Games

Rules born of a misunderstanding, vanished pieces, games banned then rehabilitated: what games say about the eras that invented them.

305 anecdotes, most recent first.
Highlights

The first game console was covered in wood

The Brown Box is the seventh prototype of the very first video game console, completed in January 1969. This name was given to it because of the wood-grain adhesive coating used to cover the system's boxes. This successful design made it possible to convince the company Magnavox to sign a production agreement in January 1971.

2026-06-13

Sabre Wulf sends a destructive fire against idle players

Sabre Wulf is a 1984 video game in which the player guides the adventurer Sabreman through a vast maze. If the player remains inactive on the same screen for too long, an indestructible bush fire appears to pursue them. This threat forces the player to constantly move forward in this maze of 256 screens populated by hostile enemies.

2025-12-02

The hero of Fable changes appearance according to his actions

The video game Fable evolves the physical appearance of its protagonist based on his actions. Good deeds make the character angelic with a halo, while bad deeds cause horns to grow and attract insects. In addition to moral alignment, combat leaves scars and the character ages up to 65 years.

2025-12-01

A very rare double for hockey player Steve Yzerman

In 2002, Steve Yzerman achieved the feat of winning the Stanley Cup and the Olympic gold medal during the same year. He thus joined a very exclusive circle of players having accomplished this performance, alongside Brendan Shanahan and Ken Morrow. This consecration occurred even though he was suffering from a serious right knee injury discovered during the Salt Lake City Olympic Games.

2026-10-16

The youngest NHL All-Star Game player was 18 years old

Stephen Yzerman is an ice hockey player who broke a precocity record at the very beginning of his professional career. He took part in the 36th All-Star Game which was held on January 31, 1984. This historic selection occurred when he was only 18 years, 8 months and 22 days old.

2026-10-15

The origin of Stephen Yzerman's number 19

Stephen Yzerman wore the number 19 from his beginnings in the Ontario Hockey League to the National Hockey League. He originally wished to wear the number 9 of his role model Gordie Howe, but it had already been retired in Detroit since 1972. He therefore decided to add a 1 in front of the 9 to imitate another of his idols, Bryan Trottier.

2026-10-14

A 14th-century dwarf offers the strength of twenty men

A dwarf forced to fight a duel offers a belt granting the strength of twenty men to the knight who agrees to represent him. This fantastic creature also gives a ring bringing fortune to his champion. The anecdote is reported in a 14th-century Austrian chronicle.

2026-10-13

Jean-Jacques Goldman's very first record is worth gold

Jean-Jacques Goldman's first record was recorded in 1966 within the parish group the Red Mountain Gospellers. This gospel and cover songs 45 rpm record was self-produced by Father Dufourmantelle and sold directly at the exit of mass. Only 1,000 copies of this collector's record exist, which was valued at 800 euros in 2014.

2026-10-11

Seal's hit song for Batman Forever

The first single from the Batman Forever movie soundtrack is the song Kiss from a Rose by British singer Seal. This track achieved immense worldwide success by topping the sales charts and selling 8 million copies. It earned its performer three major awards, including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

2026-10-11

Western series saved Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. is a historic film studio that turned to television to compensate for its financial losses. In 1954, the studio produced popular westerns such as Cheyenne, Maverick, Bronco or Colt 45. These programs met with great success among viewers and made it possible to cover the deficit generated by the film productions of the time.

2026-10-11

Gandhi's version of his turban story was false

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi claimed in his 1927 Autobiography that he left a courtroom in 1893 after a magistrate ordered him to remove his turban. The archives of the newspaper The Natal Mercury recount a different scene where he was simply asked to present his lawyer's credentials. Authors such as N. Sanghavi, G. B. Singh and T. Watson have thus pointed out that this episode did not constitute a racial incident at the time.

2026-10-11

The King of Bollywood started by playing psychopaths

Shahrukh Khan is an essential star of Indian cinema whose fame has crossed borders since his debut in 1992. He won over the public by embodying antiheroes with psychotic tendencies in feature films like Baazigar, Darr or Anjaam. This artistic boldness allowed him to arouse the sympathy of viewers where the usual codes forbade it.

2026-10-11

Christian Karembeu was nicknamed the Crazy Horse

Christian Karembeu received the nickname Crazy Horse from his France team teammates in 1998. This moniker was attributed to him because of his great activity on the pitch and his long hair. This player with a physical and very enduring style thus distinguished himself by his constant commitment in the middle of the pitch.

2026-10-11

Kang and Kodos plot in The Simpsons: Hit and Run

Kang and Kodos are the main antagonists of the 2003 video game The Simpsons: Hit and Run. They decide to drug the inhabitants of Springfield with a mind-control serum hidden in Buzz Cola. This manipulation aims to film stupid stunts to fuel their reality show named Foolish Earthlings.

2026-10-11

The Simpsons aliens are inspired by a comic book

Kang and Kodos are two fictional aliens from the animated series The Simpsons. Their first sketches were imagined by the writers Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky. Their final design was then directly inspired by the cover of an issue of EC Comics.

2026-10-11

The romanticized portrait of Simón Bolívar caused shock upon its release

The novel The General in His Labyrinth is a book by Gabriel García Márquez published in 1989. The writer depicts the final journey of Simón Bolívar by relying mainly on fiction to fill the lack of historical documentation. This iconoclastic approach was perceived as an outrage by some patriots during its publication in Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Spain.

2026-10-11

Honoré de Balzac wrote his plays in a rush for money

Honoré de Balzac the novelist tried his hand at theater to pay off his perpetual debts and earn money quickly. Unlike his novels which he revised ten times, he wrote his plays on the fly without any real interest in the dramatic genre. Practically all his attempts were stinging failures or were banned, with the exception of the comedy Mercadet le faiseur created in 1851.

2026-10-11

A hockey player pushes his entire team to enlist in the war

Hobey Baker is a great figure of American ice hockey and the first player of this sport to become a star in his country. His departure for the First World War led to the immediate enlistment of nine players from Princeton University. Deprived of its personnel, the team could not play the 1917-1918 season.

2026-10-11

A football chant is dedicated to the galette-saucisse

The galette-saucisse is a culinary specialty that has become the emblem of Stade rennais supporters, to the point of inspiring a dedicated chant. In the early 1990s, two members of the Roazhon celtic kop adapted a song from Marseille about pastis during a trip to Marseille. Adopted by the crowd, this track named Galette-saucisse je t'aime has become a symbol of identity for the club.

2026-10-11

An opera too difficult for its singers

Jean-Philippe Rameau is a composer whose innovative music sometimes baffled his contemporaries. He had to remove the second trio of the Fates from his opera Hippolyte et Aricie after the first performances. This musical boldness was abandoned because the performers could not manage to sing the score correctly.

2026-10-11

A professional football club was bought for one euro

The Racing Club de Strasbourg football club was sold in 2003 for a symbolic euro. This sale occurred while the structure was operating as a professional sports limited company. The buyer was the holding company EuroRacing, which notably counted Egon Gindorf and Philippe Ginestet among its shareholders.

2026-10-11

Warner studio surpassed Disney

Leon Schlesinger's studio surpassed Disney studios in 1942 to become the most well-known producer of animated short films in the United States. This success occurred after Tex Avery launched Porky Pig in 1936, followed by Daffy Duck in 1937 and Bugs Bunny in 1940. In 1944, Jack Warner bought the animation department to found Warner Bros. Cartoons.

2026-10-10

Bambi contains fewer than one thousand words of dialogue

Bambi is an animated feature film adapted from a book containing ten thousand words spread over 223 pages. The first screenplay written for the film was initially reduced to 5,000 words. The final feature film ultimately retains only 950 words of dialogue, relying on a drama based on litotes and silence.

2026-10-04

The true origin of the character Falstaff

Falstaff is a theatrical character born from a name change imposed on Shakespeare, who transformed the surname of the knight John Fastolf. The latter was unjustly accused of cowardice at the Battle of Patay, a colossal error that Shakespeare wrongly repeated in his plays. To add to the confusion, the playwright used for his character a Southwark inn similar to the one the real Fastolf owned in the 15th century.

2026-10-04

A Formula 1 car described as a farm machine

The DAMS GD-01 is a single-seater presented in 1995 by the French team for the 1996 Formula 1 World Championship. Designed with an outdated architecture and aerodynamic underdevelopment, it was immediately described as a farm machine by the observers present. Its insufficient performance would have prevented its drivers from qualifying for races due to the 107% rule.

2026-10-04

Dream Theater is the last band to record in a legendary studio

Dream Theater is the last band to have recorded at The Hit Factory studio in New York before its permanent closure in November 2004. This historic venue had notably hosted renowned artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2 and John Lennon in the past. The band had settled there to conceive its eighth studio album titled Octavarium.

2026-10-04

A song commissioned for a solar eclipse

Sleeping Sun is a song by the band Nightwish commissioned in 1999 by Bogdan Kopec, general manager of Drakkar Records. He wanted a track to accompany the solar eclipse of August 11, 1999, which would be sold mainly in Germany. Released on August 2, it allowed the band to become known throughout Europe and became a gold record in Finland.

2026-10-04