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Diegoplays
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diegoplays These ten button presses helped a tired developer test his own difficult game.
diegoplays Konami Code Secret Cheat
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, B, A! A hundred games or more, it helps you save the day!
diegoplays Pressing these ten buttons unlocks secret powers in over a hundred video games.
BETA
diegoplays Time your movements to discover how speedrunners exploit collision glitches to slip through walls.
diegoplays Invisible Walls
Out of bounds, out of bounds, We're slipping right past the wall!
diegoplays The space outside a game's designed level is a vast, empty void.
Fun Fact
Invisible walls: In Pac-Man, the ghosts actually have hitboxes smaller than their visual sprites to give players a tiny, fair edge.
diegoplays Games check for collisions at specific intervals, usually tied to the frame rate.
Glossary
invisible wall (noun)
An unseen barrier in a video game that prevents a player character from moving into certain areas. In 2024, researcher pannenkoek2012 published a comprehensive analysis detailing every such boundary in Super Mario 64.
An unseen barrier in a video game that prevents a player character from moving into certain areas. In 2024, researcher pannenkoek2012 published a comprehensive analysis detailing every such boundary in Super Mario 64.
Quiz
What can happen if a video game character moves faster than the game's frame-by-frame collision checks?
Quiz
What is the name of the invisible boundary shape used by game engines to detect when objects collide?
Quiz
What standard frame rate check frequency allows a game to test for wall collisions 60 times every second?
Quiz
Which 1996 Nintendo 64 game is famous for its speedrunners exploiting out-of-bounds areas to skip entire levels?
Quiz
What is the technical term for the calculation a game uses to push a stuck player out of a solid wall?
Quiz
What is the term for the empty, unprogrammed space that exists outside a video game's intended map?
Quiz
How do game engines typically respond when a character's hitbox slightly overlaps with a wall hitbox?
Quiz
Why do game developers use simplified shapes like cylinders instead of detailed character models for collision checks?
diegoplays The Video Game Reward Loop
Just one more / Just one more / Your dopamine spikes before you score!
diegoplays Games use near misses to trick the brain into thinking a win is close.
Fun Fact
Dopamine discovery: In 1957, researchers identified dopamine, which drives anticipation rather than the actual pleasure of winning.
diegoplays Unpredictable rewards trigger a larger dopamine release in the brain than guaranteed prizes.
Quiz
What reward schedule triggers the highest rate of repetitive behavior in both animals and gamers?
Quiz
Which psychologist invented the operant conditioning chamber used to study reward schedules?
Quiz
What term describes the psychological phenomenon where a close failure is processed by the brain as a win?
Quiz
In what year did psychologist B.F. Skinner first publish his work on operant conditioning?
Quiz
What chemical in the human brain is most closely associated with anticipation and reward loops?
Quiz
Which popular video game series uses daily login bonuses and real-time clocks to encourage daily play?
Quiz
What is the name of the digital mystery packages in video games that contain randomized virtual items?
Quiz
According to a 2009 study in the journal Neuron, near misses activate which brain system?
BETA
diegoplays Stack and rotate falling blocks to discover how a Soviet puzzle game conquered the world.
diegoplays The Origin of Tetris
Falling blocks, falling blocks, we make them fit in line!
diegoplays The name Tetris is a clever blend of a Greek prefix and the creator's favorite sport.
Fun Fact
Soviet origins: The creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, did not receive royalties for his game until 1996 because the Soviet government owned the rights.
diegoplays The first version of Tetris was built on a computer that could only display text characters.
Glossary
tetromino (noun)
A geometric shape composed of four equal squares joined edge to edge. In 1984, Soviet researcher Alexey Pajitnov used these shapes to program his famous falling block game.
A geometric shape composed of four equal squares joined edge to edge. In 1984, Soviet researcher Alexey Pajitnov used these shapes to program his famous falling block game.
Quiz
Who was the high school student who helped port Tetris to the IBM PC in 1985?
Quiz
Why did the original 1984 version of Tetris use bracket symbols '[ ]' to form blocks?
Quiz
On what Soviet computer terminal was the very first version of Tetris programmed in 1984?
Quiz
How much money did Alexey Pajitnov make from Tetris royalties during his first decade of its success?
Quiz
In what city did Alexey Pajitnov program the first version of Tetris?
Quiz
What traditional mathematical puzzle game inspired the design of Tetris shapes?