Post Your Interesting Gaming Facts

[necronom]

I've just spotted this one while reading the Fighting Fantasy article:

The artwork for Nitro (top down car game on the Amiga, and probably others) was previously used on the Fighting Fantasy book Freeway Fighter and was painted by Jim Burns.

[joefish]

The title screen and static images between levels of Thunder Blade were all stills from the film Blue Thunder. It's suggested that SEGA based the game on the film but failed to secure the rights - which implies they used the images without permission. (Then again they may have just planned to rip them off all along - they never even bothered to ask for Ferrari's permission for the car in Outrun. If they had, they probably wouldn't have gotten away with the way the horse logo flips round the wrong way whenever you turn left). The helicopter itself is a copy of the movie one - a Gazelle with bolted-on extra bits based on the (then still fairly secretive) Apache design. See, for example, the title screen here and a grab from the start of the final air duel in the last third of the movie:

The screen introducing level 2 features the Hughes 500 flown by the bad guy.

[the_hawk]

That's a great fact, I like it. Amazing how they got away with it!

[DreamcastRIP]

... - they never even bothered to ask for Ferrari's permission for the car in Outrun. If they had, they probably wouldn't have gotten away with the way the horse logo flips round the wrong way whenever you turn left).

Ferrari's iconic 'prancing horse' symbol, afaik, isn't 100% clear to see in the arcade coin-op OutRun.

The symbol on the cab's steering wheel is this,



No Ferrari logos or symbol were anywhere to be seen on the cab, afaik. Although the badge of the rear of the car does look more like Ferrari's prancing horse than the above image, imho!



That said, Ferrari never made a convertible Testarossa so I suppose Sega would argue their design was 'inspired' by the Testarossa.

I believe the UK home computer releases of OutRun stated in the manual that the car was a convertible Ferrari Testarossa (so says Wikipedia) but that was probably the idea of US Gold, not Sega.

[joefish]

I see I'm not the only one to spot that about Thunder Blade - I found a few references on the internet, along with that picture. There's another rip-off in a Konami game that I don't think anyone else has ever noticed - but I need to find the original source clip first.

As for Outrun, compare that screen grab above and look what happens to the horse logo when you turn left:

[DreamcastRIP]

Just found this,

"Sega did not consult Ferrari over the inclusion of the Testarossa in game, and would later meet in court several times over the matter. It is assumed a deal was reached as the car has never been modified for any future releases, and in fact, Ferrari have gone as far officially sponsor several racing games, starting with F355 Challenge (also designed by Yu Suzuki) and OutRun 2 and its derivatives. Other cars on the road appear to be a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, a 1971 Chevrolet Corvette, a 1985 Porsche 911, a 1985 BMW 325i Cabriolet E30 and a generic truck."

Source: http://segaretro.org/OutRun

[joefish]

OK, here's one I found and I don't think anyone else has. Though I have mentioned it before.
This is episode 2 of Police Squad 'Ring of Fear (A Dangerous Assignment)'. Go to the steam-room shoot-out scene in 'Act II: Bruté' and play at exactly 21:05. You'll here the goon Luca Burnett utter the line 'Eat Lead, Copper'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkYOqqBKjAM

Now count how many times you hear exactly that sample in this playthrough of level 2 of Konami's Lethal Enforcers on MAME. First time there's a bit of duplication in the sample, but there's a clear one at 1:16:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNBAFj3wNGA

[EDIT - Actually, playing this one over a few times, I'm now not convinced it's the same voice - the same line, but maybe not a sample].

[Fishsta]

Cheat Modes in video games were not originally put in for the benefit of gamers. Many of the earliest cheat modes were actually test features for programmers to be able to playtest parts of their games without having to struggle to get to them, e.g. infinite lives, level warps and skips, and no clipping. They just didn't always get taken out at release.

One of the earliest known codes is Shift+838 on several TI99/4A games. On Munch-Man, entering this code at the title screen (before it animates) allowed you to choose which level you started on and how many lives you had. But you couldn't cheat like this to give yourself a high score, because it changed the score headings. Look below, and see where "Your Score" changes to "Test Score".

[SJ_Sathanas]

Maybe a repost but I also have a random Outrun fact, this time the Master System game Battle Outrun.



The black car is a Nissan Silvia S12. Well actually it's the American market 200SX SE v6. It doesn't appear in the game at all.

[joefish]

In Jeff Minter's Llamatron on the ST and Amiga (a Robotron clone), sometimes when you die, you hear a shout of "Oh F..." cut off by a loud explosion. This is actually two separate samples. If you press the PAUSE key just as you die, the first sample plays out without being interrupted by the explosion and you hear the complete, loud, expletive. When you release pause, you then hear the explosion.

[Negative Creep]

Maybe a repost but I also have a random Outrun fact, this time the Master System game Battle Outrun.



The black car is a Nissan Silvia S12. Well actually it's the American market 200SX SE v6. It doesn't appear in the game at all.

Looks like a 240z out in front

[themightymartin]

In Jeff Minter's Llamatron on the ST and Amiga (a Robotron clone), sometimes when you die, you hear a shout of "Oh F..." cut off by a loud explosion. This is actually two separate samples. If you press the PAUSE key just as you die, the first sample plays out without being interrupted by the explosion and you hear the complete, loud, expletive. When you release pause, you then hear the explosion.

Another Llamatron "fact" is that Jeff Minter invented Dubstep.

Don't believe me? Play Llamatron for 5 minutes and then listen to pretty much any dubstep track.

[Juggernaut Headcrush]

Re: the first urination in games...after loading the Spectrum version of Cabal, the main character appears and relieves himself over the words "Operation Wolf".

The sound effects of the red hell-dogs in Alien Breed 3D on the Amiga were sampled from An American Werewolf in London. And most of the sound effects in Gloom on the Amiga were taken from Aliens. You can quite clearly make out Bishop and other characters crying out.

The first letters on the end of game winning screen in Cannon Fodder spelt out "F*** YOU".

Was Alien Breed 3D the first PROPER 3D FPS (as opposed to the single floor of Wolfenstein)? I seem to remember the ricocheting grenade launcher had something to do with this claim...

[Gibberish Driftwood]

You have probably seen this picture on the internet.
Toad flips you the bird in Super Mario Bros.

And he does the same thing in Super Mario Kart.

That little sob should learn some manners lol.

[The Beans]

Great reading this thread.

In Viva Pinata on the 360 the Mallowolf fires Sabre Wulf amulets as its attack.

Also, this site has maybe been linked on here but I'll link it in case it hasn't:

http://didyouknowgaming.com/

Some surprising stuff on there.