Some of the games from the Contra series had a different name in Europe. They were called Probotector. ¹⁾

Doom is a series of first-person shooters created by id Software. Each part focuses on a nameless marine acting on behalf of Union Aerospace Corporation (UAC) and fighting against hordes of demons and the undead. The first part of the series, released in 1993, is considered to be the pioneer of FPS (first-person shooter) games, although other titles representing the genre have been created before. Nevertheless, Doom was one of the first personal computer games to offer 3D graphics, three-dimensional mobility, support for player modifications and multiplayer networking. ²⁾

Lylat Wars is an alternative name for Star Fox 64, a 3D scrolling shooter for the Nintendo 64. The Lylat Wars name was used in the PAL region. ³⁾

The Vectrex Gaming Console (1984) was the first gaming console with touch control. ⁴⁾

The Microsoft Xbox (2001) was the first console with full support for HDTV. ⁵⁾

The highest-grossing game of all time is World of Warcraft. The game brought in over $10 billion over its lifetime. ⁶⁾

MegaMan is known as RockMan in Japan. They changed the name from Rockman to MegaMan for the international version of the game. ⁷⁾

In the original arcade version of Donkey Kong, Mario was called jump man, who happened to be a carpenter, not the famous plumber that we know and love today. ⁸⁾

As the group was running on a strict spending plan, they couldn't manage the cost of genuine firearms to model their plans after, so they made a trip to Toys R Us to buy Nerf weapons and different toys. Clearly, the firearms were reskinned from their unique, splendid, and beautiful appearances to coordinate with the game's more dull and smudged tone. ⁹⁾

The team assembled by Microsoft to create the Windows 95 port of Doom was headed by Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve. Valve is known for creating Half-Life, Portal, and many other games. ¹⁰⁾

Drew Karpyshyn, who was responsible for the script of the games until a certain point, also wrote books related to the universe. These were “Mass Effect: Revelation,” “Mass Effect: Ascension,” “Mass Effect: Deception” and “Mass Effect: Retaliation.” The books complemented the storyline presented in the games by depicting events happening before the first title of the series, as well as between the events presented in the sequels. ¹¹⁾

The title of the game was supposed to indicate the essence of the whole story. Mass effect and dark energy were the bases for the functioning of the Mass Effect universe. The first allowed us to colonize the Milky Way and contact different civilizations, and the second was to have a disastrous impact on life in our galaxy. Although Drew Karpyshyn followed the path of explaining the story in this way, in the end, the creators decided to change the coherent plot presented by the three parts, achieving, unfortunately, the effect of dissatisfaction of the multitude of fans, for whom the very finale of the series was strongly illogical. ¹²⁾

The Stargazer's voice heard in the epilogue of the series belongs to Buzz Aldrin. He is a distinguished American astronaut who participated in the first moon landing. ¹³⁾

The Elder Scrolls (TES for short) is a series of computer role-playing games created by Bethesda Softworks. Work on the series began in 1992, before which the team created mainly sports games. In 1994, The Elder Scrolls: Arena was released for MS-DOS, launching The Elder Scrolls series. ¹⁴⁾

The first installment of the Elder Scrolls series was intended to be a combination of the arcade with some elements of adventure games. Players were to participate in a series of tournaments in which their characters fought together with a supporting team against more and more powerful teams of warriors. The winner of the tournament would face the mighty mage Jagar Tharn, who thanks to magical illusion and trickery won the throne of the Emperor. Between duels, players could also perform little side quests. ¹⁵⁾

The land of Vicovaro was made famous by a bawdy song sung by Geralt and other characters in The Witcher 3: Wild Game, but it was invented much earlier, by Andrzej Sapkowski. It lies in the Nilfgaard Empire, far from the capital. Two important characters come from there - sorceress Assire var Anahid and graf Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach. ¹⁶⁾

Yakuza is an action-adventure video game produced and released for the PlayStation 2 by Sega. It was released in Japan in 2005 and elsewhere in September 2006. The plot follows Kazuma Kiryu, a yakuza member who spent 10 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. After being rescued, he discovers that the criminal underworld is hunting for 10 billion Yen stolen from the Tojo Clan. ¹⁷⁾

The first Yakuza was not for the squeamish, but it had far more violent scenes than its age rating fairly permitted. The game was supposed to have scenes where pinky fingers got cut off, which is in line with the typical punishment for Yakuza. However, those scenes would be cut and Yakuza thus reached a broader audience. ¹⁸⁾

Valve is an American video game producer. Valve is the creator of the Half-Life and Counter-Strike series. In 2003 the company launched the Steam digital distribution platform. The company was founded in 1996 in Kirkland, Washington, D.C., and moved to its current headquarters in 2003. ¹⁹⁾

Counter-Strike (often shortened to CS, formerly Half-Life: Counter-Strike) is a first-person shooter computer game created by Minh “Gooseman” Le and Jesse “Cliffe” Cliffe on June 19, 1999, and is a modification of Half-Life. Initially, Counter-Strike required Half-Life to work, but over time, more versions have been developed, which evolved into standalone productions using only the original game engine. ²⁰⁾

Steam (Valve's game platform and store) already has over 1 billion accounts. ²¹⁾

Assassin's Creed is series of action-adventure games with an open world, consisting of games released for consoles and personal computers, side games released for portable consoles, books, comics, and short films. A cinema film under the same title has also been released. The series was created by Ubisoft Montreal, while spin-offs and games for portable consoles were created by Gameloft and Gryptonite Studios. All games were released by Ubisoft. The first game in the series was released on November 13, 2007. The background of the games is the struggle between the Templar Order and the Assassin Brotherhood. ²²⁾

If you feel familiar with all the parkour, running, and jumping, it could be because you were playing Prince of Persia. Initially, “Prince of Persia: Assassin” was basically Assassin's Creed. It was supposed to be a spinoff of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. However, since their story did not concentrate too much on the prince, Ubisoft rejected the design idea of “Prince of Persia: Assassin.” ²³⁾

According to Solid Snake's voice actor David Hayter and many forum posts, Metal Gear Solid 4 holds the Guinness World Record for the longest cutscenes sequence in a video game, one after the other, lasting as long as 71 minutes. ²⁴⁾

The name Snake, Kojima borrowed from the main character in the movie Escape from New York - Snake Plissken. This is one of Kojima's favorite movies. References to Snake's name can be found in Metal Gear Solid 2, where one of the characters introduces himself as Iroquois Pliskin. ²⁵⁾

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's look is so steeped in the 1980s that it's only logical that it has an 80s filter to truly bring up that 80s movie atmosphere. Kojima and his team intended to use an 80s filter early on in production to make the gameplay look like it came from a movie of the time. Imagine Venom Snake creeping through Africa, playing A-ha on his non-iPod while dressed like a character from Escape from New York. Unfortunately, owing to technological limits, the filter was far too demanding and had to be deleted. ²⁶⁾

Call of Duty is a series of war-themed first-person shooter computer games, published by the American company Activision. Initially, the games in the series were focused on World War II, but since 2007 they have been set in contemporary reality. The Call of Duty series has been acclaimed by critics and gamers alike, becoming a spectacular commercial success with over 100 million copies sold by November 2011; as of January 2012, 40 million gamers were using games from the series for multiplayer gaming. ²⁷⁾

Call Of Duty Online is a China-exclusive version of the game. Microtransactions allow players to customize their avatar's look, but the game is otherwise free to play. Cyborg Rising is the game's own version of the zombies mode. ²⁸⁾

Many well-known celebrities have lent their voices to the characters of the franchise. Brandon Routh, Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey and even Ice Cube have all voiced characters in the franchise, but not all at the same time. ²⁹⁾