Video Game Trivia: 20 Facts for Gamers

Gaming rounds are becoming a quiz-night staple. Whether you grew up on arcade cabinets or modern consoles, these facts will help you rack up points.

Arcade Classics

• Pong, released in the early 1970s, was one of the first commercially successful video games.
• Pac-Man was designed to appeal to a wider audience at a time when most arcade games were about shooting.
• Space Invaders was so popular in Japan that it became a cultural phenomenon.
• Tetris was created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov.

Famous Characters

• Mario first appeared as a carpenter named “Jumpman” in Donkey Kong before becoming a plumber.
• Sonic the Hedgehog was created as a mascot to rival Nintendo’s Mario.
• Lara Croft of Tomb Raider became one of the first globally recognised female game protagonists.
• Link, not Zelda, is the character you actually play as in The Legend of Zelda.

Records & Consoles

• Minecraft is one of the best-selling video games of all time.
• The video game industry now earns more revenue each year than the film and music industries combined.
• Nintendo was founded in the 1880s, long before video games existed, and originally made playing cards.

Learn a handful of these and the gaming round becomes easy points. Ready to level up? Jump into a free Video Games quiz and see how high you can score.