Video Games History Grab-Bag Trivia Quiz

Answer: Playing cards

Founded way back on 23 September 1889 in Kyoto, Japan, Nintendo was originally a manufacturer of playing cards. Then it expanded to other toys and games. In the 1960s, Nintendo diversified to owning hotels.

Beginning in the 1970s, Nintendo started making video games. In 1980, the company released a hand-held electronic gaming device called Game and Watch, produced until 1991. Simple games like Chef, whose object was keeping food in the air, could be played in this forerunner to the Game Boy.

In 1985, Nintendo produced its first home video game console to be attached to a television set: the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), or Famicom in Japan, which ran on an 8-bit CPU. So many popular and long-running games were created, developed, or adapted for the NES: "Super Mario Bros.", "The Legend of Zelda", "Donkey Kong", "Castlevania", and "Final Fantasy".

The handheld, green-screened Game Boy, invented by Gunpei Yokoi, appeared in 1989 and superseded the Game and Watch. It was the first portable console to use game cartridges. For the first time, then, players could interchange games and not be limited to what was "hard-wired" in the device -- quite an innovation.

Answer: Service Games

Sega started out as Standard Games in 1940 and then became Service Games of Japan in the 1950s. The company has great success selling coin-operated amusement machines, including slot machines, to U.S. military bases in the 1940s-50s, and it expanded to South Korea, the Philippines, and South Vietnam. In 1954, the company started using the name "Sega" as a portmanteau for Service Games. Because of issues surrounding slot machines, the company dissolved in 1960, but then it was re-formed by 1965, when it focussed on jukeboxes, pinball machines, and gun games.

In 1982, Sega introduced the first arcade game with isometric graphics, a shooter game called Zaxxon. (The term "isometric graphics" means that the game view was angled to give a pseudo-3D perspective). Sega's first home video game console was the SG-1000, and the company also developed a home computer in the early 1980s called the SC-3000. By the end of the decade, Sega became one of the world's most recognized brands. It launched its Mega Drive, renamed Genesis in North America, in 1988-90.

To compete with Nintendo's "Mario" series, in 1991 Sega introduced its flagship character, Sonic the Hedgehog, a 15-year-old blue male hedgehog that can run at the speed of sound. (Sonic replaced Alex Kidd as mascot.) Originally Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik was going to be Sega's new mascot, but the game designers decided to make Sonic the hero and the doctor his nemesis. The "Sonic" franchise, which includes not only jump-'n'-run video games but also animated movies, TV cartoons, books, and comics (published in the USA by Archie Comics), would prove to be one of the bestselling in history.

Genre note: "Jump-'n'-run" video games, also called platform games, are action games for which the player must move his or her character, usually a protagonist or an avatar, between points in a rendered environment -- perhaps navigating levels, collecting objects, battling villains, perhaps on the way to an endgame to rescue someone or retrieve something, or perhaps endlessly on games that have unlimited levels.

Answer: Shigeru Miyamoto

Shigeru Miyamoto (b. 1952) became Nintendo's first artist back in 1977. He created some of the most profitable and acclaimed video franchises, including "The Legend of Zelda", "Mario", "Donkey Kong", "Pimkin", and "Star Fox". Since the 1970s, his games have been the flagships of every Nintendo arcade game and home console. Two games in particular, the jump-'n'-run game "Super Mario Bros." (1985) and the action-adventure game "The Legend of Zelda" (1986), enabled the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), first released in 1983, to command the home console game market.

In 1998, Miyamoto was the first person inducted into in the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards "Time" magazine featured Miyamoto in its "60 Years of Asian Heroes" (2006), with such company as Bruce Lee, Mahatma Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama. France made him a Chevalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2006, and in 2012 Spain gave him their Prince of Asturias Award.

Will Wright designed the social-stimulation game "The Sims" (2000). Sid Meier created "Civilization" (1991). Dona Bailey co-developed Atari's venerable arcade classic "Centipede" (1981).

Answer: Yes

Once upon a time in the late 1980s, when CD-ROM technology for home video game consoles (as opposed to home computers) was still maturing, Nintendo and Sony worked together on a CD-based piece of equipment that never quite came to fruition. More precisely, it was to be a peripheral for the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System), released in 1990 in Japan and 1991 in North America. Its official name was the Super NES CD-ROM System (SNES-CD) or in Japan, the Super Famicom CD-ROM Adapter. It was intended to use a CD-ROM format called Super Disc, which was hoped to overcome certain performance limitations of conventional CD-ROMs for home consoles.

The SNES-CD was also intended to be a hybrid console for Sony called the PlayStation -- not to be confused with the later Sony PlayStation, released in Japan in 1994 and in North America in 1995. This console has been nicknamed the "Nintendo Playstation" by news and entertainment media to avoid confusion with Sony's enormously successful line of consoles still in production in 2020 with the release of PS 5.

Sony and Nintendo began work on the SNES-CD or "Nintendo Playstation" in 1988, but Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi started eyeing another electronics rival, Philips, as a more attractive partner. Suffice it to say that irreconcilable differences developed between Sony and Nintendo, and the joint project was ultimately scrapped.

In 2015 blog network Engadget interviewed a person who picked it up for a mere $75, but in 2020 VICE magazine reported that a prototype of the device sold for an eye-popping $30,000. (Currency is U.S.)

Answer: ENOS lives.

There were many baffling and now legendary spots on TV and in magazines with messages like "ENOS lives" and "U R Not E". Apparently the E was printed in red and meant to represent the word "Ready" ("red E"), so "Enos" stood for "Ready, Ninth of September". And "U R Not E" meant "You are not ready". There was also an observation that reading the letters backwards is pronounced "Sony", but it's not clear that that was Sony's intent.

On Usenet (an extensive system of newsgroups and formerly a significant branch of the Internet) there was a great deal of speculation about obscure historical references, such as the possibility that Enos was a monkey sent into outer space. But really, it was just a clever marketing ploy, which apparently achieved the desired effect!

"Think different" was used by Apple for its Macintosh computer. "It's the real thing" was used by Coca-Cola well into the 21st century. "Just do it" was used by Nike.

Answer: M

The M-shaped Nintendo 64 controller sported ten buttons, one analog "control stick" (though it operated more like a trackball), and a directional pad. A writer in "Nintendo Power" magazine observed its complexity: "The sculpted shape of the radical new Batarang-like controller was so complex that it couldn't even be modeled on a computer. During development, the first mock-up was created out of clay." Critics complained that to use all the features, a player could not keep his or her hands in any one position. Players were forced to take their hands off directional controls to use things like the "D-pad" and the "Z-trigger".

In 1993, Nintendo had begun developing the console under the codename "Project Reality". Its planned name was originally Ultra 64, and both this and the final name, Nintendo 64, reflect its processing unit, a 64-bit NEC VR4300 CPU with a clock rate of 93.75 MHz. (The power was comparable to Pentium processors of the time).

The Nintendo 64 would not be released until 1996. Other fifth-generation consoles on the market were the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, and Nintendo 64 lowered its retail price to compete. The N64 was initially going to use CD-ROM, but Nintendo didn't care for the performance issues associated with the medium, and consequently it stuck with the faster though lower-capacity cartridges (for the last time).

The N64 was one of the first consoles to have four controller ports because it could handle a four-player split screen without a significant performance hit. Many games designed for the N64, especially "Super Mario 64" and "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time", are considered to be among the most influential in video-game history.

Answer: Rhydon

It may be entry #112 in the Pokédex, but according to Ken Sugimori - primary designer for the Pokémon games - the first Pokémon ever created was Rhydon, a large, grey, bipedal creature that looks like a cross between a dinosaur and a rhinoceros. Its index in "Pocket Monsters Red and Green" (1996), later released outside of Japan as "Pokémon Red and Blue", was actually 001. That is why the original "Pokémon" games have numerous sprites for Rhydon, who can use his horn as a drill.

"Pokémon" is game that involves hatching, catching, playing with, staying with, befriending, defending, raising, trading, training. and battling with hundreds of different creatures. These creatures are called the Pokémon (it's a plural and a singular noun), and the players who train, battle, collect, trade, etc. are called trainers. "Pokemón" is represented not only by video games, but also by manga, an anime series, a trading card game, and other media.

Surprising to many, although the yellow rodent Pikachu is the most-recognized mascot of "Pokémon" franchise, it was not created first! Or even second! The Pokémon Company (Kabushiki gaisha Pokémon) -- founded jointly by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, Inc. in 1998 -- is headquartered in Tokyo and manages the "Pokémon" franchise. Its net income in 2019 was 15.37 billion yen (over 135 million U.S. dollars).

Answer: Resident Evil

In survival horror games, the object is to survive a frightening scenario. The player usually has less control and faces more unexpected dangers than in other genres. In "Resident Evil", the player has the choice of controlling either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield of an elite task force called S.T.A.R.S., who must escape a zombie-infested mansion. The game not only started a long-running and profitable video game franchise, it also inspired the "Resident Evil" zombie film series that began in 2002.

The others are role-playing video games, or RPGs. In such games a player is immersed in an imaginary world and controls the actions of a character, who must solve a problem, complete a quest, perhaps collect an inventory of items, or undergo some other kind of development. It differs from jump-'n'-run or platform games like the "Mario" or "Zelda" franchises in that there are usually no acrobatics or platform-jumping and there is not the same kind of pressure of time. Rather, it is the electronic offspring of fantasy tabletop or pencil-and-paper games like "Dungeons and Dragons" (1974).

The "Star Ocean" (1996) game was one of the earliest action RPGs to allow players to alter the storyline's outcome via their choices of responses or action. "Chrono Trigger" (1995) was one of the first games to allow the player to see the enemies in the virtual world before fighting them. "Final Fantasy" (1987) was the first game in an enormously successful eponymous fantasy/sci-fi franchise that has also branched into other genres and other media.

Answer: Alexey Patjinov

This non-violent game of getting variously shaped falling blocks (called tetronimoes) to fit into place has proven extraordinarily popular. "Tetris" (or its knockoffs) has appeared in countless video game and personal computer systems since Pájitnov developed it back in 1984/5. In 2014, "Polygon" magazine reported that it was the 2nd-best-selling video game of all time.

Alexéy Leonídovich Pájitnov (b. 1955) relocated to the USA in 1991 and started the Tetris Company in 1996. That same year, GameSpot, a video-game journalism website, proclaimed him the fourth most influential developer in history.

Other games created by Pájitnov include "Wildsnake", a 1994 Tetris-like game of colorful snakes, created for Nintendo Game Boy and Super NES; and "Pandora's Box", a 1999 game of ten different kinds of puzzles that players solve as they try to capture "tricksters", created for Microsoft Windows. "Pandora's Box" won GameSpot's "Puzzles and Classics Game of the Year" award.


Robin Hunicke created an entry in the "Sims" franchise called "MySims" (2007). John Harnack designed "Doom" (1993). Tomohiro Nishikado developed the iconic shoot-'em-up arcade game "Space Invaders" (1978).

Answer: Magnavox Odyssey

The Magnavox Odyssey, which promised to a be transformative product, was named after the epic poem "The Odyssey" by Homer describing the long voyage of Ulysses (or Odysseus), in his quest to return home. (Hope you spotted the clues in the question.)

Engineer Ralph Baer envisioned the idea of playing games and puzzles on television one morning in 1966 while he was waiting for colleague at a bus station in Manhattan. The German-Jewish immigrant sketched his plans the next day. Baer, Bill Harrison, and Bill Rusch convinced their firm, Sanders Associates, to invest $2000 and allow them time throughout 1967 to develop the idea. But the defense contractor didn't know what to do with the Baer's "Television Gaming and Training Apparatus", dubbed the "Brown Box", so it gathered dust. Then the contractor licensed the technology to Magnavox, which transformed the Brown Box into the Odyssey.

The Magnavox Odyssey could be attached to the antenna terminals of any brand of 18-25" TV set, black-and-white or color -- although it was sold only at Magnavox dealers. The tagline on the box read: "A total play and learning experience for all ages", and it was bundled with cards, dice, paper money, and other accessories to be played in conjunction with the electronic games. Some games used plastic screen overlays (players would place these over the screens for enhanced scenery or for some necessity of the game because of the limitations of video technology).

Magnavox built special kiosks that would let people try the games out in the store, as it was found that consumers had trouble visualizing what interactive television meant. In TV commercials, the narrator spoke of those rainy or snowy days when families would be at the mercy of the options offered by television, whereas people who wanted to "do their own thing" (cutting-edge slang at the time) used "the electronic game of the future", which was at the center of the family room. It also appeared on the TV show "What's My Line?" as a "closed-circuit electronic playground".

Despite these marketing efforts, Magnavox sold only 350,000 units worldwide. It was only after Atari's arcade games like "Pong" took off that the market for home video games would likewise grow. "Home Pong" featured in the 1975 Sears Catalog and became one of that season's hottest toys. (Magnavox sued Atari in vain for copying its Tennis game.) While the Odyssey did not quite live up to its promise, it can be credited for preparing the consumer for home video games, those "electronic games of the future".