Friday, July 31, 2015

Friday Fun

Greetings! Hello! Here is our weekly installment of Friday Fun. I pick a question and pretty much talk about whatever I want. You leave with more information than you may have wanted. I pick from Tuesday questions, because I'm at Dundee Gastropub at 8pm every Tuesday. Come say hello, answer questions incorrectly, and drink to your misery!

This week I pulled the first question from round five on the theme of video games.

Q:What famous wagon route has been turned into several variations of a video game, where players 
may read the phrase, “You have died of Dysentery”?

A: The Oregon Trail

Who doesn't love the Oregon Trail? Many of my childhood years were spent trekking across the country, death nibbling at the children's feet while I shoved candy down my throat. I wanted to find out more about the history of this much beloved game and I came across some depressing information.

The creators of the game, Bill Heinemann, Paul Dillenberger, and Don Rawitsch worked so hard to create this amazing adventure game we all cherish. However, they walked away from the game without making any real money from it. They got ripped off! The world is never fair. This sad fact made me wonder who else in the gaming world got ripped off..

Alexey Pajitnov invented Tetris in 1986 but didn't get any money off of it until 1996. This had something to do with Soviet Russia. Here is useless information: Pajitinov also had a hand in making Yoshi's Cookie (which was not as good as Yoshi at all not even close not at all).

Who created Monopoly? Charles Darrow! Just kidding he totally stole it from a woman (surprise!) by the name of Lizzie Magie. She built a game in 1903 called Landlord's Game which was meant to illustrate how terrible capitalism is. The history of Monopoly is terrible but still not as horrible as actually playing it.

Daisuke Inoue invented the Karaoke machine (not a game but a form of entertainment and embarrassment- so close enough) but never patented it and thus lost out on millions of dollars. However, he did invent and patent a pesticide for karaoke machines so there is that?

Want to relive your youth? Find Oregon Trail and others here. See you kids around!

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