Did you know? Interesting gaming facts...

[jezzace]

Guybrush threepwood was so called because the original pixel art for him was called a brush file, thus, guy.brush. Not sure where the threepwood came from though.

[Pilotwings]

I read my facts in Edge or wikipedia. Learning something and sharing interesting gaming mcnuggets with the NTSC-uk family

Here's one I didn't read and I think it shows...

ET is buried in the desert. He gots into a spot of bother with some gangster blokes in a strip club in the 80s.

Huh seriously? and there was me thinking he phoned home

Here's a gaming type thing! that I'm not sure how popped into my head. Don't ever remember reading this so maybe I had a dream.

The N64 console was designed on a turtle and the pad a claw. Koopa turtle/ bowser claw maybe?

If you look at the N64 it looks like a turtle without popping it'd head out where the n64 symbol is. If you look at the pad it look's like a claw shape.

I have alway's thought this. If it is true I must have read it somewhere. But if it's not I have a good imagination!

[jezzace]

If you look at the N64 it looks like a turtle without popping it'd head out where the n64 symbol is. If you look at the pad it look's like a claw shape.

I have alway's thought this. If it is true I must have read it somewhere. But if it's not I have a good imagination!

Huh, I think you're on to something there... Just going to arrange my pads as the feet now and check....... yep, definately a koopa.

[anephric]

The infamous Night Trap and Sewer Shark for the Mega CD began their lives many years earlier than the Mega CD itself. Both projects were intially bankrolled by toy company Hasbro in the late 1980s, for a VHS-based console that would play interactive movies in the style of Dragon's Lair. Hasbro even called in Nolan Bushnell to help develop the machine.

The obvious practical problems of using VHS to load and play games (think of the rewinding! ) and the console's prohibitively expensive price tag ensured the machine never made retail, but not before Hasbro spent millions of dollars on research and had two movies already in the can. One of the men involved in the failed project later founded Digital Pictures, and the rest is bad FMV history.

I've always wanted to see a picture of a N.E.M.O./Control Vision (Never Even Mention Outside, apparently). I've never been able to find one though. Also, as anyone who has a perverse fascination with 3DO games and Sewer Shark in particular will know from various wikis, at least one VHS-based games console (the Action Max) was released in the US (for lightgun games, primarily - in concept it's no different to a Laseractive, just crapper).

Apparently, the technology for the Nemo was supposed to be quite sophisticated, and not just a simple playback system with graphics laid over the top.

http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/june03/dumbestmoments/index6.shtml

[Fireproofradiator]

Went to Sheffield's Graves Art Gallery the other day and there was an exhibition called 'Folly and Fear - The Etchings of Jacques Callot and Francisco de Goya'. Jacques Callot's tiny wee charicatures are astonishingly reminiscent of Viewtiful Joe's designs. Just trying to google some examples but they're hard to find.

Not sure that's terrifically useful. How about the fact that Jet Set Willy 2, aside from having **** all to do with Matthew Smith, came about when the Amstrad version convertors stuck in a load of new rooms. Software Projects then reconverted it back and slapped the new title on it... Incredible scenes.

[EvilBoris]

Goldeneye was originally going to be an Arcade style lightgun shooter (sans Lightgun) but after they got the AI moving characters around maps successfully they decided they could do better things with the tech.

[monel]

I think there were some interactive vhs games released in the late 80s, Captain Power (was that the name?-it was a tv show) was one of them-this is in relation to the vhs console mentioned.


Airwolf on the Spectrum (maybe other formats too) was impossible to finish. I think I read this in Edge a few years back but suddenly everything made sense.

Airwolf was one of the first games I got for my speccy and I remember trying to get past one point every day for months (flying past some beams or something), before never touching the game EVER again.

Bastards.

[Team Andromeda]

One of the men involved in the failed project later founded Digital Pictures, and the rest is bad FMV history.

Hey I happend to like FMV games when they're done well . Also think that Night Trap gets a lot of bad press when to me it's a very good game and at the time I haven't seen anything quite like it (even for FMV games) .
One of the few games where even members of the family like mum and aunt would take a interest in a game , its amazing to remember my Uncle and brother being just jaw strck at the game . One of my mates had a party at his house and I was asked to bring the game over (along with the Mega CD) and mates was even taking notes of what time to set the traps A few lagers and mates and Night Trap was a right laugh , I think the game was way ahead of its time (for a FMVgame) and never fully gets the respect it should .


Anway back on Topic , Shinobi on the PS2 was originally notgoing to have any save points , only continues. Trying to keep its Arcade heritage

[babs]

Guybrush threepwood was so called because the original pixel art for him was called a brush file, thus, guy.brush. Not sure where the threepwood came from though.

Apparently it was from an in-company competition at Lucas, and is the name of a character in a P.G. Wodehouse book.

[Sylar]

Ken Kutaragi:

When designing and building the Super Famicom sound chip (SPC700) he was working in secret, Sony's executives had very little interest in video games at the time. When they found out, Sony's executives were furious. Only with Sony CEO Norio Ohga's help was Kutaragi able to push the project to completion and keep his job.

[dvdx2]

interesting gaming fact i've learnt in the last few years........

25 years of gaming gives you RSI....

[JohnMcL7]

I thought they were all called NR readers. I had the teal one once, which was able to play retail games following a transport swap as you say. Shane's quite into them I think. He'll know fo sho.

There was both the NPDP reader and the NR reader - the cartridge plugged in to the top of the NPDP reader is unsurprisingly an NPDP cartridge(which was a hard drive). By memory the NPDP cartridge could hold four games and it was possible to load eight NPDP's at one go in about five minutes. It was possible to set the NPDP reader to emulate disc read errors which were required for the Nintendo LOT checks.

The NR Reader was a lot more basic, just a bog standard Gamecube that could read NR discs which as far as I'm aware were just just mini DVD-R's. They were burned using an NR writer, a Matsu****a SCSI DVD burner which took forever and a day to burn builds...as far as I'm aware the only advantage of the NR reader was that they were cheaper which is sadly why my company went for them.

John

[gossi the dog]

THQ stands for Toy Head Quarters. The name is derived from THQ's background as a toy manufacturer. They branched into video games and in the early 1990's sold off the toy division to concentrate on video games.

[Flabio]

One I've just heard about:

Hideo Kojima has a cameo in the Japanese film 'Azumi'. He's one of the many extras that gets offed in the final battle.

Going to have to dig the DVD out and look for it now

[Goemon]

Lara Croft was originally named Lara Cruz