Weird Facts on Games

1. Nintendo’s main man, Mario, actually first appeared in the arcade game Donkey Kong on July 9, 1981, and he went by the name Jumpman.

2. In this game, Donkey Kong was actually Mario’s pet ape who escapes and kidnaps Mario’s girlfriend, Pauline.

3. When Mario made his debut in this game, his profession was a carpenter since the game took place at a construction site. It wasn’t until Mario Bros. that Mario made the career change to plumber, as much of this game took place underground.

4. Due to the popularity of the Mario Bros. game in 1983 there was a huge increase in the number of people naming their children Mario during that time.

5. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney started Atari with just $500. Within 5 years the company earned $28 million, and by 1982, sales topped $2 billion.  

6. In addition to starting Atari, Nolan Bushnell also founded the popular pizza and entertainment company, Chuck E. Cheese.

7. Bowser, the main antagonist of Nintendo’s Mario franchise, was originally envisioned to be an ox. This is probably why he has horns and a defined snout, even though he is a turtle.

8. In Space Invaders, the more aliens you kill, the faster they come at you. This pattern of the game getting more challenging the more you play has become a staple in the gaming world, but it actually started as a fluke! The aliens were always supposed to come at you at the same speed, but with so many aliens on the screen the hardware couldn’t handle it, so they were slowed down. The more you aliens you killed as you played, the more system memory was freed up, so the game ended up running faster.

9. The design of the Playstation 2 is based on an old Atari computer, the Falcon 030 Microbox. Apparently, Sony bought the design patent when Atari was going bankrupt.

10. Atari’s E.T. the Extra Terrestrial is largely considered the worst video game of all time.

11. The urban legend – that turned out to be true – was that Atari had so many unsold copies [of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial] that they buried them in the desert. A documentary crew actually went out and dug them up!

12. Most of the above mentioned E.T. games (which originally wouldn’t sell) were eventually sold on E bay for a total of around $108,000.

13.As of 2020, there are more gamers than ever

An estimated 2.7 billion people played video games in 2020 alone. This increase is likely due to the global pandemic, a wide supply, and an ever growing demand. Here's to the age of the gamer!

14. Video games have become a major spectator sport

It's no secret that Esports have exploded in recent years, but the extent of their popularity might surprise you. For the past several championships, the League of Legends world competition has drawn more viewers than the Super Bowl or NBA finals.

15. Gamers actually agree on the worst video game of all time

It was so bad, the creators buried the evidence. Literally. The Atari ET video game is widely regarded as the worst video game ever created, and years after it was created, copies were found buried in the New Mexico desert. If it truly was that bad, it seems like Atari ET got its just deserts. 

16. Gaming (definitely) isn't just for kids

According to a recent study, the average age of a gamer is 34, which just goes to show that the market is growing far beyond just kids and teens! As more generations grow up with video games, undoubtedly the demand and variety of options will grow. We can't wait to see where that goes. 

17.Just another Mortal Monday....

Mortal Kombat is one of the most successful fighting games of all time (but you probably knew as much!).

Did you know, though, that it was developed in ten months by a team of four people? And that for the first six months, the game didn’t even have a name?

A year after its debut in the arcades, Mortal Kombat was released on Mortal Monday, September 13, 1993, to the Nintendo’s Super NES and Game Boy, and Sega Enterprises’ Sega Genesis and Game Gear. The Nintendo versions completely omitted the blood the game was known for.

18. Arcade processing power

The classic coin-op Space Invaders was originally developed so that all the enemies moved at the same speed. However, as players destroyed the alien invaders the computer had fewer objects to draw, so it could render the objects faster. The result? As you destroy critters, the remaining ones “march” toward Earth faster.

19. That looks infected

Player reaction to a simulated disease in World of Warcraft so closely resembled historical records about real plagues that epidemiologists are currently using the data from WoW to evaluate how people would respond to a potential future virus outbreak.

20. The original tech startup

Remember the PlayStation 2 startup screen? Well, the seemingly random blocks and towers represent game progress—the more you play and save your games, the more blocks and towers appear. The towers represent the game, and the longer you play the taller they get. The blocks represent saved data.

The PlayStation 2 remains the best selling video game console of all time, having sold 155 million units to date.

You should also know that the design of the PS2 was modeled after the Atari Falcon Microbox. Sony bought the rights when Atari went bankrupt.

21. Run, Mario, run!

You might have already known Super Mario Bros. was the first video game to be made into a movie. But did you know that an up-and-coming actor named Tom Hanks campaigned for the role of Mario? At the time, Nintendo execs worried he wouldn’t have enough box office clout to carry the film.

Video Game Facts Mario Movie

22.Ninten-DO!

Nintendo has continually innovated in the video game space and revolutionized an industry:

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was the first video game controller to feature a directional pad, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was the first controller to feature right- and left-shoulder buttons, and the Nintendo 64 (N64) popularized the analog thumbstick.

The company that developed the Wii motion technology offered it to Microsoft and Sony first (who both turned down the technology), and Nintendo ultimately introduced motion control to the masses!

23.There’s a game for that....

Video games have evolved to offer players almost any type of experience. Currently, there are over 30 different types of video games, including programming games like CodinGame, where players must use programming languages like Java and C++ to advance through the levels. Such titles with an educational spin make for some of the top video games for children.

24. If you build it...

Do you have a copy of Tetris for your NES? If so, you might want to dig it out and check which version you have stashed away.

The Tengen copy (Tengen being Atari's publishing arm) is thought to be in limited quantity—with only around 100,000 copies still in existence.

I'll let you read about the circumstances here, but in short, the Tengen version preceded Nintendo's own version of Tetris, but was pulled off the shelves.

Oh, what's that? You have the Sega version? Then you might be holding one of the only ten copies said to be in existence. 

25. Video game cereal

Chex Quest, which was based on the Doom game engine, is a non-violent first-person shooter released in 1996 as a Chex cereal promotion. It's the first video game ever included as a cereal box prize. The very first video game (and video game character) ever to get its own cereal? Donkey Kong. The Cap’n Crunch-like cereal was “barrels of fun for breakfast,” and not surprisingly the cereal itself was shaped like tiny barrels.

26. Games do a body—and mind—good

Playing action video games trains people to make right decisions faster. How? Players develop a heightened sense of their surroundings and that helps them multitask. And surgeons that regularly play video games make 37% fewer errors and perform their tasks 27% faster than peers.

27. Thanks for the memories

The Sega Saturn was the first gaming console to ship with internal memory. Players could save about 5–6 games on the system’s RAM... all 32 kilobytes of it.

28. Super Snake Bros.

Are you a fan of Super Smash Bros.? Of course you are. So, then, did you ever wonder about the inclusion of Solid Snake in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as being a little random? Yoshi, Pikachu, Kirby...Solid Snake?

Apparently, such thinking is warranted! The character addition stemmed from a close friendship between Hideo Kojima, director of Metal Gear Solid, and Masahiro Sakurai, who of course, created Smash. Kojima "practically begged" Sakurai to include Solid Snake given Kojima's son's fandom.

29. Online first, now, and forever!

Considered one of the greatest games of all time, Diablo is an action role-playing hack and slash classic known for its groundbreaking online play.

Using Battle.net, an online service, players joined forces over the internet to play Diablo. Modern MMOs like World of Warcraft are direct descendants of Diablo.

And 20 years after its debut, you can still play Diablo online. It's the longest supported online game, ever.

30. Respect your elders

Madden NFL, as a franchise, is older than half the players currently playing in the NFL. “It’s in the game!” and on your system of choice—Madden NFL has appeared on 33 different video game platforms and consoles, including Windows, iOS, the Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn, Nintendo SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, and Wii U, Turbo Duo, 3DO; PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4, Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

31. The PlayStation is born

Sony and Nintendo entered into a development partnership to create a new console—a video game machine that would be one of the first to play CDs. Sony would provide the electronics, CD player, and other parts, but Nintendo killed the project. Sony decided to continue to develop the technology and launch it as a game system, now known to the world as the original PlayStation. To this day, the PS2 is the best-selling console of all time with 157.6 million units sold.

32. Get moving

The Nintendo Entertainment Systems Power Pad, which was released in 1988 along with the game World Class Track Meet, launched the exergame genre.

A decade later in 1998, Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution became the most successful exergame ever (though it’s now considered a rhythm game).

33. Boo!

Resident Evil is one of the most successful video game franchises in history, having spawned dozens of sequels, movies, toys, books, and board games. The original Resident Evil PlayStation game holds the record for worst video game dialogue, according to Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition.

34. Girl power

Street Fighter II introduced one of video gaming’s first playable female characters, Chun-Li. (The very first playable human female video game character was found in the 1985 Taito arcade game Typhoon Gal.)