xbox console?

Microsoft introduced its first Xbox console in the United States on November 15, 2001, marking its debut in the gaming console market.

Ken Levine is primarily known for his work as the creative director on which video game series?

Ken Levine is the creative director and co-founder of Ghost Story Games (formerly Irrational Games) and is most notably known for leading the creation of the BioShock series.

Which studio developed Grand Theft Auto V?

Rockstar North built the 2013 game with staff from Rockstar studios worldwide pitching in; Rockstar Games published it.

The Sega Dreamcast, the company's final home console, was released in Japan in what year?

The Sega Dreamcast, which was the first sixth-generation console, was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, and worldwide in late 1999.

Which 1996 Nintendo console kept cartridges while the PlayStation and Saturn used CDs?

The Nintendo 64 launched in Japan in June 1996 and stuck with cartridges for fast loading, while Sony's PlayStation and Sega's Saturn used CD-ROMs; its 64-bit MIPS CPU gave the console its name.

Which 1971 release was the first commercial arcade video game?

Computer Space, designed by Nolan Bushnell and released by Nutting Associates in 1971, was the first coin-operated arcade video game; Bushnell went on to found Atari the following year.

Which game is often credited as the first commercially successful arcade video game?

Released by Atari in 1972, Pong was a simple two-dimensional tennis sports game that became a groundbreaking success, establishing the video game industry.

Which Nintendo designer created both Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda in the mid-1980s?

Shigeru Miyamoto based Zelda on his childhood explorations of caves and countryside near Kyoto; Mario got his name from Nintendo of America's landlord, Mario Segale.

What company developed the long-running 'The Legend of Zelda' series?

Nintendo created and has published every Legend of Zelda game since the 1986 Famicom original; Shigeru Miyamoto named the princess after Zelda Fitzgerald because the name sounded 'pleasant and significant'.

The original PlayStation reached North America in what year?

Japan had it from 3 December 1994; North America got it on 9 September 1995, Europe on 29 September.

Who composed the iconic 'Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII'?

Nobuo Uematsu composed the entire Final Fantasy VII score for its 1997 PlayStation release, including the Main Theme and 'One-Winged Angel'; he had scored every numbered Final Fantasy since the 1987 original.

What is the name of the protagonist in the 'God of War' series?

Kratos is the central protagonist of the 'God of War' series, a Spartan warrior who becomes the God of War and embarks on epic journeys in both Greek and Norse mythologies.

Which armoured supersoldier, designated John-117, is the hero of the Halo series?

Master Chief is a rank, not a name: the Spartan's real name is John, and 117 is his number. The games have never clearly shown his face.

What year saw the North American release of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)?

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was first released in North American test markets on October 18, 1985, and then nationwide on September 27, 1986, after its initial Japanese release as the Famicom in 1983.

In what year did Valve launch Steam?

Steam launched on September 12, 2003; Valve made it mandatory for Half-Life 2 the following year, which forced its early adoption.

What is the name of the main playable protagonist in 'Red Dead Redemption 2'?

Arthur Morgan is the central protagonist and main playable character in 'Red Dead Redemption 2', an outlaw and member of the Van der Linde gang.

Which studio primarily develops 'The Elder Scrolls' series?

Bethesda Softworks publishes the series; its Game Studios arm builds the open-world role-playing games.

In what year were the first 'Pokémon Red and Green' games released in Japan?

The very first Pokémon games, 'Pocket Monsters Red' and 'Pocket Monsters Green', debuted in Japan on February 27, 1996, for the Game Boy.

Which studio developed the original 1996 Tomb Raider?

Core Design, a studio in Derby, England, built the 1996 original Tomb Raider, published by Eidos Interactive; Crystal Dynamics took over the series from 2006 with Tomb Raider: Legend.

Which Sega console reached North America in August 1989?

Sega's 16-bit Genesis launched in North America on 14 August 1989, a year after its Japanese debut, and from 1991 fought the Super NES in the console war.

Who created Pong in 1972 as a training exercise at Atari?

Bushnell was so impressed by the quality of Alcorn's work that Atari decided to manufacture the game.

In Christmas 1975, Atari sold its home Pong exclusively through which retailer?

Atari sold Home Pong exclusively through Sears for Christmas 1975 under the retailer's Tele-Games label; Sears ordered 150,000 units, and the console's success spawned a wave of clones.

Which Japanese company developed and published Space Invaders in 1978?

Taito released it in Japan in July 1978 and overseas through a partnership with Midway later that year.

Who designed Space Invaders, drawing on Breakout, The War of the Worlds and Star Wars?

Nishikado had to design custom hardware and development tools to use microprocessor technology that was new to him.

By 1982, roughly how much had Space Invaders grossed worldwide?

Space Invaders had grossed about $3.8 billion worldwide by 1982, making it the best-selling video game and the highest-grossing entertainment product of its time.

Under what title was Pac-Man originally released in Japan in May 1980?

Namco released the game in Japan as Puck Man in May 1980; Midway renamed it Pac-Man for North America over fears that vandals would scratch the P into an F.

According to its designer, the Pac-Man character was inspired by the image of what?

Toru Iwatani said Pac-Man's shape came from a pizza with a slice removed, though he has also credited rounding out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi.

Pac-Man designer Toru Iwatani said he wanted the game to appeal especially to whom?

Toru Iwatani said he designed Pac-Man to draw women into arcades dominated by war and sports games, so he built it around eating and gave the ghosts cute, colourful looks.

In the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong, who does Mario climb the construction site to rescue?

Pauline, called simply 'Lady' in the 1981 Japanese release, is the captive that Mario, then billed as Jumpman, climbs the girders to rescue; Princess Peach did not appear until Super Mario Bros. in 1985.

Donkey Kong reused unsold cabinets from which failed 1980 Nintendo arcade game?

Radar Scope flopped in America in 1980, leaving Nintendo with about 2,000 unsold cabinets; Hiroshi Yamauchi had first-time designer Shigeru Miyamoto create Donkey Kong to convert them.

What are the falling four-block pieces in Tetris called?

The pieces are tetrominoes, the seven shapes made of four joined squares; the word blends 'tetra' (four) and 'domino', and Alexey Pajitnov fused it with 'tennis' to name Tetris.

In which programming language did Alexey Pajitnov first write Tetris in 1984?

Alexey Pajitnov wrote the 1984 original in Pascal for the Elektronika 60 minicomputer at Moscow's Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre; its text-only screen drew each piece from bracket characters.

Who composed the soundtrack for the original Super Mario Bros.?

Koji Kondo composed the 1985 Super Mario Bros. score, including the Overworld theme, one of the first game soundtracks to make music central to the design; he also wrote Zelda's main theme.

Which villain holds Princess Zelda captive in the first Legend of Zelda game?

Ganon, who holds the Triforce of Power, keeps Princess Zelda in his lair beneath Death Mountain; Link must reassemble the shattered Triforce of Wisdom before he can face him.

How many Triforce of Wisdom fragments does Link collect in the first Zelda game?

The game is set in Hyrule and has Link rescue Princess Zelda from Ganon.

Which artist designed Sonic the Hedgehog after winning an internal Sega character contest?

Naoto Ohshima's hedgehog won Sega's 1990 internal contest for a mascot to rival Mario; programmer Yuji Naka and designer Hirokazu Yasuhara built the 1991 game and the group became Sonic Team.

The music of the 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog was composed by the bassist of which J-pop band?

Masato Nakamura, bassist and songwriter of Dreams Come True, scored Sonic the Hedgehog and its 1992 sequel; the game helped establish the Genesis as a rival to the Super NES.

How much did Microsoft pay for Mojang and Minecraft in November 2014?

Microsoft's US$2.5 billion purchase of Mojang closed in November 2014, two months after it was announced; founder Markus Persson left the studio as part of the deal.

Minecraft was originally created by Markus 'Notch' Persson in which programming language?

Jens 'Jeb' Bergensten took over development after the game's full release in November 2011.

Who was the lead programmer whose new 3D engine powered id Software's Doom in 1993?

John Carmack wrote the Doom engine, whose binary space partitioning let it render textured 3D environments on 1993 PCs; John Romero and Sandy Petersen built the levels after Tom Hall left.

Doom shipped as three episodes with the first free, under which distribution model?

Doom used the shareware model: the first episode, Knee-Deep in the Dead, was free to copy, and players ordered the other two from id Software; The Ultimate Doom added a fourth episode in 1995.

Which company developed Street Fighter II: The World Warrior for arcades in 1991?

Capcom released Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in arcades in 1991; its six-button layout and a combo system, discovered as a bug and kept, set the template for fighting games.

By roughly what percentage did US home video game revenue fall between 1983 and 1985?

US home video game revenue fell about 97% in the crash, from roughly $3.2 billion in 1983 to around $100 million in 1985, as a glut of poor cartridges and cheap home computers gutted the market.

Under what name was the 2600 console originally released in 1977?

Atari launched the console in September 1977 as the Video Computer System, or VCS, named for its cartridge-based programmability; it was renamed the Atari 2600 in November 1982 when the 5200 arrived.

Which 1976 console was the first to use swappable ROM cartridges, before the Atari VCS?

The Fairchild Channel F of 1976 was the first home console to use swappable ROM cartridges, which it called Videocarts; the Atari VCS popularized the format a year later.

What was the codename of the Atari VCS while it was being prototyped at Cyan Engineering?

Stella was the VCS's codename at Cyan Engineering, Atari's Grass Valley think tank, taken from the brand of an engineer's bicycle; the name lives on in the Stella emulator.

To whom did Nolan Bushnell sell Atari in 1976 to fund completion of its home console?

Nolan Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976 for about $28 million to finish the VCS, which launched the next year with nine games on 2 KB cartridges.

The Magnavox Odyssey had a separately sold peripheral that was the first video game what?

The Odyssey's Shooting Gallery rifle, sold separately in 1972, was the first video game light gun; the console itself could not make sound or track scores and shipped with dice and paper money.

How did Magnavox Odyssey players add visual detail such as backgrounds to their games?

Players added detail with plastic overlays placed on the TV screen, translucent sheets supplying courts, mazes and backgrounds, because the Odyssey could draw only three square dots and one line.

What was Ralph Baer's prototype for the Magnavox Odyssey nicknamed?

Ralph Baer's 1968 prototype was nicknamed the Brown Box for its wood-grain vinyl covering; built at Sanders Associates in New Hampshire, it was licensed to Magnavox and became the Odyssey in 1972.

Which electronic memory game did Ralph Baer help create?

Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison created Simon, Milton Bradley's 1978 memory game with four coloured buttons; Baer held over 150 patents and received the National Medal of Technology in 2006.

Roughly how many PlayStation 2 units did Sony sell over the console's lifetime?

Sony put lifetime PlayStation 2 sales at about 160 million units by the time production ended in 2013, nearly triple the combined sales of its sixth-generation rivals.

The PlayStation 2's custom processor, co-developed with Toshiba, was called what?

The Emotion Engine, the MIPS-based CPU Sony and Toshiba co-designed for the PlayStation 2, was marketed as outperforming contemporary PCs; its partner chip, the Graphics Synthesizer, handled rendering.

What was the Wii's codename during development?

Nintendo showed the Wii as 'Revolution' from E3 2005 until announcing the final name in April 2006; Satoru Iwata's aim was a broader audience rather than raw power.

What does Nintendo call the Switch's detachable wireless controllers?

A single pair of Joy-Con can be one controller, two controllers, or part of the console itself; each half carries motion sensing and 'HD Rumble' haptics.

On what date was the Nintendo Switch released worldwide in most regions?

The Nintendo Switch launched on March 3, 2017 in Japan, the Americas, Europe and Australia; the handheld-only Switch Lite followed on September 20, 2019.

Which controller-free motion camera launched in 2010 with the slogan 'you are the controller'?

Kinect sold 8 million units in its first 60 days, which Guinness called the fastest-selling consumer electronics device ever; it was developed under the codename Project Natal.

Which Nintendo engineer led the R&D1 team that designed the Game Boy?

Gunpei Yokoi, head of Nintendo R&D1, designed the 1989 Game Boy around his 'lateral thinking with withered technology' philosophy, choosing a cheap monochrome screen and 8-bit processor for long battery life.

Nintendo's first cartridge handheld succeeded which line of single-title LCD handhelds?

It was Nintendo's first handheld to use ROM cartridges and kept the Game & Watch D-pad.

Who created the Pokémon video game series, with assistance from Ken Sugimori?

Satoshi Tajiri, whose childhood insect collecting inspired the concept, created Pokémon; his friend Ken Sugimori drew the original 151 creatures for 1996's Pocket Monsters Red and Green.

Which studio develops the core Pokémon role-playing games?

Nintendo, Creatures and Game Freak jointly set up The Pokémon Company in 1998 to manage licensing.

Grand Theft Auto's primary developer was formerly known by what name?

Rockstar North began as DMA Design, the Dundee studio where David Jones and Mike Dailly created the original Grand Theft Auto in 1997; it took the Rockstar North name in 2002.

In the Grand Theft Auto series, Vice City is modelled on which real city?

Vice City is a pastiche of Miami, down to its art-deco beachfront; the original 1997 game's other cities, Liberty City and San Andreas, stood in for New York and San Francisco.

World of Warcraft is set on which fictional planet?

Azeroth opened to players on November 23, 2004, exactly ten years after the first Warcraft game; at its 2010 peak the MMO had 12 million subscribers.

What was the first expansion pack for World of Warcraft, released in 2007?

The Burning Crusade, released in January 2007, opened the shattered world of Outland and raised the level cap to 70; Wrath of the Lich King followed in 2008 and Cataclysm in 2010.

Fortnite players buy skins and emotes with which in-game currency, sold through Epic's Item Shop?

In Battle Royale, V-Bucks buy only cosmetics and the Battle Pass, never a gameplay edge; Epic's 2020 attempt to sell them around Apple's App Store cut triggered the Epic v. Apple lawsuit.

In League of Legends, what is each player-controlled character called?

Champions grow stronger during a match by earning experience, gold and items.

In League of Legends, teams win by destroying which large structure inside the enemy base?

The Nexus sits at the heart of each base on Summoner's Rift; a team wins by destroying the enemy Nexus after breaking through the turrets and inhibitors that guard it.

Which research facility does Gordon Freeman escape in Half-Life?

Gordon Freeman fights his way out of the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico after a failed experiment opens a portal to Xen; Half-Life was Valve's 1998 debut, published by Sierra.

Half-Life's GoldSrc engine was a heavily modified version of the engine of which id game?

GoldSrc began as a licensed copy of id Software's Quake engine that Valve rewrote extensively, adding skeletal animation and scripted sequences; novelist Marc Laidlaw was hired to write the plot.

In Portal, what does GLaDOS promise Chell for completing the tests?

'The cake is a lie' became a meme from graffiti Chell finds in Portal; GLaDOS, short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, never intends to hand over the cake.

Portal was originally released in 2007 as part of which Valve bundle?

Portal debuted in October 2007 inside The Orange Box alongside Half-Life 2, its two Episodes and Team Fortress 2; its portal mechanic came from Narbacular Drop, a DigiPen student game.

In Metal Gear Solid (1998), Solid Snake infiltrates which nuclear weapons facility?

Snake infiltrates Shadow Moses Island, a nuclear weapons disposal facility in Alaska's Fox Archipelago, after the rogue unit FOXHOUND, led by Liquid Snake, seizes it along with Metal Gear REX.

Which company published Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation in 1998?

Kojima directed, produced and wrote the game, a sequel to the MSX2 title Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.

Hironobu Sakaguchi's 1987 Square RPG was conceived under which working title?

Sakaguchi's working title was Fighting Fantasy, dropped because a British gamebook series already used the name, so the 1987 NES game became Final Fantasy; it follows four Warriors of Light restoring the elemental crystals.

Who created the Dark Souls series at FromSoftware?

Hidetaka Miyazaki directed Demon's Souls in 2009 and then created Dark Souls in 2011 at FromSoftware, where he became president in 2014; the series spawned the 'Soulslike' subgenre.

Which fantasy novelist provided the worldbuilding for FromSoftware's Elden Ring?

George R. R. Martin wrote the mythology and backstory of the Lands Between for Elden Ring, released on February 25, 2022, while Hidetaka Miyazaki directed the game itself.

What is the name of the player's spectral steed in Elden Ring?

Torrent, the spectral steed summoned with the Spectral Steed Whistle, can double-jump and ride spirit-spring updrafts; Melina grants him to the Tarnished early in the game.

In The Last of Us, humans are infected by a mutated fungus from which real genus?

The Last of Us imagines a mutated Cordyceps, the real fungus that hijacks insects' bodies, jumping to humans; Joel, a smuggler, escorts the immune Ellie across a ruined United States.

Which studio created The Last of Us for Sony?

Naughty Dog, the Sony studio behind Uncharted, made The Last of Us for the PlayStation 3 in June 2013, with Bruce Straley directing and Neil Druckmann as creative director.

Halo: Combat Evolved began development in 1997 as what kind of game?

Halo began at Bungie in 1997 as a real-time strategy game for the Mac, a follow-up to Myth, then became a third-person shooter and finally a first-person shooter for the Xbox's 2001 launch.

Which alien theocracy does Master Chief fight in Halo: Combat Evolved?

The Covenant worship the vanished Forerunners and see the Halo rings as a path to godhood; Microsoft bought developer Bungie in 2000 to make Halo the Xbox's launch title.

Which studio developed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)?

Infinity Ward, the studio founded by former Medal of Honor developers, made Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007, dropping the series' World War II setting for a present-day conflict.

Which Finnish company created the Angry Birds franchise in 2009?

The 2009 game's success saved Rovio from bankruptcy; Sega bought the company in 2023.

On which platform was Candy Crush Saga originally released by King in April 2012?

At its peak King reportedly earned almost $1 million a day from the freemium game.

Which of these IS one of the five sports in the original Wii Sports?

The five games were tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing, designed to show off the Wii Remote.

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, who sells the deserted-island getaway package?

Tom Nook is a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog, and his loans carry no interest and no deadline; New Horizons became a lockdown phenomenon after launching in March 2020.

Which studio developed the social deduction game Among Us?

Innersloth, a three-person studio in Redmond, Washington, released Among Us in June 2018 to little notice; it exploded in 2020 when Twitch streamers and YouTubers picked it up during lockdowns.

Among Us was inspired by the party game Mafia and which science fiction horror film?

Innersloth cited John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing, in which a shape-shifting alien hides among an Antarctic crew, alongside the party game Mafia; Impostors likewise look identical to the Crewmates they hunt.

Games on Roblox are scripted in a dialect of which programming language?

Roblox games are scripted in Luau, Roblox's own dialect of Lua, the lightweight language also used to mod World of Warcraft; David Baszucki and Erik Cassel founded Roblox in 2004.

When Valve's Steam client first launched, what was its original purpose?

Valve launched Steam in September 2003 to deliver automatic updates for its own games, replacing the patch chaos around Counter-Strike; third-party titles only arrived in late 2005.

What does the 'DS' in Nintendo DS stand for?

Dual Screen: the DS stacked two displays, the lower one a touchscreen driven by a stylus, and sold more than 154 million units after its 2004 launch.

Atari was founded in 1972 in Sunnyvale, California by Nolan Bushnell and whom?

Ted Dabney co-founded Atari with Nolan Bushnell on June 27, 1972, having built Computer Space with him; Dabney left in 1973, and Warner's Ray Kassar replaced Bushnell as chief after 1978.

Which studio, run by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, made Myst (1993)?

Cyan, the Spokane studio of brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, built Myst with HyperCard and pre-rendered 3D scenes; Broderbund published it for the Mac in September 1993.

In Myst, solving puzzles lets the player travel to other worlds known as what?

Myst's worlds are called Ages, each reached through a linking book written by Atrus; solving puzzles on the island opens the books to Ages such as Stoneship and Channelwood.

In which country did StarCraft become a televised professional sport?

South Korea's PC bang cafe culture turned StarCraft into a national spectator sport with two cable channels devoted to matches; the 1998 game was even ported to the Nintendo 64 in 2000.

In the original Diablo, the dungeon levels lie beneath which town?

Diablo's dungeon lies beneath the cathedral of Tristram; the player descends sixteen randomly generated levels, from the church down to Hell, to face the Lord of Terror.

Which two modders created Counter-Strike, first released in beta in 1999?

Minh Le and Jess Cliffe built Counter-Strike as a Half-Life mod, releasing the first beta in June 1999; Valve hired them, bought the rights and shipped it at retail in November 2000.

Which two S.T.A.R.S. members are playable in the 1996 Resident Evil?

Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine of S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team are the two playable leads, each with a different route through the zombie-infested Spencer Mansion in the Arklay Mountains.

Who directed the original 1996 Resident Evil?

Shinji Mikami directed the 1996 Resident Evil for Capcom after producer Tokuro Fujiwara tasked him with reviving the ideas of his 1989 Famicom horror game Sweet Home.

In the 1999 game Silent Hill, Harry Mason searches the fog-shrouded town for whom?

Harry Mason searches for his missing adopted daughter Cheryl after a car crash outside Silent Hill; the developers used distance fog and darkness to hide the PlayStation's graphical limits.

The original Metroid (1986) is set on which planet?

Metroid takes place on the planet Zebes, the Space Pirates' base, where Samus Aran hunts Mother Brain and the stolen Metroid organisms; SR388 is the creatures' home world seen in Metroid II.

In the 1981 arcade game Frogger, how many frogs must reach home to finish a level?

A level ends once 5 frogs have been guided into the five home bays across the road and river; Konami developed Frogger and Sega/Gremlin distributed it in North America.

Galaga (1981) is the sequel to which 1979 Namco shooter?

Galaxian, Namco's 1979 shooter, introduced the swooping alien formations that Galaga expanded in 1981; Galaga's Boss Galaga can capture your fighter with a tractor beam, and rescuing it gives a dual fighter.

Atari's 1979 hit Asteroids was rendered using what kind of display technology?

Asteroids used a vector display, drawing lines directly with the electron beam rather than pixels; Lyle Rains and Ed Logg designed it on hardware built for Lunar Lander.

By what name is the Sega Genesis known outside North America?

Mega Drive was the name everywhere except North America, where a trademark clash forced the Genesis name; it was Sega's third console and Tectoy kept selling it in Brazil for decades.

Which processor served as the main CPU of the Sega Genesis?

The Genesis ran on a Motorola 68000 clocked at about 7.6 MHz, with a Zilog Z80 as sound co-processor; the design was adapted from Sega's System 16 arcade board.

Which British studio developed GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64?

Rare, based in Twycross, Leicestershire, made GoldenEye 007 in 1997 with an inexperienced team led by Martin Hollis over two and a half years; its four-player split-screen deathmatch became a dorm-room staple.

Twitch launched in June 2011 as a spin-off of which general-interest streaming platform?

Amazon now operates it, and by 2014 it was the fourth-largest source of peak US Internet traffic.

Which journalist created The Game Awards in 2014 and hosted its first ceremony?

Geoff Keighley founded The Game Awards in 2014 after a decade with its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Awards, and hosted the first ceremony in Las Vegas on December 5, 2014.

In Skyrim, the Last Dragonborn must defeat which dragon prophesied to destroy the world?

Alduin, the World-Eater, is the black dragon the prophecy says will devour the world; the Last Dragonborn must defeat him in Sovngarde, 201 years after the events of Oblivion.

On what date was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim released worldwide?

Skyrim launched worldwide on November 11, 2011, a date Bethesda picked for its 11/11/11 symmetry; Todd Howard's team built it on the new Creation Engine after Oblivion (2006).

Who is the Allied spy the player controls in Wolfenstein 3D (1992)?

B.J. Blazkowicz, an Allied spy, shoots his way out of Castle Wolfenstein; id Software's 1992 game, published by Apogee, took its name from Muse Software's 1981 Castle Wolfenstein.

Nintendo was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to make what?

Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo in Kyoto in 1889 to make hand-painted hanafuda playing cards; the company moved into toys in the 1960s and shipped its first console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977.

What was Sega's first coin-operated game, developed in 1966?

Periscope, a 1966 electro-mechanical submarine game, was Sega's first coin-operated hit and helped set 25 cents as the standard price per play in America; Gulf+Western bought Sega in 1969.

Blizzard Entertainment was founded in 1991 under what original name?

Allen Adham, Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce, three UCLA graduates, founded the studio as Silicon & Synapse in February 1991; it became Chaos Studios in 1993 and Blizzard Entertainment in 1994.

Which former Apple employee founded Electronic Arts in May 1982?

Trip Hawkins left Apple, where he had been director of strategy and marketing, to found Electronic Arts in May 1982; EA billed its designers as 'software artists' on album-style packaging.

Which Japanese company released the Neo Geo arcade and home system in 1990?

SNK released the Neo Geo in 1990 as a shared platform: the MVS arcade board held up to six swappable cartridges, and the AES home console ran the same games, marketed as '24-bit'.

Which Nintendo engineer designed the 16-bit Super NES?

Masayuki Uemura, head of Nintendo R&D2, designed the Super NES as he had the Famicom; its Mode 7 graphics faked 3D perspective and its Sony-built sound chip gave eight channels of audio.

Which manga artist was part of the 'Dream Team' behind Square's Chrono Trigger?

Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball, designed Chrono Trigger's characters, joining Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii on the 1995 SNES classic.

Who created the Shenmue series, whose 1999 original was released for the Dreamcast?

Yu Suzuki, the Sega AM2 designer behind Out Run and Virtua Fighter, created Shenmue; its 1999 Dreamcast original follows teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki hunting his father's killer through 1986 Yokosuka.

Which 1998 Nintendo 64 game was the first 3D Zelda and introduced lock-on targeting?

Ocarina of Time's Z-targeting became the template for 3D action games; it launched in November 1998 and Majora's Mask reused its engine two years later.

In Super Mario 64, Bowser hides the castle's Power Stars inside what?

Magical paintings hang through Peach's castle, and jumping into each one drops Mario into a world; Miyamoto's team began the 1996 launch title by perfecting the camera before building any levels.

Which mad scientist created Crash Bandicoot in the 1996 PlayStation game?

Doctor Neo Cortex creates Crash with his Evolvo-Ray in the 1996 original; Naughty Dog's Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin dreamed up the game on a road trip from Boston to Los Angeles after signing with Universal Interactive.

Which company developed and published the original Mortal Kombat for arcades in 1992?

Midway Games developed and released Mortal Kombat in arcades in 1992, with Ed Boon and John Tobias leading a four-person team; Acclaim then ported it to nearly every home platform of the era.

Who designed The Sims, the 2000 life-simulation game developed by Maxis?

Will Wright, who had created SimCity at Maxis in 1989, designed The Sims as a 'virtual dollhouse'; the open-ended 2000 game has no win condition, and players manage their Sims' needs, careers and homes.

Which company developed and published the original Sid Meier's Civilization in 1991?

MicroProse, the studio Sid Meier co-founded with Bill Stealey in 1982, developed and published Civilization for MS-DOS in 1991; Meier later left to form Firaxis in 1996.

Under what online alias is Eric Barone, the solo developer of Stardew Valley, known?

Eric Barone releases games as ConcernedApe, the name under which he spent over four years building Stardew Valley alone; the 2016 farm-life sim opens with the player inheriting a grandfather's run-down farm.

Which indie developer created the 2015 role-playing game Undertale?

Toby Fox wrote, designed, programmed and scored Undertale almost single-handedly after a 2013 Kickstarter; the player's child falls into the Underground, sealed beneath the surface by a magical barrier.

Which studio developed the 2020 roguelike Hades, first released in early access in December 2018?

Supergiant Games, the San Francisco studio behind Bastion and Transistor, built Hades in early access from December 2018 and shipped version 1.0 for Windows, macOS and Switch in September 2020.

Which studio made Baldur's Gate 3, fully released for Windows on August 3, 2023?

Larian Studios, the Belgian developer of Divinity: Original Sin, made Baldur's Gate 3 under licence from Wizards of the Coast; the party spends the game trying to rid themselves of illithid tadpoles.

Which two brothers created Cuphead, the 1930s-cartoon-styled run and gun game from Studio MDHR?

Chad and Jared drew on rubber-hose animation from Fleischer, Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons.

Which company developed the 2016 augmented-reality game Pokémon Go?

Niantic, spun out of Google in 2015 after making Ingress, built Pokémon Go with The Pokémon Company; the July 2016 release uses GPS to place Pokémon in the real world.