It’s video game trivia time! Take a gander at the following questions and see how many of them you can answer, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and see how you did.

1. Shigeru Miyamoto’s first arcade hit was called Donkey Kong. Every gamer knows that the game’s protagonist was a carpenter named Mario (who later became a plumber in the game Mario Brothers), but do you know what Miyamoto originally named this character?

2. What game, for Sega Genesis, featured a funky alien duo searching for the pieces of their crashed spaceship?

3. When Nintendo began looking for ways to penetrate the American market with their NES console, they offered exclusive manufacturing and marketing rights to a well-known company, but the deal never went through. Name the company.

4. Which of the three big game companies (Nintendo, Sega and Sony) was founded by an American? (Bonus Point if you know what the name of the company means).

5. Capcom created a character in their Street Fighter series that was meant to be a parody of an SNK character from Art of Fighting. Name the character, the game in which he debuted, and the SNK character he parodied.

6. In the SNES game Super Star Wars, what creatures does Luke inexplicably fight while running through the deserts of Tatooine? (Warning – this question has an extremely high geek factor).

7. Name one reason why Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 sucked.

8. What popular video game system was the direct result of Nintendo’s botched attempt to create a CD-ROM drive for the SNES?

9. What "home arcade system" appeared in the early 1990s and retailed for $700, with game cartridges costing $200-$250?

10. Name the best selling game cartridge ever. (Hint: it was designed by a Russian). Bonus Point if you name the company that Nintendo sued successfully over the rights to this game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Answers:

1. Mario was originally called Jumpman. 2 Points

2. Toejam & Earl. 1 Point

3. Atari. Yep, if things had worked out differently, we might have been playing the Atari Entertainment System instead of the Nintendo Entertainment System. 2 Points

4. Sega. It’s short for Service Games. 2 Points (+1 Bonus Point)

5. Dan was a parody of Art of Fighting’s Ryo Sakazaki, and first appeared in Street Fighter Alpha (he became playable in Street Fighter Alpha 2, much to the chagrin of many a serious SF fan. 3 Points

6. Luke fought mynocks on Tatooine, which makes no sense if you’re a Star Wars geek like me, because you know that mynocks live in space and suck energy from power cables on spaceships. 2 Points

7. Horizontal screen, Pac-Man sprite always faced to the left, ghosts flickered so badly they sometimes disappeared… 2 Points

8. Sony created the Playstation after Nintendo dropped their plans to have Sony manufacture a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES. Nintendo’s CD-ROM never materialized, and Playstation became the market leader during the 32-bit era. 2 Points

9. SNKs Neo-Geo. 1 Point

10. Tetris. Nintendo sued Tengen, a company that had produced an unlicensed (and superior) version of Tetris for the NES. Tengen was forced to recall the game, which is now among the most difficult NES cartridges to find. 1 Point (+1 Bonus Point)

 

Okay – add them up (be honest) and let’s see how you did:

20 Points. Hardcore! You either know your stuff or you cheated like a bastard.

10-19 Points. You’re an old-school gamer who’s been around for awhile. You probably remember playing Pac-Man on the 2600.

5-10 Points. You had to get at least one of the tough questions right to score in this range, but you probably cut your gaming teeth during the 16-bit generation or later.

1-5 Points. Hi, Dayne. Kidding! Admittedly, I probably threw in too many classic gaming questions this time… I’ll do a 32-bit and higher quiz next time.