Simon Says... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lemmings

"Lemmings" is a 1991 video game where the player must lead a certain percentage of Lemmings safely through a number of obstacles to the exit. If they hit an immovable object, they turn around, but if they fall from a great height, or into water or lava, they die. There are different tasks, which can be assigned to some of the Lemmings such as blockers to divert Lemmings away from danger, diggers, bashers or miners who can burrow through rock, and builders who can create a stairway. Climbers will climb any vertical surface they encounter, while floaters can fall from a great height without killing themselves.

"Lemmings" was created by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and published in 1991 by Psygnosis. It has also been adapted for Playstation Portable, Playstation 2 and Playstation 3.

Answer: Rubik's cube

Rubik's Cube, a 3-D puzzle of pivoting coloured squares, was named Germany's Game of the Year in 1980. The cube has six sides of nine squares in six different colours. Once all the squares have been mixed up, to solve the puzzle, each side must be a solid colour.

Speedcubing competitions to solve the puzzle in the quickest time take place around the world. The Guinness Book of Records organised the first ever World Championships held in 1981, the year after the cube went on the market. Different versions of solving are now popular and these include blindfold, underwater (with just a single breath), one handed and solving the puzzle with your feet.

In 2010, young Australian, Felix Zemdegs, solved the puzzle under competition conditions in an amazing 6.77 seconds.

Answer: The Twist

The twist, inspired by rock and roll music, became the first worldwide dance craze after it was introduced in the early 1960s. It was very popular with the young people of the time, but the dance angered older members of the community who deemed it too provocative. It inspired a range of new dances like the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi and the Mashed Potato. None of these proved to be as popular as the twist.

Hank Ballard released "The Twist " as the B-side to his single "Teardrops on Your Letter" in 1959. Chubby Checker released the song in 1960 and it became a Number One hit in 1960 and again in 1962.

Answer: Concorde

In the late fifties, several countries were working on a supersonic aircraft, but the cost of producing the craft was exorbitant. In an agreement between the British Bristol Aeroplane Company (BAC) and the French Sud Aviation, construction on the prototype began in the 1965. Concorde 1 made its test flight in March 1969, and went supersonic on October 1 that same year. Commercial flights began in January 1976, on the London to Bahrain and Paris to Rio routes.

The only crash involving Concorde was in July 2000, and killed all 100 passengers and nine crew.

The Concorde air fleet was retired from service in 2003, with decreasing passenger numbers and increasing maintenance costs blamed for the move.

Answer: Sir Edmund Hillary

In 1953, at the age of thirty-three, Edmund Hillary, along with Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mt Everest. They were a part of the ninth John Hunt-led expedition to climb Everest.

Edmund and his brother Rex were beekeepers in their home in New Zealand, but Hillary used it as a summer job, which allowed him to climb mountains during the winter.

Answer: Thriller

"Thriller" released in 1982 by American singer Michael Jackson, was one of the first albums to use music videos as a promotional tool. The videos for "Beat It", "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" were all aired regularly on MTV. After its release, and at the peak of its sales, "Thriller" sold one million copies per week worldwide. The album made the Number One position on the US Billboard Pop Albums, UK Albums Chart and the Australian Albums chart in 1983.

Within a year of its release, "Thriller" became the best selling album of the 20th century.

Answer: Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin

Apollo 11 was the first space flight to land men on the moon. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin stepped off the landing module The Eagle, and became the first Earthlings to leave footprints on the lunar surface.

After they returned safely to Earth on July 24, 1969, NASA sent six more missions to the moon, but only five landed there.

Yuri Gidzenko and William Shepherd were two of the first men aboard the International Space Station, but it was long after 1969.

Answer: Spitz

During his swimming career, Mark Spitz broke 33 world records and was named swimmer of the year in 1969, 1971 and 1972.
At the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Mark the Shark not only won seven gold medals; he set a new world record in each of the events as well.

Answer: Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in the 16th century during the renaissance period in Florence, Italy. He gave the painting the title of Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, but it is better known by its shorter name of "Mona Lisa".

The painting is arguably the most recognised and popular painting in the world. Certainly in the Louvre, it is the exhibit most viewed by visitors.

Answer: You had me at "hello"

"Casablanca" (1942) starred Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. While it wasn't spectacularly successful when it was released, the movie has long since become iconic and so popular that it is consistently near the top of lists of "greatest films of all time". There are numerous popular and well-known quotes from Casablanca, attesting to its popularity.

"You had me at 'hello'" is from the 1996 movie "Jerry Maguire".