For those of you who didn’t know this, South Korea had put an embargo on Japanese imports after World War II. So, back in the awesome 1990s, Hyundai Electronics distributed Nintendo 64 in the country after renaming it Comboy 64.
In case you’ve wondered, yes, the Reznor enemies in Super Mario World are indeed named after Trent Reznor of the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.
The Necromorphs in Dead Space were designed after the developers of the game studied many pictures of car-wreck victims. Totally sick, I know!
Nintendo was forced to ship Super Nintendo consoles during the night because the company’s owners were scared of being robbed by the Yakuza, Japan’s mafia, one of the most violent in the world.
A recent study by the Education Development Center and the US Congress–supported Ready To Learn (RTL) Initiative found that a curriculum that involved digital media such as video games could improve early literacy skills when coupled with strong parental and teacher involvement. Maybe it’s finally time to officially introduce video games in schools?
The developmental psychologist Daphne Maurer made headlines in 2012 with awesome research that pretty much suggested people born with cataracts could improve their eyesight by playing Medal of Honor. How cool is that?
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory was banned in South Korea because, as most fans probably remember, the game shows the destruction of Seoul, the country’s capital. The ban was lifted at the end of 2006, no doubt making the Korean gamers happy.
We’re sure you’ve seen it plenty of times but not so sure that you know what it stands for: Capcom is short for Capsule Computers.
In late 2005, Sony hired graffiti artists to promote PSP across the country. It proved to be a bad idea since the company received a couple of lawsuits from angry mayors.
Steve Downes, the man who provides the voice for Halo’s Master Chief, is a DJ for a radio station in Chicago. No wonder he sounds so cool!
Lara Croft’s inflated breast size was the result of designer Toby Gard accidentally adjusting the model’s chest to 150 percent of its intended size and being persuaded by the other designers working on the game to keep the ballooned boobs.
The first Xbox console was originally called the Direct X Box due to its use of Microsoft’s DirectX technology. Eventually, the name was shortened to just Xbox and the rest is history.
In 2001, a pair of art students created a version of Pong known as the PainStation, where losers could be inflicted with genuine whip, heat, or electrical damage.
Most people might think of avid gamers as little kids and teenagers but according to the Entertainment Software Association, the average US game player is thirty-three years old and has been playing games for at least a dozen years.
Gran Turismo 2 featured some 650 cars, a total that Gran Turismo 3 couldn’t match or even come close to.
If you happen to be an avid gamer and at the same time never missed an episode of Seinfeld then you probably remember George Costanza playing Frogger like a maniac and scoring an epic 860,630 points. The record, even though fictional, was finally broken in 2009 by a man from Connecticut who scored 896,980 points.
Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft was originally a Latina named Laura Cruz.
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime used to be the senior director of national marketing at Pizza Hut.
Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game with at least 6.3 million copies sold in the United States alone.
FIFA 2001 became the first (and remains the only game to date) to use a “scratch and sniff” disc. The disc smelled of turf.
The first videogame Easter egg in history is said to have been in Adventure for Atari 2600, where the player could access a room displaying the name of the game’s creator. Times have definitely changed since then.
In the original Donkey Kong arcade game, Mario was called Jumpman, and he was a carpenter, not a plumber.
The voiceover actor for Tony Montana in Scarface: The World Is Yours, Andre Sogliuzzo, was handpicked by Pacino himself. As most of you understand by now, the game’s developers obeyed the great Al Pacino’s wish.
A six-digit number can be spotted on the Scorpion tanks in Halo, which refers to the birth date of the game’s art director, Marcus R. Lehto. His initials also appear on Master Chief’s boots.
It might be the most popular game in history; you have definitely played it at least once in your life; but we bet you never knew that the main inspiration behind Pac-Man’s design was the round shape of a pizza missing a slice. Well, now you know.
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there used to be some really cool posts on this site. or maybe i'm just growing up and need to move on...