Behind the Games: Famous Names in Video Games Trivia Game

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Born in Germany, this American inventor first began working on prototypes for video games in 1966. He is known for his "Brown Box" gaming console - the first of its kind - that was later renamed the Magnavox Odyssey. Who can we as gamers also partially thank for the ability to play "Duck Hunt" for the Nintendo, as he is credited with inventing the first light gun?

Answer: Ralph Baer

Ralph Baer was honored in 2006 with a National Medal of Technology for his contributions to video games. He invented his first light gun game and prototype gun in 1967 and the remaining prototypes and documents in his possession were donated to The Smithsonian. An extra bit of information for those who don't play video games: you can also credit Mr. Baer for one of your favorite childhood games. He invented "Simon," the pattern-matching game.

Ted Dabney helped found Atari, Inc., David Crane is best known for co-founding Activision and designing the popular game "Pitfall," and Steven Kent is one of best-known journalists in the video games industry.

2. One of the co-founders of Atari, Inc., this man helped bring "Pong" to the world. While the idea itself was his brainchild, it was actually designer Al Alcorn who solidified his vision. Who is the man who told Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, of Apple, Inc., that Atari wasn't interested in entering the home computers industry?

Answer: Nolan Bushnell

Yes, Nolan Bushnell turned down the men who created Apple, Inc., but he made some other profitable business decisions. Aside from his involvement with Atari and the video games industry, he is also the founder of Chuck E. Cheese entertainment centers. Atari was sold to Warner Communications in 1976, and Bushnell left the company in late 1978.

Jack Tramiel was the pioneer behind Commodore International, which was responsible for the Commodore 64, Robert Noyce co-founded Intel, and Jay Miner was the founder of the Amiga Corporation. Both Tramiel and Miner worked for Atari, Inc., at one point.

3. Arguably the most well-known man in all of gaming, this man began his career with a notable company in 1977 as an artist. He received his big break in 1980 and 1981, when the head of his company asked him to create a hit game. Who are we indebted to for giving us Mario, Link, and Pikmin, in addition to his first major commercial success?

Answer: Miyamoto

Miyamoto-san was hired by former Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi, who asked him to create the game that eventually became "Donkey Kong." Shigeru has produced well over 50 games, including "Super Mario World," "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" and "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" Despite his amazing achievements, he is said to be exceedingly humble by those who know him. Since the release of "Donkey Kong" in 1981, Miyamoto's Mario character has appeared in at least one game every year for over 25 years.

4. One of the most popular composers in gaming, he's worked in conjunction with the aforementioned creator of Mario to compose some of the most well-known video game music in existence. Every time you hear the themes from "Super Mario Bros." or "The Legend of Zelda," you're hearing the work of this alliterative composer. Who is the master behind these well-crafted and catchy compositions who has composed for Nintendo for over 20 years?

Answer: Koji Kondo

Beginning work at Nintendo in 1983, Koji Kondo has produced compositions for the same two series he started with: he has worked on "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" and "Super Mario Galaxy." And if you ever despised the dog in "Duck Hunt" laughing at you after missing your shot, feel free to blame Kondo for that, because he composed the music for the game.

Tommy Tallarico is an American composer, known for his musical work on games like "Earthworm Jim" and "Prince of Persia," Hajime Hirasawa contributed to the music of "Star Fox" and Mark Mothersbaugh, in addition to having scored films like "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Rushmore," has worked on the "Jak and Daxter" series of games.

5. "Final Fantasy" games have been noted over the years for their consistently strong soundtracks, much of which is due to a particular man known for his involvement with the series. He's had his hands on the series for years, starting with the Japanese release of "Final Fantasy" in 1987, but has also composed for other games, including "Super Smash Bros. Brawl." Who is the man responsible for the hauntingly beautiful "Aria di Mezzo Carattere" heard in "Final Fantasy VI?"

Answer: Nobuo Uematsu

Despite not even majoring in music while in college, Nobuo Uematsu is well known in video game music circles as a master. In addition to "Final Fantasy," he's lent his musical skill to games like "Rad Racer" and "Blue Dragon." He is also a member of The Black Mages, a Japanese instrumental band who covers Uematsu's compositions as rock songs.

Yasunori Mitsuda, the composer behind most of the musical pieces heard in "Chrono Trigger," was actually helped into the business by Nobuo Uematsu, Koichi Sugiyama is the prolific composer responsible for the music of the "Dragon Quest" games, and Michiru Yamane is the talented woman who has made our spines tingle by creating music for the "Castlevania" series.

6. As a huge fan of Nintendo's Game Boy, I wish I had the opportunity to thank the brilliant man who invented it. I'd also like to praise him for his amazing work on "Metroid" and "Kid Icarus," both released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and my personal favorite Game Boy game, "Super Mario Land." Sadly, I can't because this visionary passed away in 1997 following a car accident. Who is the genius who went from working as a maintenance engineer at Nintendo to creating a "toy" that sold over 100 million units worldwide?

Answer: Gunpei Yokoi

More than just a video game designer, Mr. Yokoi also made toys that successfully sold in Japan. The Ultra Hand was an arm that extended to grab objects and it sold over 1 million units in its lifetime. The Game Boy followed from another invention of Gunpei's: The Nintendo Game & Watch. He did experience failure; the Virtual Boy console, despite featuring somewhat 3-D games, hurt many players eyes and didn't have strong software. Gunpei left Nintendo in 1996, but he was recognized in 2006 when two puzzle games, "Gunpey" and "Gunpey DS" were released for the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.

Satoru Iwata has worked on "The Legend of Zelda" series and succeeded longtime Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002, Takashi Tezuka has designed many games in different series for Nintendo and his wife is said to be the inspiration for Boo from "Super Mario World," and Yoichi Kotabe has animated for numerous "Pokemon" movies.

7. Moving back to the United States, this American-born lead game designer is best known for his work on the 2006 Xbox 360 hit "Gears of War." He has also been a contributor to the popular video gaming website, IGN. Who is this gaming fellow who additionally holds the distinction of having his name appear in the first issue of "Nintendo Power" for submitting a high score on "Super Mario Bros?"

Answer: Cliff Bleszinski

Also known as CliffyB, Bleszinkski has said that he hopes to shed that moniker because he has grown up. It's not strange when you consider that Bleszinski has worked in the gaming industry since he was only 17 years old. He's also worked on the "Unreal" series of games, developed by Epic Games. Epic's popular Unreal Engine has been used in other major video game releases, like "BioShock" and "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell."

Jason Jones is the co-founder of Bungie Studios, best known for the "Halo" series, Jason Rubin is the co-founder of Naughty Dog, known for its work on games like "Crash Bandicoot" and "Jak and Daxter," and Joel Jewett has been involved with the development of the "Tony Hawk" series of games.

8. Usually referred to by his nickname, this man's works have an unmistakable style. He is known for giving his characters bizarre names, like Travis Touchdown and Kess BloodySunday and putting video games inside of his video games! He's even had us fight bosses where... we don't really fight at all. While many people in the video game industry start out in another profession, who was the man was working as an undertaker when his break came? Known by his nickname, he's Suda__?

Answer: Fifty-one

In perhaps the strangest career move ever, Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, began his work in the industry when he got a job writing for Human Entertainment (who created the first "Clock Tower" game). Suda51 became the CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture, who went on to develop games like "killer7" and "No More Heroes." The latter featured a boss fight where the protagonist, Travis Touchdown, never actually got to fight the boss himself.

The number 5 in Japanese is "Go," and the number 1 in Japanese is "Ichi," so the 51 in Suda51's name is intended to represent his real first name.

9. You may not know this man's name off the bat, but you surely know the character he's famous for designing. While working for Capcom, he designed a hero clad in blue who set out to destroy Robot Masters and the venerable Dr. Wily: Mega Man. Although he's primarily known as a designer, who is the man who has acted as the executive producer of games in the "Mega Man," "Onimusha" and "Resident Evil" series?

Answer: Keiji Inafune

Known as Rockman in Japan, Inafune's character design has appeared in over 100 video games for various systems since his first appearance in 1987. Only 22 at the time of "Mega Man's" release, Inafune worked with a very limited color palette while developing the game for the Nintendo Famicom in Japan, which influenced the decision to make Mega Man blue. Inafune has also worked on a variety of popular games outside of the "Mega Man" series, such as "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap," "Breath of Fire" and "Dead Rising." In a 2007 issue of Nintendo Power, Inafune said that he felt "Mega Man 3" had been rushed in its development and he did not like the game as much as the original "Mega Man" or "Mega Man 2."

Hironobu Sakaguchi is the creator of the "Final Fantasy" series and directed the movie "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within," Tomonobu Itagaki was the head of Team Ninja at Tecmo, a development team responsible for 2004's "Ninja Gaiden" and the "Dead or Alive" series of games, and Koji Igarashi has produced many of the games in the "Castlevania" series, including "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow" for the Nintendo DS.

10. Revolver Ocelot. Psycho Mantis. Liquid Snake. It wouldn't be strange to expect to find their creator crawling around the forest, camouflaged with shrubbery, given the stealth-based nature of the games he's involved with. However, the man behind the "Metal Gear" series isn't actually into reconnaissance; you'd be more likely to find him watching films, a favorite hobby of his. Who is the very successful man whose short stories were rejected by publishers because they were too long?

Answer: Hideo Kojima

Hideo Kojima aspired to be an artist and writer long before a career in video games arose. Given that the script for "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty" was over 800 pages long, it's not entirely surprisingly Kojima didn't find his calling as a short story writer! Fortunately for us, a love of "Super Mario Bros." led him to pursue a career as a video game designer, and the rest is history.

Shinji Mikami is the creator of the "Resident Evil" franchise and the executive producer of the game "Devil May Cry," Yuji Horii created the "Dragon Quest" series and supervised the development of the Super Nintendo classic, "Chrono Trigger," and Satoshi Tajiri is the famed creator of "Pokemon."

I hope you enjoyed my quiz and learned something about some of the masters in the video game industry. Thank you for playing!

Source: Author Eebs

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor JuniorTheJaws before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Behind the Games: Famous Names in Video Games Quiz

Many of us play video games regularly, but how much do we really know about the brilliant people involved with creating the games we love? This quiz will explore 10 of the industry's biggest names and their backgrounds!

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>