Thursday, April 05, 2007
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Fascinating Facts About Japanese Video Games
by Emma Boyes
Konami have a special "Konami code" that reveals hidden features in their games. In the "Start" screen of any Konami game, press "up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A".
In the original Space Invaders, the fact that the aliens started moving faster the more of them you shot was actually a bug. On the monitor, the screen refresh rate was linked directly to how many graphics were on the screen at the time - so the fewer aliens there were, the faster it was to draw them, and the faster they moved.
A man called Eric Furrer holds the record for non-stop Space Invaders play. He managed 38 hours and 37 minutes, and ended up with a total score of 1,114,000 points.
Space Invaders was so popular in Japan when it first came out that it caused a coin shortage until the country's yen coinage supply was quadrupled.
Nintendo's mascot, Mario, was named after Nintendo America's Italian landlord, Mario Segali.
Mario has starred in over 100 games since his first appearance in Donkey Kong in 1981.
Donkey Kong was originally called Jumpman.
Atari is a Japanese word that comes from the traditional board game "Go": its meaning is similar to that of "check" in chess. However, Atari is not a Japanese company: they started off in the US and are now owned by the French Infogrames Entertainment.
In fact, Atari was not their first choice of name. The founders, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, originally wanted to call the company Syzygy, which means "the straight line configuration of three celestial bodies". Unfortunately - and rather bizarrely - the name was already taken by a roofing company, so they had to go with their second choice.
The pre-launch adverts for the Sony Playstation baffled everyone with their strange slogan, "ENOS lives". To this day, nobody knows for sure what it means. Popular theories include that it stood for "entering ninth of September" - the original launch date - or that it is Sony written backwards by marketing people who can't spell.
Akira Yasuda (better known as Akiman), the Street Fighter artist who created kick-ass character Chun Li, based her on his wife.
Over 25% of all Dance Dance Revolution coin-ops in the world are in the diet- and fitness-crazy US state of California.
Pac-Man was originally called Puck-Man, from the Japanese word "paku", which means to open and close one's mouth. The name was changed for fear that when the game was released in the US, pesky teenagers would find it entertaining to amend one of the letters and create a more amusing name. Can you guess what that word was, kids?
The final level in the original Pac-Man is apparently impossible to finish.
The Marufuku Company were founded in 1889, and made Hanfuda, Japanese playing cards. They changed their name in 1951 to Nintendo, which means "leave luck to heaven".
Capcom stands for Japanese Capsule Computers. It is also a term used by NASA, which means "Capsule Communicators".
The release of the Nintendo N64 console reportedly caused riots among fans eager to get their hands on it when it first came out in Japan.
The immensely popular Xenosaga's full name is Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille zur Macht, which comes from German philosopher Nietzsche's view that the survival instinct is the base drive of all human existence. Who'd have thought?
In the cult classic shooter Xevious, a secret screen can be revealed by immediately moving to the bottom right hand corner and shooting continuously.
The first-ever female video game lead was Ms Pac Man, released by Midway (the American division of Namco) in 1981.
SEGA (Service Games of Japan) was originally created by three Americans, to import game machines for the amusement of bored American servicemen living in Japan. Originally the company imported photo booths into Japan - which are still to this day hugely successful - and then branched out into other coin-ops.
Many of the games in the Final Fantasy series have characters called Biggs and Wedge. This is a reference to two characters in Star Wars who help Luke Skywalker to destroy the Death Star.
The first video game death was in 1981, when 19-year-old Jeff Dailey died of a heart attack while playing Berzerk. This isn't the only death to have occurred while playing this game, either: 18-year-old gamer Peter Burkowski managed to get himself in the high score table twice in 15 minutes and then promptly collapsed.
On October 10th 2002, a man from Kwangju, South Korea died in an internet cafe after playing computer games for 86 hours solid, without stopping for food or sleep. Apparently, he collapsed at the terminal, but carried on playing when he regained consciousness. He died while taking a toilet break.
© Carter Witt Media 2006
Konami have a special "Konami code" that reveals hidden features in their games. In the "Start" screen of any Konami game, press "up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A".
In the original Space Invaders, the fact that the aliens started moving faster the more of them you shot was actually a bug. On the monitor, the screen refresh rate was linked directly to how many graphics were on the screen at the time - so the fewer aliens there were, the faster it was to draw them, and the faster they moved.
A man called Eric Furrer holds the record for non-stop Space Invaders play. He managed 38 hours and 37 minutes, and ended up with a total score of 1,114,000 points.
Space Invaders was so popular in Japan when it first came out that it caused a coin shortage until the country's yen coinage supply was quadrupled.
Nintendo's mascot, Mario, was named after Nintendo America's Italian landlord, Mario Segali.
Mario has starred in over 100 games since his first appearance in Donkey Kong in 1981.
Donkey Kong was originally called Jumpman.
Atari is a Japanese word that comes from the traditional board game "Go": its meaning is similar to that of "check" in chess. However, Atari is not a Japanese company: they started off in the US and are now owned by the French Infogrames Entertainment.
In fact, Atari was not their first choice of name. The founders, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, originally wanted to call the company Syzygy, which means "the straight line configuration of three celestial bodies". Unfortunately - and rather bizarrely - the name was already taken by a roofing company, so they had to go with their second choice.
The pre-launch adverts for the Sony Playstation baffled everyone with their strange slogan, "ENOS lives". To this day, nobody knows for sure what it means. Popular theories include that it stood for "entering ninth of September" - the original launch date - or that it is Sony written backwards by marketing people who can't spell.
Akira Yasuda (better known as Akiman), the Street Fighter artist who created kick-ass character Chun Li, based her on his wife.
Over 25% of all Dance Dance Revolution coin-ops in the world are in the diet- and fitness-crazy US state of California.
Pac-Man was originally called Puck-Man, from the Japanese word "paku", which means to open and close one's mouth. The name was changed for fear that when the game was released in the US, pesky teenagers would find it entertaining to amend one of the letters and create a more amusing name. Can you guess what that word was, kids?
The final level in the original Pac-Man is apparently impossible to finish.
The Marufuku Company were founded in 1889, and made Hanfuda, Japanese playing cards. They changed their name in 1951 to Nintendo, which means "leave luck to heaven".
Capcom stands for Japanese Capsule Computers. It is also a term used by NASA, which means "Capsule Communicators".
The release of the Nintendo N64 console reportedly caused riots among fans eager to get their hands on it when it first came out in Japan.
The immensely popular Xenosaga's full name is Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille zur Macht, which comes from German philosopher Nietzsche's view that the survival instinct is the base drive of all human existence. Who'd have thought?
In the cult classic shooter Xevious, a secret screen can be revealed by immediately moving to the bottom right hand corner and shooting continuously.
The first-ever female video game lead was Ms Pac Man, released by Midway (the American division of Namco) in 1981.
SEGA (Service Games of Japan) was originally created by three Americans, to import game machines for the amusement of bored American servicemen living in Japan. Originally the company imported photo booths into Japan - which are still to this day hugely successful - and then branched out into other coin-ops.
Many of the games in the Final Fantasy series have characters called Biggs and Wedge. This is a reference to two characters in Star Wars who help Luke Skywalker to destroy the Death Star.
The first video game death was in 1981, when 19-year-old Jeff Dailey died of a heart attack while playing Berzerk. This isn't the only death to have occurred while playing this game, either: 18-year-old gamer Peter Burkowski managed to get himself in the high score table twice in 15 minutes and then promptly collapsed.
On October 10th 2002, a man from Kwangju, South Korea died in an internet cafe after playing computer games for 86 hours solid, without stopping for food or sleep. Apparently, he collapsed at the terminal, but carried on playing when he regained consciousness. He died while taking a toilet break.
© Carter Witt Media 2006
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