Tell Me Something I Don't Know...what really? Didn't know that...

[Serving UpSmiles]

Donkey Kong was originally meant to be called Monkey Kong, but Japanese/English translaters weren't good at the time.

 

[Sebenko]

Fallout 3 was originally supposed to take place only 20 years after the bombs dropped. Which would explain a lot of things.

They made it 200 years in order to get Harold in the game apparently.

'Tis an internet rumor though, so yeah. But it would still explain a lot. Like how the boxed foods are still edible after 200 freaking years.

I heard the reason was because Bethesda are cocks and won't let any game be set before a game that's already made.

 

[reg42]

Valve didn't come up with the idea for Portal or Team Fortress 2. And I'm not sure if Counter Strike was their idea either, but I know the other two weren't their ideas.

I know that Team Fortress was first a mod, and I think so was Counter Strike I think.

 

[googleit6]

I think Link is left handed. That's pretty nifty, if I do say so myself.

He wields a sword in his left hand but I could swear he did everything else with is right. I'm not sure what that implies.

Leave it to Link to counfound us. Maybe he's ambidextrous?

 

[Geekosaurus]

In 1995 Nintendo released a 'Virtual Boy' as a successor to the Game Boy. It was an ugly red and black virtual reality visor that tried to emulate 3D graphics. They were on sale in Japan for less than a year before being scrapped altogether.

 

[SalamanderJoe]

Cloud and Lightning of Final Fantasy fame, are a lot more alike then just having sky-based names

Spoiler

Ha, that made me smile! Though apparently that's what the desginers wanted, a female Cloud. Nothing else.

 

[Btango]

"I once open mouth kissed a horse once. That's something you don't know".

lol i was going to say that bet you didn't know that

 

[Juk3n]

Jake from 90's teeny bopper show California Dreams is the 'badass' voice of JCDenton in Deus Ex.

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

One of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe is Squirrel Girl, who has the power to control squirrels. Doctor Doom, Thanos, and Fing Fang Foom (a giant dragon) have all been beaten by her, and during Civil War she was off fighting Galactus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squirrel_Girl

 

[manythings]

Yes and then it became donkey kong because they weren't allowed to use popeye.

I mean an arcade game, "popeye," exists, is older than donkey kong, wasn't made by nintendo, and the entire "DONKEY KONG IS RESKINNED POPEYE!!" thing is urban legend.

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/nsmb/vol1_page1.jsp

About half way down he is asked about popeye and says that was what became donkey kong.

 

[Altorin]

Yes and then it became donkey kong because they weren't allowed to use popeye.

I mean an arcade game, "popeye," exists, is older than donkey kong, wasn't made by nintendo, and the entire "DONKEY KONG IS RESKINNED POPEYE!!" thing is urban legend.

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/nsmb/vol1_page1.jsp

About half way down he is asked about popeye and says that was what became donkey kong.

Iwata
Yes, the company was releasing Popeye playing cards and Popeye Game & Watch titles.

Miyamoto
That's why at first I asked if I could make a game using Popeye. The basic concept of Popeye is that there is the hero and his rival who he manages to turn the tables on with the aid of spinach.

Iwata
When you put it like that, it's the same as Pac-Man, isn't it? (laughs)

Miyamoto
Yes, it's identical to Pac-Man! (laughs) So I sketched out a few ideas for games using Popeye. At that point, Yokoi-san was good enough to bring these ideas to the President's attention and in the end one of the ideas received official approval. Yokoi-san thought that designers would become necessary members of development teams in order to make games in the future. And that's how Donkey Kong6 came about.

5 Popeye is a popular American cartoon character. Other memorable characters that appear alongside the hero include Olive Oyl and Bluto.

6 Donkey Kong was the debut release from game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. It appeared in arcades in 1981 and was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1983.

Iwata
But originally it was going to be a Popeye game.

Miyamoto
That's right. But while I can't recall exactly why it was, we were unable to use Popeye in that title. It really felt like the ladder had been pulled out from under us, so to speak.

Iwata
So even though you were making a game about climbing ladders, you had the ladder pulled out from beneath you before you even got started! (laughs)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye_%28video_game%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_%28arcade_game%29

Donkey Kong was released in 1981, Popeye in 1982

Urban Legend it is not, lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_%28arcade_game%29#Development

As of the beginning of 1981, Nintendo's efforts to sell in the North American video game market had failed, culminating with the flop Radar Scope in 1980. To keep the company afloat, company president Hiroshi Yamauchi decided to convert unsold Radar Scope games into something new. He approached a young industrial designer named Shigeru Miyamoto, who had been working for Nintendo since 1977, to see if Miyamoto thought he could design an arcade game. Miyamoto said he could.[11] Yamauchi appointed Nintendo's head engineer, Gunpei Yokoi, to supervise the project.[12] Some sources also claim that Ikegami Tsushinki performed some of the development.[13][14][15]

At the time, Nintendo was pursuing a license to make a game based on the Popeye comic strip. When this fell through, Nintendo decided that it would take the opportunity to create new characters that could then be marketed and used in later games.[9] Miyamoto came up with many characters and plot concepts, but he eventually settled on a gorilla/carpenter/girlfriend love triangle that mirrored the rivalry between Bluto and Popeye for Olive Oyl.[6] Bluto became an ape, which Miyamoto said was "nothing too evil or repulsive". He would be the pet of the main character, "a funny, hang-loose kind of guy."[16] Miyamoto has also named "Beauty and the Beast" and the 1933 film King Kong as influences.[17] Although its origin as a comic strip license played a major part, Donkey Kong marked the first time that the storyline for a video game preceded the game's programming rather than simply being appended as an afterthought.[18] An unrelated Popeye game would eventually be released by Nintendo in 1982.

 

[Altorin]

Heres a fun one, on nuclear waste dumps people arnt sure what to write. They need to convay that you MUSNT TOUCH THIS SHIT FOR ANY REASON EVER in a way that means that during the THOUSAND years in which it takes to decay everyone will understand regardless of language change.

Skulls wouldnt work, people might think its a tomb, any normal gesture may be out dated and not understood causing unneccessary death. People are idiots and curious, they need to make sure no one goes. "WTF does that sign mean?" "Dunno lets dig it up and find out"

Anyone suggest what could be on it?

Here there be dragons.

 

[Chrono180]

In planescape torment, the reason the player (not the character) never finds out the actual name of the nameless one is because not even the design team could agree on what it should be.

In Baldur's Gate there's a trio of non-hostile monsters named Larry, Darryl, and Darryl who will give you their autograph if asked. Apparently it has something to do with the Bob Newhart show.

In Icewind Dale you can use the console cheats to summon a cyclops with the name "Jeff K" to join your party. This is related to a guy on Somethingawful.com who deliberately misspells everything he types.

The reason the child (Bishop) you rescue in the first X-men legends game is a adult in the second despite none of the other characters aging very much is because in the comics Bishop is a time traveler from several dozen years in the future.

 

[Karlaxx]

Starcraft was originally intended to be a Warhammer 40K RTS, but the contract fell through. Not wanting all their hard work to go to waste, Blizz tweaked a bit here and there (Eldar became Protoss, Tyranids became Zerg, Marines became...Marines, etc.) and resold it as their own. They then proceeded to make more money than The Beatles.

I've wondered at this similarity for a long, long time.

 

[Altorin]

In 1995 Nintendo released a 'Virtual Boy' as a successor to the Game Boy. It was an ugly red and black virtual reality visor that tried to emulate 3D graphics. They were on sale in Japan for less than a year before being scrapped altogether.

it had 14 games as well. In his review of it, the angry video game nerd reviewed all of them but 1.

 

[Westaway]

Fallout 3 was originally supposed to take place only 20 years after the bombs dropped. Which would explain a lot of things.

They made it 200 years in order to get Harold in the game apparently.

'Tis an internet rumor though, so yeah. But it would still explain a lot. Like how the boxed foods are still edible after 200 freaking years.

What about the fact that the story surrounds the Brotherhood of Steel (sort of)

 

[omega_peaches]

Tails full name is Miles 'Tails' Prower...

Some people might not know that...

Wow, I just got the pun in his name.
Uh...Respawn Entertainment is a pun in the fact that they are re-spawning into the business after being fired.

 

[Irridium]

Fallout 3 was originally supposed to take place only 20 years after the bombs dropped. Which would explain a lot of things.

They made it 200 years in order to get Harold in the game apparently.

'Tis an internet rumor though, so yeah. But it would still explain a lot. Like how the boxed foods are still edible after 200 freaking years.

What about the fact that the story surrounds the Brotherhood of Steel (sort of)

Perhaps they were going to use a brand new faction in their place, and just changed it after they changed when the game would be set.