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41 Surprising Origins of Famous Video Games

August 07, 2023

The soup-to-nuts period of a video game can last a very long time. In fact, so much time can pass that the game itself can change in pretty drastic ways from the original idea. Here are some of the craziest examples…

41

Counter Strike started out as a free Half-Life multiplayer mod that was created by two college students. A year later, the mod got so popular it was immediately acquired by Valve, the company that created Half-Life. A 1905 ВБ DE R 201 402 CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

40

The brown-on-blue color scheme in the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man was a result of the company having a rule against black backgrounds for non-space games. 396 SHARP KAD-M may CONDETTE - Programmer Tod Frye later said if CRACKED.COM he had known how important a blue maze on a black background was to Pac-Man's iconicity, he would have broken that rule. — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

39

: CRACKED.COM EXPLORERS' CLUB ACTIVISION CHOPPER N COMMANDOS E W S THE ACTIVISI BUCKET BR ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED Patch Adams Video game achievements started out as real-world merit badges. Fans of early Activision games could take a picture of their high scores and mail it to the company. Activision would then send them a patch that highlighted their accomplishment. Eventually, this method of showing off was digitally incorporated into the games and gaming platforms themselves, thus morphing into the achievements we waste our precious free time over today. — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

38

GEOMETRY WARS STARTED AS AN ANALOG STICK TEST. While working on the Xbox prototype hardware, the developers of Project Gotham Racing encountered issues with the analog sticks on the controller. They decided to make a test app in order to find a fix for the problem and input it into Project Gotham Racing. This test app ended up becoming Geometry Wars. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

37

Fallbut 3 GRAGKED.COM Due to nuclear warfare still being a sensitive subject in Japan, the Japanese version of Fallout 3 does not give the player the option to detonate the Megaton nuclear bomb. — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

36

CRACKED COM A bug from another game inspired Devil May Cry's iconic feature where the main character can suspend enemies mid-air using continuous attacks. Coot ! e During the development of Onimusha: Warlords, they discovered a bug that caused the enemy to stay floating when being attacked. They thought it was kind of cool and adopted it for Devil May Cry. — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

35

The corpses in Dead Space are medically accurate. After the producer deemed the initial designs for the corpses not scary enough, the developing team modeled them using photos of actual car crash victims and war casualties. CRACKED COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

34

41 Surprising Origins of Famous Video Games — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

33

Oblivion's original Radiant Al was too smart to ship. In one case, a quest became impossible to complete in testing because skooma addicts kept killing a quest NPC to take the skooma from his corpse. Seriously, sometimes it's gotten so weird it's like dealing with a holodeck that's gone sentient. - Emil Pagliarulo, Bethesda designer CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

32

CRACKED.COM Katamari Damacy's eternally disappointed King of the Cosmos has the body of ballerina Tetsuya Kumakawa and the face of FREDDiE MERCURY — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

31

CRACKED.COM In 2013, a special mech was introduced to Sarah's Jenner MECHWARRIOR was released to honor the memory ONLINE of Sarah Parries, a five-year-old MWO enthusiast who was taken by brain cancer. Designed with things she loved, it cost $10, and all proceeds (more than $122, 000) were donated to the Canadian Cancer Society. JR7-D(S) 10% ХР BOOST GENERAL WEAPONS G EQUIPMENT TONNAGE 35 LEFT ARM Medium Laser x2 ENGINE 300 XL LEFT TORSO Beagle Active Probe TOP SPEED 138.9 kph CENTER Streak SRM x2 MAX ENGINE TORSO 300 RATING RIGHT ARM Medium Lacer x2 ARMOR 214 [Ferro-Fibrous) HAROPOINTS INTERNAL — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

30

Video Games

A developer on Batman: Arkham Asylum spent two years on nothing but the titular character's cape. YOU ARE UNDER CLOSE SURVITILANCE - They had to create 700 different animations and sound effects for the cape. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

29

SUPER MARIO BROS. 2 GRACKED.COM Super Mario Bros. 2 was originally more similar to the first game, although much harder. So hard, in fact, that developers didn't think Americans could play it, so they reskinned the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic with familiar Mario characters. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

28

HALF-LIFE CRACKED.COM The early prototype for Half-Life's protagonist was a burly-bearded, strung out looking mad-man nicknamed by the designers as Ivan the Space Biker. As game production advanced, they changed Ivan into Gordon Freeman, with his iconic goatee and glasses. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

27

PAC-MAN PAB-MAN READY! CRACKED COM Pac-Man was originally titled Puck-Man, based off of the character's disk-like shape, but the creators feared the impish Americans would turn the P into an F on arcade cabinets. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

26

MORTAL KOMBAT CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER FREE PLAY CRACKED.COM Mortal Kombat was originally supposed to star Jean-Claude Van Damme, who would fight a cadre of digitized enemies. When Midway Games couldn't afford the rights to Van Damme's likeness, his character was renamed Johnny Cage and joined the lineup of other fighters. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

25

HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED CRACKED.COM Halo: Combat Evolved was almost a top-down, real time strategy game, a la StarCraft. It wasn't until Microsoft bought the developing studio, Bungie, and launched Halo as their flagship XBox title that it became the first person shooter we know. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

24

SPLATOON THE M CRACKED.COM Splatoon was going to feature familiar faces from the Mario games before Miyamoto settled on creating new characters, the Inklings, for the company's first foray into the competitive shooter genre. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

23

Sonic the Hedgehog can't swim because Yuji Naka, the co-creator of Sonic, assumed that hedgehogs can't swim. TIME 2:15 RINGS 1 He's wrong. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

22

GRACKED.COM The sounds Minecraft's ghasts make are the sound designer's vocalizations and the noises of his cat being disturbed in its sleep. — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

21

got its iconic art KAM I style thanks to Playstation 2 limitations. At the start of development, Okami was using realistic graphics, but due to the game having big open areas that players could explore the developers realized they would have to thin out a lot of the content to make the game run. So they settled on the Japanese ink-wash style that we all love today. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

20

PAC-MAN WAS ORIGINALLY NAMED PUCK-MAN PUCKMAN LU HIGH SCORE 2500 2590 OSCAR JCKMAY UNCH OUT!! Pubble engle THE NAME WAS PUCKMAN - CHANGED FOR AMERICAN RELEASE TO PREVENT VANDALS FROM CHANGING THE P INTO AN F. GRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

19

Super Mario Bros.

CRACKED.COM WALL JUMPING STARTED AS A GLITCH. In the original Super Mario Bros, if Mario ran against a wall in midair, he would briefly register as being inside the object, which made the game believe he was on solid ground, allowing him to jump again. Developers liked this feature so much that they left it intact for ten years, until it became an actual in-game ability — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

18

Axton from Borderlands 2 is bisexual thanks to a code screw up. When playing as Axton and reviving another player, there's a chance a flirtatious dialogue will trigger. This was only supposed to happen when reviving female characters, however, a coding mistake resulted in him flirting with male ones as well. After people voiced their disappointment that it was just a mistake, the writers officially made Axton bisexual in the DLC. GRACKED COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

17

STARCRAFT During development Blizzard had trouble keeping the harvesting units from bunching up together like L.A. traffic because of their pathfinding. 0 of 100 Oas 22/26 counter Decivated Terran Refinery NU Veapene der 4992 700/750 Their good enough fix was to make harvesters the only units in the game that can walk through other units. CRACKED COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

16

Scott Cawthon created Five Nights at Freddy's animatronic mascots after his previous game was mocked for being inadvertently terrifying. LB PN Cawthon developed a kid's video game called Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. that featured a beaver that many critics labeled: a scary animatronic. This got him to question his career path before ultimately saying, you want something scary? I'll give you scary. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

15

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM 241 PERFECT CRACKED GOM Batman: Arkham Asylum was going to turn into a colorful, 2D rhythm game whenever a fight would start. Developers said they wanted the fights to feel choreographed but with the player in complete control, which isn't SO different from how the final game turned out, minus the colorful notes flying up the screen. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

14

DONKEY KONG 1UP HIGH SCORE 2UP 000100 L=01 BONUS CRACKED COM Donkey Kong was made to be a Popeye the Sailor game, featuring Bluto, Olive Oil, and the titular Popeye. When Nintendo could not secure the rights, they settled on a King Kong inspired aesthetic with a mustached protagonist that ultimately changed gaming forever. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

13

DR. MARIO DR.MARIN TM Dr.MARIO TOP 0010000 SCORE 0003400 LEVEL 10 SPEED MED CRACKED.COM ..Dr Marin Dr. Mario was titled Virus and did not feature the hirsute Italian in its first incarnation. Trying to recreate the success of Tetris, Nintendo needed to use their strongest IP to sell this new puzzle game, so the title was changed and a lab coat wearing Mario was added. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

12

POKEMON CRYSTAL Nintendo PoKéMoN Gotta catch emall! PHM TRAINER RED wants to battle! CRACKED.COM AME BOY COLOR The Pokemon series was planned to end with Pokemon Gold and Silver, fighting your way back through the first game's gyms and using the original protagonist as the final boss was a fitting conclusion to the story. Of course, after the success of the previous games, the Pokemon Company decided to continue the franchise with Crystal. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

11

GRAND THEFT AUTO CRACKED.COM Grand Theft Auto, originally titled Race'n'Chase, struggled to find its identity during development. The game first gave players the option to play as law enforcing police, but after realizing playing as a criminal was more fun, they decided to lean into the mayhem the series became known for. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

10

GOLDENEYE 007 MAGNUM ECESE - 63 148 CRACKED.COM Since the team working on GoldenEye 007 was inexperienced and stretched thin, the game was initially intended to be a simple rail-shooter, lacking the immensely popular 4-person multiplayer that eventually made the game a bestseller on the Nintendo64. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

9

CRACKED COM STARDEW VALLEY began as a C# exercise. Computer science graduate Eric ConcernedApe Barone wanted to improve his coding skill after his job applications got turned down. So he decided to create a Harvest Moon clone as a coding exercise, and ended up creating a hit indie game. — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

8

Sonic the Hedgehog was initially a rabbit. Developer Yuji Naka wanted to give the character a somersault attack, but later figured that it'd make zero sense for a rabbit to do so with its long ears, because it'd hurt itself while doing the attack. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

7

Donkey Kong 64

Donkey Kong 64 was bundled with the N64 expansion pak because of a single bug. NINTENDO EXPANSION PAK DONKEY N OnlyFor INCLUDED! KONG64 - - - the Deeogram de - - Para E - .. DOLBY AVENUE G COLLECTOR'S EDITION YELLOW GAME PAK SURROUND PAL VERSION DONKEY NINTENDO IKONIC The mystery bug caused the game to crash randomly unless the pak was inserted. The game didn't really need the pak, but Rare convinced Nintendo to include it at great expense to fix that one stubborn bug. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

6

L M Originally, Mario and Luigi were identical twins When Luigi was introduced in Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. his character was just the same as Mario, but green. L The Luigi we all love exists only because of the Super Mario Bros. 2 U.S. release, which was actually a reskin of an Arabian-inspired game called Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic. Luigi was redesigned to replace the tall, lightfooted Mama character from the original Japanese title. GRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

5

SPACE CRACKED.COM INVADERS IN THE ORIGINAL GAME DESIGN YOU FIRED AT ROWS OF LITTLE SOLDIERS, HOWEVER TAITO DECIDED THEY DIDN'T WANT TO SEND THE MESSAGE THAT SHOOTING HUMANS WAS ACCEPTABLE, AND 80 THE CLASSIC ALIENS WERE BORN. — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

4

John Romero's head behind the Doom II end boss was a joke the artists put in, thinking Romero wouldn't know. The head is behind the spot you shoot to kill the boss. Romero found out and, to tell them he knew, he made the boss speak (backwards): To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero. CRACKED.COM — Source: 29 Video Game Features With Just Bonkers Backstories

3

PERFECT DARK Position Image er ightness OK CRACKED.COM Perfect Dark was to have a face-mapping feature that enabled players to change the appearance of enemies into that of family and friends using their GameBoy Camera. Insurmountable technical difficulties caused the feature to be scrapped; that, or the eventual lawsuits sure to follow. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

2

SUPER SMASH BROS. LUIGI MARIO DK LINK SAMUS C.FALCON NESS YOSHI KIRBY FOX PIKACHU JIGGLYPUFF 1PHMT 2PHN 3PHMN 4 HMN CRACKED COM Super Smash Bros. was pitched as a 4-player brawler, but Nintendo did not initially want their licensed characters to appear. After the small team of developers added Mario, Link and Samus anyway, Nintendo liked the demo so much they granted them permission to use the characters. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

1

DIDDY KONG RACING PLAYER SELECT 1 CRACKED.COM When game studio Rare needed more time to develop Banjo-Kazooie to compete with Super Mario 64, they pushed the generic title Pro-Am 64 for a Christmas release. There were concerns the IP wasn't strong enough and may hurt sales, so at the last minute assets were changed to the more familiar Diddy Kong. — Source: 16 Early Wack Versions Of Popular Video Games

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