100 Fun Facts About Videogame

What was the first commercially successful arcade video game?

Pong, Atari's 1972 hit, was the first commercially successful video game; together with the Magnavox Odyssey it helped establish the whole industry.

Which console first popularized rumble feedback with an add-on controller accessory?

The Nintendo 64's Rumble Pak, released in 1997, was a significant innovation that added a new layer of immersion to gameplay by providing tactile feedback.

The original Diablo, developed by Blizzard North, was first released for which platform?

Diablo launched for Windows PC at the end of December 1996, reaching wide release in January 1997; a PlayStation port followed in 1998 and a planned Sega Saturn version was cancelled.

Who did NOT co-found id Software in 1991?

id was founded on February 1, 1991 by Carmack, Romero, Tom Hall and artist Adrian Carmack; Newell co-founded Valve.

What genre is Minecraft primarily categorized as?

Minecraft revolutionized the sandbox genre by allowing players immense freedom to build, explore, and create in its blocky, procedurally generated worlds.

What is the name of Mario's younger, taller brother, often seen wearing green?

Luigi made his debut in the 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. and has since become a beloved character, frequently joining his brother Mario on adventures.

In what year did Nintendo release its first handheld console, the Game Boy, in Japan?

The Game Boy launched in Japan on April 21, 1989, quickly becoming a global sensation and a landmark in portable gaming.

Who composed the score for Final Fantasy VII?

Nobuo Uematsu composed the whole Final Fantasy VII score, his first for the PlayStation, including 'One-Winged Angel', the series' first track with sung lyrics.

In what year did Microsoft introduce its first home video game console, the Xbox?

The original Xbox marked Microsoft's entry into the console market, launching in North America on November 15, 2001.

What year saw the initial release of the PlayStation 2 in Japan?

The PlayStation 2, one of the best-selling consoles of all time, first launched in Japan on March 4, 2000.

The hybrid console Nintendo Switch made its worldwide debut in which year?

The Nintendo Switch, known for its versatility as both a home and portable console, was released globally on March 3, 2017.

In which year did the Sega Genesis, Japan's Mega Drive, reach North America?

It had launched in Japan in October 1988 as the Mega Drive; the August 1989 North American release brought 16-bit gaming to the console wars.

Which independent developer is solely credited with creating Stardew Valley?

Eric Barone, under the pseudonym ConcernedApe, single-handedly developed Stardew Valley over four years, handling all aspects from programming to art and music.

In what year was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim originally released?

The critically acclaimed open-world RPG, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, first launched worldwide on November 11, 2011.

Super Mario Bros. landed on the Famicom in September of which year?

It reached Japan in September 1985 on the Famicom, the Japanese version of the NES, and is credited with revitalising the whole industry.

Which Soviet software engineer created Tetris in the mid-1980s?

Alexey Pajitnov programmed Tetris in 1984 on an Elektronika 60 at the Soviet Academy of Sciences' computing centre in Moscow; Vadim Gerasimov ported it to the IBM PC.

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

Pac-Man was released in Japan by Namco in 1980 as Puck Man, from the Japanese 'paku-paku' eating sound; it was renamed for the US to deter vandals altering the P to an F.

In The Legend of Zelda series, Link and Zelda fight to save which land from Ganon?

Hyrule is the kingdom at the heart of the Zelda series; Ganon seeks its Triforce, a sacred relic that grants any wish to whoever holds it complete.

Which Japanese company developed and published Space Invaders in 1978?

Taito developed and published Space Invaders in 1978; designer Tomohiro Nishikado drew on The War of the Worlds and Star Wars, and it is regarded as the first fixed shooter.

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

Mario, then called Jumpman, rescues Pauline, originally just 'Lady' in the arcade release; the game was built to repurpose unsold Radar Scope cabinets.

Which mad scientist is the arch-enemy of Sonic the Hedgehog?

Doctor Eggman, known as Dr. Robotnik in early Western releases, has chased Sonic since Sega launched the hedgehog in 1991 as its answer to Nintendo's Mario.

Grand Theft Auto V is set in Los Santos, a fictional city based on which real one?

Los Santos and its surrounding state of San Andreas parody Los Angeles and Southern California; the story follows Michael, Franklin and Trevor.

The 1993 shooter Doom begins on the moons of which planet before ending in hell?

Doom's first two episodes are set on Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos before the third descends into Hell; id rendered 2D sprites in a 3D world, often called 2.5D.

In Valve's Portal, which AI taunts the player through the Aperture Science test chambers?

GLaDOS, short for Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, runs the Aperture Science facility; Portal shipped in 2007 as part of The Orange Box.

Which studio developed Halo: Combat Evolved, the 2001 Xbox launch title?

Bungie developed Halo: Combat Evolved, which began in 1997 as a real-time strategy game for Mac before Microsoft bought the studio in 2000 and made it an Xbox launch title.

The original Pokémon Red and Blue take place in which fictional region?

In Japan the 1996 pair was Red and Green; Blue came later as a special edition. All of them roam Kanto, the series' first region, and the games reached the West in 1998.

What was the development codename of the Wii console?

Nintendo called the console 'Revolution' from its 2004 announcement until renaming it Wii in April 2006; Satoru Iwata bet on motion controls over raw power.

Swappable ROM cartridges, popularized by the Atari 2600, were first used by which 1976 console?

The Fairchild Channel F, released in November 1976, was the first console to use swappable ROM cartridges ('Videocarts'); Atari's VCS followed in 1977 bundled with Combat.

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 controls and eight selectable fighters defined the one-on-one fighting genre.

Controversy over the violence in Mortal Kombat helped lead to the creation of which body?

The 1993 US Senate hearings prompted by Mortal Kombat and Night Trap led the industry to form the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) in 1994 to rate games itself.

World of Warcraft takes place on which fictional planet?

World of Warcraft is set on Azeroth, the world of the earlier Warcraft strategy games; it launched in November 2004 on the franchise's 10th anniversary.

Fortnite Battle Royale pits up to how many players against each other?

Fortnite Battle Royale drops up to 100 players onto one island and shrinks the playable area with a storm until a single player or squad survives; it launched in September 2017.

Which American studio developed the 2018 social deduction hit Among Us?

Innersloth, a small studio in Redmond, Washington, released Among Us on iOS and Android in June 2018; it exploded in popularity in 2020 through Twitch streamers.

Angry Birds was created by a game designer from which country?

Angry Birds was made by Rovio, based in Espoo, Finland; its 2009 success rescued the studio from near-bankruptcy, and Sega bought Rovio in 2023.

Which studio develops The Sims, the life simulation series published by Electronic Arts?

Maxis created The Sims in 2000 as an outgrowth of its Sim series that began with SimCity in 1989; Electronic Arts bought the studio in 1997.

In the 1983 video game crash, US home video game revenue fell by roughly what share by 1985?

US home video game revenue fell from about $3.2 billion in 1983 to about $100 million in 1985, a drop of roughly 97%, ending the second console generation in North America.

Atari founder Nolan Bushnell also established which restaurant chain?

Nolan Bushnell opened the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose in 1977, pairing pizza with arcade games and animatronic shows.

Sony's original PlayStation grew out of a failed partnership with which company to build a CD-ROM add-on?

Sony had been building a CD-ROM drive for Nintendo's Super NES; when Nintendo abandoned the deal in 1991, Ken Kutaragi's team turned the project into the PlayStation, launched in Japan in December 1994.

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

George R. R. Martin wrote the mythology and backstory of the Lands Between for Elden Ring; Hidetaka Miyazaki directed the 2022 game, which lets players ride the spectral steed Torrent.

How many sports were included in Wii Sports, the game bundled with the Wii outside Japan?

Tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing were chosen to demonstrate the motion-sensing Wii Remote.

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the player buys a deserted-island getaway package from which character?

Tom Nook's Nook Inc. sells the Deserted Island Getaway Package that opens New Horizons; the 2020 game was directed by Aya Kyogoku, who also led New Leaf.

Candy Crush Saga was originally released in 2012 on which platform?

Candy Crush Saga launched on Facebook in April 2012 as a variation of King's earlier browser game Candy Crush; iOS and Android versions followed late that year.

Who created the Super Smash Bros. crossover fighting series?

Masahiro Sakurai created Super Smash Bros. at HAL Laboratory, programming the prototype with Satoru Iwata; the first game reached the Nintendo 64 in Japan in January 1999.

The 1962 space combat game Spacewar! was written for which minicomputer at MIT?

Steve Russell and fellow MIT students wrote Spacewar! for the DEC PDP-1 in 1962; two ships duel around a star whose gravity pulls them in, and the code spread to other PDP-1 sites.

Which engineer led the design of the Magnavox Odyssey, the first commercial home video game console?

Ralph H. Baer designed the 'Brown Box' prototype at Sanders Associates that Magnavox released as the Odyssey in September 1972; it showed only three dots and a line, so players used plastic screen overlays.

Which British studio developed GoldenEye 007, the 1997 N64 shooter?

Rare, the Leicestershire studio behind Donkey Kong Country, built GoldenEye 007 with a small team led by Martin Hollis; it was first pitched as a 2D platformer for the Super NES.

The Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A) first appeared in which 1986 game?

Kazuhisa Hashimoto added the code to the 1986 NES port of Gradius to make testing easier; it is best known from Contra, where it grants 30 lives, and hides on many websites.

Shigeru Miyamoto initially conceived Bowser as which animal?

Miyamoto first drew Bowser as an ox, inspired by the Ox-King from the 1960 Toei film Alakazam the Great; Takashi Tezuka pushed the design toward a turtle-like Koopa.

Roughly how long did Howard Scott Warshaw have to make Atari's infamous E.T. game in 1982?

Rights negotiations only ended in late July, and Atari's sales expectations were pegged to the film's huge box office.

Crash Bandicoot was initially conceived by Naughty Dog under what working name?

Naughty Dog called the project Willy the Wombat before choosing a bandicoot; Crash ended up a mutated eastern barred bandicoot fleeing Doctor Neo Cortex, and the 1996 game became a PlayStation flagship.

Kirby made his 1992 debut in Kirby's Dream Land on which handheld or console?

Kirby's Dream Land launched on the Game Boy in 1992; Masahiro Sakurai at HAL Laboratory began Kirby as a simple placeholder sprite and decided to keep the round design.

Which bounty hunter is the protagonist of the Metroid series?

Samus Aran, the armoured bounty hunter, debuted in 1986's Metroid, which blended Super Mario Bros. platforming with Zelda-style exploration; her reveal as a woman was a famous ending twist.

Mojang Studios, the developer of Minecraft, is based in which country?

Mojang Studios is based in Stockholm, Sweden, where Markus 'Notch' Persson began Minecraft in 2009; the game reached full release in November 2011.

Myst, the best-selling PC game for nearly a decade, was built on which Apple software stack?

Rand and Robyn Miller built Myst in HyperCard on Macintosh computers, stitching pre-rendered 3D stills into clickable stacks; its 1993 success helped drive CD-ROM adoption.

In Galaga, what lets 'Boss Galaga' enemies capture the player's ship?

Boss Galaga fire a tractor beam that pulls in the player's fighter; shooting the boss later frees it, and the rescued ship docks alongside as a 'dual fighter' with doubled firepower.

Which company developed the 1981 arcade classic Frogger, which Sega then published?

Konami made it and Sega published it; by 2005 some 20 million home copies had sold of the game where five frogs must cross traffic and a river of logs, turtles and alligators.

Half-Life runs on GoldSrc, a heavily modified version of which licensed id Software technology?

GoldSrc is Valve's heavily modified Quake engine, licensed from id Software; Half-Life (1998) told its story through scripted in-engine sequences rather than cutscenes.

Which novelist was hired by Valve to craft the plot of Half-Life?

Marc Laidlaw, author of the novels Dad's Nuke and The 37th Mandala, joined Valve in 1997 to write Half-Life's story of physicist Gordon Freeman escaping Black Mesa.

The 1985 Oregon Trail was made by MECC, an educational computing consortium based in which state?

Designer R. Philip Bouchard's team spent ten months reimagining the 1971 text game for the Apple II.

The 1985 Oregon Trail game sets out in 1848 from which Missouri town, bound for Oregon's Willamette Valley?

The wagon leaves Independence, Missouri, in 1848 for Oregon's Willamette Valley, if river crossings, hunting, storms and disease allow.

Which designer made his debut with Metal Gear in 1987, turning it into a stealth game?

Hideo Kojima directed Metal Gear for the MSX2 in 1987, reworking a planned combat game to reward avoiding enemies rather than shooting them because the hardware could not handle many bullets on screen.

In Pac-Man, which of the four ghosts is red and chases the player directly?

Blinky, the red ghost, targets Pac-Man's current position and speeds up as dots run out; Pinky and Inky try to cut him off ahead, while Clyde flips between chasing and fleeing.

Resident Evil centres on a zombie outbreak in which fictional Midwestern town?

Raccoon City, a fictional Midwestern city, hosts the Umbrella Corporation's outbreak; the 1996 original sends a S.T.A.R.S. team into the nearby Arklay mountains, where they are trapped in a mansion.

CD Projekt, maker of The Witcher games, is headquartered in which country?

CD Projekt is headquartered in Warsaw, Poland; it began in 1994 translating foreign games into Polish, including Baldur's Gate for Interplay, before building The Witcher in 2007.

Which Square designer is credited as the creator of the Final Fantasy franchise?

Hironobu Sakaguchi created Final Fantasy in 1987 as what he expected to be his last game at Square; he left in 2003 and founded Mistwalker, maker of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon.

Sonic's two-tailed fox sidekick Tails has what pun-based real name?

Miles Prower is a pun on 'miles per hour'; designer Yasushi Yamaguchi wanted Miles as the main name, but Sega of America preferred Tails, so both were kept.

Which company originally developed the 2016 augmented-reality hit Pokémon Go?

Niantic, a San Francisco developer spun out of Google in 2015, built Pokémon Go on the bones of its earlier location game Ingress; it sold its games division to Scopely in 2025.

League of Legends is developed and published by which company?

Riot Games, founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, released League of Legends in 2009 as a spiritual successor to the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients; Tencent bought Riot outright in 2015.

Which British studio, based in Derby, created the first Tomb Raider in 1996?

Core Design, in Derby, built Tomb Raider around Toby Gard's Lara Croft; parent CentreGold was bought by Eidos Interactive in 1996, making Eidos the publisher of the October 1996 release.

Under what name is the Mega Man series known in Japan?

Mega Man is Rockman in Japan, a 'rock' to partner his sister robot Roll; Capcom renamed him for the West in 1987, and the Game Boy spin-offs were sold in Japan as Rockman World.

Which 1995 Nintendo console showed 3D games on a red monochrome display?

The Virtual Boy used red LEDs and a parallax effect to show stereoscopic 3D on a tabletop headset; launched in 1995, it sold poorly and was discontinued within a year.

Which Nintendo designer created both the Game & Watch handhelds and the Game Boy?

Gunpei Yokoi led Nintendo's R&D1, creating Game & Watch in 1980 and the Game Boy in 1989; he also produced Metroid and designed the Ultra Hand toy before leaving in 1996.

Which publisher released the original Civilization strategy game in 1991?

MicroProse, the company Sid Meier co-founded with Bill Stealey, published Civilization in 1991; Meier and Bruce Shelley designed it after Silent Service, Pirates! and Railroad Tycoon.

Who developed the original SimCity, the city-building game released in 1989?

Will Wright began SimCity in 1985 after building a level editor for Raid on Bungeling Bay; publishers balked at a game with no way to win until he co-founded Maxis and released it in 1989.

RollerCoaster Tycoon (1999) was written almost entirely in which language?

Chris Sawyer wrote about 99% of RollerCoaster Tycoon in x86 assembly language, with only a little C for the Windows interface; it followed his earlier Transport Tycoon.

The 2018 God of War moved Kratos from Greek myth into which mythology?

The 2018 God of War relocates Kratos to Norse mythology's Midgard, where he and his son Atreus set out to scatter the ashes of Kratos's wife, Faye, from the highest peak.

BioShock is set in which underwater city built as an isolated utopia?

Rapture, built beneath the Atlantic by magnate Andrew Ryan as an escape from government and religion, has collapsed into civil war by the time Jack arrives after a 1960 plane crash.

What is the name of the AI who accompanies Master Chief through the Halo games?

Cortana, the AI carried in Master Chief's armour, is voiced by Jen Taylor, who also voiced Microsoft's Windows assistant of the same name from 2014.

Which publisher is behind Assassin's Creed, developed mainly at its Montreal studio?

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed had sold over 200 million copies by September 2022, making it the company's best-selling franchise; it is built mainly at Ubisoft Montreal.

In Splatoon, players control squid-like humanoids known by what name?

Inklings are Splatoon's squid-like kids, joined later by octopus-derived Octolings; both switch between a 'kid' form for shooting and a 'swim' form for moving through their own ink.

Who designed the characters for Square's 1995 RPG Chrono Trigger?

Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball, designed Chrono Trigger's characters as part of the 'Dream Team' Square assembled with the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest creators for the 1995 release.

Which Namco designer created Pac-Man in 1980?

Toru Iwatani designed Pac-Man at Namco; it was test-marketed in Japan on May 22, 1980, reached Japanese arcades that July and North America in October.

Which studio developed the original Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2 in 2005?

The Boston studio then left the series to make Rock Band, while later Guitar Hero games passed to Neversoft.

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

The home AES unit was at first offered only as a rental system for Japanese game shops because it was so costly to build.

Guinness lists which 1982 home computer as the best-selling desktop model ever?

The Commodore 64, launched in August 1982, is listed by Guinness World Records as the best-selling single desktop computer model, with estimates of 12.5 to 17 million units sold.

The text adventure Zork was sold commercially by which company founded by MIT alumni?

Infocom, founded in 1979 by MIT staff and students including Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, split the mainframe Zork into three titles, starting with Zork I: The Great Underground Empire in 1980.

Lemmings (1991) was developed by which Scottish studio, later renamed Rockstar North?

DMA Design, founded in Dundee by David Jones, made Lemmings, published by Psygnosis in 1991; it went on to create Grand Theft Auto before taking the Rockstar North name in 2002.

Kingdom Hearts crosses Final Fantasy characters with properties owned by which company?

Square developed the series while the Walt Disney Company owns it; Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy travel between worlds drawn from the studio's films.

Which Game Freak co-founder is credited as the creator of Pokémon?

Satoshi Tajiri drew on his childhood hobby of collecting insects to conceive Pokémon; the first games, Red and Green, took Game Freak six years and shipped in 1996.

Genshin Impact developer miHoYo is a studio based in which country?

miHoYo was founded in Shanghai, China, in 2012 by three Shanghai Jiao Tong University computer science students; Genshin Impact arrived in 2020 and became a global gacha hit.

For how much did Microsoft agree to buy Minecraft maker Mojang in September 2014?

Microsoft announced the $2.5 billion Mojang purchase on September 15, 2014, paying from cash held offshore; founder Markus 'Notch' Persson left the company as the deal closed.

Which actor plays the rocker-terrorist Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077?

Keanu Reeves plays and voices Johnny Silverhand, whose digitised engram V carries on a biochip; Reeves unveiled the role on stage at E3 2019 with the line 'You're breathtaking'.

Who is the outlaw protagonist of Red Dead Redemption 2, set in 1899?

Arthur Morgan, a senior enforcer of the Van der Linde gang, is the playable outlaw for most of the 1899 story; the epilogue hands control to John Marston, hero of the first Red Dead Redemption.

Hollow Knight studio Team Cherry is based in which country?

Team Cherry is based in Adelaide, Australia; founders Ari Gibson and William Pellen funded Hollow Knight through a 2014 Kickstarter and released it in 2017.

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

Midway, the Chicago arcade maker, developed Mortal Kombat in 1992; Ed Boon and John Tobias were told to build a 'combat game' within a year and set out to rival Street Fighter II.

After its FIFA licence expired at the end of 2022, EA's football series continued in 2023 under which name?

EA Sports FC 24 launched in September 2023 as the direct successor to FIFA 23 after EA and FIFA failed to agree a renewal; FIFA 23 was the last game under the licence.

Nolan Bushnell took the name Atari from a term in which board game?

In Go, 'atari' warns that stones are one move from capture, roughly the game's equivalent of 'check' in chess; Bushnell and Ted Dabney adopted it in 1972 after their first choice, Syzygy, was taken.

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make what product?

Craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi produced hanafuda 'flower cards' by hand in Kyoto; the company did not release a video game console until 1977.

Kirby's name is often linked to a lawyer who defended Nintendo against which film studio?

Lawyer John Kirby won Nintendo's 1983 case, upheld in 1984, after Universal City Studios claimed Donkey Kong infringed King Kong; the Kirby name is often said to honour him, and Miyamoto liked its harsh sound.

Princess Zelda was named after the wife of which American novelist?

Zelda Fitzgerald was a novelist, dancer and socialite in her own right; Miyamoto said her name simply sounded pleasant and significant.