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101 Interesting Video Game Facts!

November 15, 2008 in Top List comments 12

Andy Kelly of gamesradar.com has comprised a fascinating and comprehensive list of interesting facts from video games. No less than one hundred and one of them, actually!

Have fun impressing friends with your new found knowledge!

  1. Sonic The Hedgehog isn't only the name of Sega's speedy mascot, but also a gene on chromosome 7 of the human genome. Well, it was until recently when the science community decided to ditch all of its 'comedy' names for genes. Party poopers.
  2. In the original Super Smash Brothers Melee, the Princess Daisy trophy had a mysterious third eye on the back of its head. Unfortunate glitch? Or something more sinister?
  3. There are currently over 100 million Game Boys in the world; both the original and the colour variant. 32 million of them are in Japan, and there are 44 million in America.
  4. Final Fantasy VII was originally designed for the Nintendo 64, but Square cancelled the project and moved to the PSone because of the lack of space in the console's game cartridges. FFVII would've filled 13 cartridges.
  5. It's only humanly possible to press a button on a controller 16 times per second. This record was set by Toshuyuki Takahashi, a Japanese gamer.
  6. Starcraft is the first computer game to have ever physically made it into space. It was sent aboard Shuttle mission STS-96 on May 27, 1999 by Mission Specialist Daniel T. Barry , who is also a Starcraft fan.
Dark Arcanine via gamesradar.com »
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  • 1
    Alvaroduck Nov 15, 08
    Those are pretty cool, particularly the ones about stuff that got left out of games. Makes you wonder what they would be like if they were left in.
  • 0
    Breezy Nov 15, 08
    Wow! 100 million Gameboys?! Still? Actually, I know where my old Gameboy colour is...
  • 0
    Blackfalcon Nov 15, 08
    quote
    It's only humanly possible to press a button on a controller 16 times per second. This record was set by Toshuyuki Takahashi, a Japanese gamer.
    Holy crap! That's some serious button bashing!

    Awesome article, plenty of cool facts! I thought it was awesome that Jonathan Ross is in Halo 3!!! Awesomeness! =D
  • 1
    Breezy Nov 15, 08
    How did I know that the record setter would be Japanese?
  • 0
    Final Blade Nov 15, 08
    quote
    #4. Final Fantasy VII was originally designed for the Nintendo 64, but Square cancelled the project and moved to the PSone because of the lack of space in the console's game cartridges. FFVII would've filled 13 cartridges.
    Holy shit!!

    Glad they moved on with the Playstation brand.

    Edit:
    quote
    Yeah sorry thats just ridiculous.
    • 0
      Dark Arcanine Nov 15, 08
      Did you check out the image for it? Looks even crazier when put it into perspective like that.
  • 0
    Gamesta100 Nov 15, 08
    I have finished RE2 a whole load of times and I never noticed a dead Nemesis.I want to find it.

    But the fact isn't completely correct.RE3 was set 24h before and after RE2.
  • 0
    StewieRox Nov 15, 08
    Wow. More gameboys in the USA than in Japan, even though they were made in Japan? Suprising.
  • 0
    Shadow of Death Nov 16, 08
    Lots of interesting factoids, here are some of my faves

    quote #6
    The famously awful E.T. game for the Atari 2600 actually sold more than its most famous game, Space Invaders. E.T. sold 1.5 million, while Invaders only shifted a million.
    Ironic much? Doesn't speak much about the intelligence of the human race >_>

    quote #19
    In the original Super Smash Brothers Melee, the Princess Daisy trophy had a mysterious third eye on the back of its head. Unfortunate glitch? Or something more sinister?
    Hrmmm? That's curious. I wonder if it was just some smart-alec's idea of joking about 'women having eyes in the back of their head', or something >_> Though that is usually teachers >_>

    quote #22
    Before they settled on its unique, painted look, the developers of Okami, Clover, originally intended the game to look realistic. You can unlock a concept video of this by finishing the game. It was changed because the PS2's hardware wasn't sophisticated enough.
    And here I (and a lot of us) thought they went with the painted look just because it 'fit' >_>

    quote #29
    The PSone was originally planned as a Nintendo console, with Sony set to design its electronic components. When Nintendo ditched the project, Sony decided to make a console anyway.
    Lot's of us know this, but pretty cool eh? Nintendo's loss, our gain

    quote #40
    The Texas TI-83 calculator has more graphics processing power than the Commodore 64. Amazingly, some basic C64 games can even be programmed into it.
    Quite cool! I think I heard something like this before?

    quote #46
    Final Fantasy got its name from the fact that it was supposed to be Square's last ever game. They were struggling to become popular with dodgy games like Rad Racer and World Runner 3D, and were going to bow out of the industry gracefully.
    This is under some scrutiny. Another source had said that (according to one of the Square bigwigs), it was actually a tribute to one of their creators (or something), since it would be that person's last game. Dunno which is true, though it being their last game seems more likely to me.

    quote #55
    The Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972, contained 40 transistors and no microprocessor. The newest Pentium 4 microprocessor contains 42 million transistors on the chip itself.
    Quite cool to see how far we've come....A million times the number of transistors in about 30 years >_>

    quote #62
    It's only humanly possible to press a button on a controller 16 times per second. This record was set by Toshuyuki Takahashi, a Japanese gamer.
    ONLY 16 times in a second? That's friggen fast >_>

    quote #64
    There's a full book you can read in Deus Ex. It's called The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton and shares some plot similarities with the game. The chapters were spread throughout the game in datacubes.
    Interesting. Reminds me of Oblivion. It has a number of short stories (including some that are spread over multiple volumes).

    quote #92
    A commercial for horror game Siren was pulled in Japan after complaints from parents. The advert featured a girl knocking on a window from the outside, begging her parents to let her in. The view then switches to the inside and shows the terrified parents, in fear of their daughter, who is revealed to be a bloody zombie. Sony said that the fear factor made people uncomfortable.
    That would be COOL to see. I better remember to look it up later, when I'm on my PS3!
  • 0
    Lifesapper Nov 16, 08
    Some of those are really cool, especially the FFVII one, 13 cartridges, no wonder Nintendo switched to discs.
    • 1
      Final Blade Nov 16, 08
      quote
      Some of those are really cool, especially the FFVII one, 13 cartridges, no wonder SquareSoft/Square Enix switched to discs.
      fixed.
      • 0
        Shadow of Death Nov 16, 08
        Thumbs up for that catch

        Second thumbs up I've ever given you. Let's hope you give cause to have it happen more >_>

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