Spot On: Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition
The legendary book of records' compilation of game factoids is due out next month; GameSpot samples some of its interesting informational tidbits.
Every gamer worth his or her salt really needs to know which gaming icon was originally going to be an armadillo, who the severed heads in the Pit in Mortal Kombat resemble, and which game Swedish pop band The Cardigans' song "My Favourite Game" is about.
;)
These golden nuggets of gaming trivia are among many more revealed in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, due for release on February 8 in the UK and March 11 in the US. The Gamer's Edition is the first of its kind, an offshoot from the Guinness World Records series, an annual compilation of facts and figures, including the fastest time to eat a 12-inch pizza, most sheep shorn in eight hours, and the location of the largest collection of aeroplane sick bags.
In keeping with Guinness tradition, the Gamer's Edition of its record book compiles similarly obscure (and often humorous) factoids. A semirandom sampling is listed below:
The Super Mario franchise is the best-selling game series of all time, having sold a total of 145 million units worldwide.
As of November 2007, 466 million Xbox 360 achievements had been unlocked since the service launched, putting the combined global gamerscore at 11 billion.
Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired to create the Zelda series after watching Legend, director Ridley Scott's 1985 fantasy movie about a young man's quest to prevent the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight.
Bungie staff ate an estimated 20,000 pounds (in weight) worth of pizzas during their 36 months creating Halo 3.
Gamers playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion can expect to see 35,544 shrubs, 67,730 plants and mushrooms, 94,013 trees and logs, and 395,696 rocks.
The largest virtual beer festival takes place every year in World of Warcraft, when sworn enemies the Horde and Alliance get together for Brewfest, which lasts around a fortnight and features a huge selection of virtual beers for sale.
Sega considered an armadillo as its mascot, and Sonic the Hedgehog was originally called "Mr. Needlemouse."
Tecmo, the Japan-based publisher of Dead or Alive, was originally a supplier of cleaning equipment called Tehkan.
The severed heads seen in the Pit stage of Mortal Kombat are likenesses of developer Midway's staff, and include lookalikes of the creators of the game, Ed Boon and John Tobias.
There are an estimated 1,890 rooms to be discovered in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Tomb Raider heroine Lara Croft's ample bosom was apparently the result of a design error by Toby Gard. He was playing with the dimensions of the character and accidentally increased her bust by 150 percent. Other members of the team said they liked the change, and the change was kept.
Alone in the Dark, released in 1992, is believed to be the first 3D survival horror game.
An early arcade prototype of Street Fighter had a novel control system with a punching pad rather than buttons. However, this model was soon declared unviable; gamers hit the pads so hard they damaged them.
The youngest pro gamer is known as Lil' Poison and was signed by the Major League Gaming recruiters when he was just 6 years old. He started gaming at the tender age of 2.
The highest-ever Space Invaders score was 55,160 points, achieved by Donald Hayes on June 7, 2003.
The least-violent first-person shooter is Deus Ex, which can be completed by killing just three enemies.
The original Sonic the Hedgehog game has a limit of 9,999,990 points, and 23 people have scored this on the Xbox Live scoreboards.
There are a total of 20,000 lines of spoken dialogue in BioWare's sci-fi role-playing game Mass Effect--the same as you could expect in about 20 movies.
The most number of games made in a single series belongs to Mega Man, which has a total of 46 games out there.
Twenty homing pigeons were spray-painted with the Virtua Tennis 2 logo and released during the Wimbledon tennis championships in 2003 to promote the game.
The most-popular location for extreme sports games is New York City, which has been the backdrop for games including BMX XXX, SSX Tricky, and four games in the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series.
The Cardigans' song "My Favourite Game" is actually about the game Gran Turismo, which the group liked to play on their tour bus.
The largest land-based game is The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II: Daggerfall, which has 163,492 square kilometers of space in which to jump around.
The biggest-ever funeral for a fictional object was a publicity stunt for Guitar Hero II that mourned the death of the air guitar. More than 80 people turned up for the event (including GameSpot UK's own Guy Cocker).
For more interesting trivia tidbits, pick up a copy of the Guinness World of Records Gamer's Edition when it hits bookshelves later this year.
357 comments
The highest score in Pitfall (Atari 2600) belongs to a brazilian gamer, 114 thousand!
@starduke: No. The next time should be as big as Morrowind and as good as Daggerfall!
The next Elder Scrolls game should be as good as Oblivion and Morrowind and as big as Daggerfall.
WEll I would like to say thank you for the acknowledgement of my hard and not so hard unlocking of achievments for this book, and I will be working on unlockng more for the next edition... and thanks to all the other achievers out there!! so you see now wehn your parents tell you what good can come out of gaming, tell the that your in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition!!
I'm not sure where to pick it up to where you guys can get it but I got mine at a schoolastic bookfair they held at my school.... good luck. The book was well worth the money I put into it, theese arn't just the cool facts, they have waayyyy more cooler stuff in there if u look. The book is just plain awesome ^.^
And also Id like to know whats the highest score and how many people reached it on TETRIS! lol
In my opinion (I didnt read the book yet) The most famous Gamer Band are probably DRAGONFORCE! :D
Tingle-Tuner , they propabaly took that into account but decided that you still couldn't call postal 2 the least violent fps. i mean, come on!
Actually, the Deus Ex bit is incorrect, Postal 2 can be beaten without killing anybody.
I also read about in the book that theres going to be a Guinness World Records game by TT(Travellers Tales). DOUBLE SWEET!!!!! I wonder if it will be a good game. We will just have to wait & see.
@ BlueBomberZ Nice, would be cool if you proved them wrong. But they could have got that from an interview with him. Not EVERYTHING is on the internet.
"Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired to create the Zelda series after watching Legend, director Ridley Scott's 1985 fantasy movie about a young man's quest to prevent the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight." I may have to make a call to their official office after this. Does anyone know of an official source where Miyamoto actually stated this? I've looked everywhere but have yet to turn up more than an unsourced internet rumor on the subject. When you look at things realistically, Legend was a limited release in Europe in October 1985, whilst The Legend of Zelda was released February 1986, meaning Miyamoto would've had to have physically been in Europe to see this movie and travel back to Japan to develop The Legend of Zelda from scratch in a mere 4 months. Even excluding this somewhat ambiguous rumor, Miyamoto himself said his inspiration came from his childhood experiences in Kyoto exploring the local fields and caves and getting lost in the myriad of sliding doors in his home. Aside from this one erroneous error, the book still looks quite Guinness-esque and will definitely bring to light some of the most obscure and tucked in the corner statistics in the gaming world.
Must...Get... Book.... 20,000 thousand...pizzas.... incredible..... Bungie...must be fat...
My friend picked this up the other day. From just flicking through it looks awesome :D
I don't really consider Dues Ex a shooter.. More of an RPG with shooter elements. But I still might pick this book up.. Pretty interesting.
Wow and that wasn't even all this book ought to be worth reading. And lol i didnt start playing vid games till i was four, let alone beating them.
Conversation powered by Livefyre
Content you might like…
-
Sony reprises Symphony of the Night
Konami's original PlayStation Castlevania game now downloadable for PS3, PSP through console's online store.
- Jul 20, 2007
Users who looked at this article also looked at these content items.
Hot Stories
Newsmakers
-
Biden: No legal problem with taxing violent games
United States Vice President Joe Biden believes there is no legal restriction on ability to tax violent media. Full Story
- Posted May 13, 2013 12:50 pm PT
-
Just Cause dev promises 'holy f**king sh**' moments in future games
Avalanche Studios co-founder says developer's ambition is for action, not moments that make players cry; steampunk-style game on hold. Full Story
- Posted May 15, 2013 6:33 am PT
Featured Stories
-
Bungie shoots down Destiny for PS Vita rumor
Developer confirms image suggesting version of upcoming shared-world shooter in development for Sony's latest portable is a fake. Full Story
- Posted May 16, 2013 5:08 am PT
-
Ubisoft planning to release games more frequently
Assassin's Creed and Far Cry publisher says its network of 26 studios and over 7,000 developers will allow company to ship major franchises more regularly. Full Story
- Posted May 16, 2013 4:42 am PT
-
Metro: Last Light dev responds to workplace conditions claims
4A Games creative director Andrew Prokhorov thanks Jason Rubin for telling the studio's story, but says, "We deserve the ratings we get." Full Story
- Posted May 16, 2013 12:44 pm PT
-
EA opens DICE LA to make Star Wars games
DICE head would also like to poach top talent from rivals Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Full Story
- Posted May 15, 2013 3:28 am PT
-
EA dropping Online Passes - Report
Future EA games won't require Online Passes; the service is being scrapped after tepid player response. Full Story
- Posted May 15, 2013 8:28 pm PT
Submit News
Related Game
Related Games
- Mass Effect
- Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
- Halo 3
- Castlevania: SOTN
- Super Mario Galaxy
- The Elder Scrolls: Chapter II - Daggerfall
- Oblivion (GotY Edition)
- Gran Turismo
- Alone in the Dark
- Tomb Raider
- Guitar Hero II
- BMX XXX
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Mortal Kombat
- SSX Tricky
- Tomb Raider Starring Lara Croft
- Tennis 2K2
- Tomb Raider
- Mortal Kombat
- Street Fighter
- Alone in the Dark
- Space Invaders
Recent News
-
Layoffs at Defiance dev - Report
Trion Worlds confirms job cuts as part of company reorganization, says 80 percent layoff figure "definitely exaggerated"; development on Rift, future...
