PC Video Game History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Side-scroller

The first "Duke Nukem" was created by Apogee Software back in 1991. One of my favorite memories from this game was the ability to shoot a turkey leg and have it suddenly turn into an entire turkey so that you could get full health. However, if you made the mistake of shooting a coke can, it would destroy it. So... just like in real life!

Answer: Cyberdemon

In 1993, ID Software released "Doom" to the public, and the world of first person shooters changed forever. It was also a significant step-up from their previous first person shooter offering, "Wolfenstein 3D", adding such things as non-orthogonal walls, shading and lighting effects, tools to make modifications to the game, and multiplayer.

The cyberdemon was one of the toughest monsters introduced in "Doom I", and had a seemingly infinite supply of rockets which he fired from what appeared to be a rocket prosthesis, which is vastly superior to a grappling hook from "Bionic Commando". I'm also fairly confident that most of the episodes in Inspector Gadget could have been wrapped up far quicker if he'd dispensed with the rollerskates and spring-loaded boxing gloves and simply said "Go Go Gadget Bazooka Arm".

Answer: OXO

Although many people think that "Spacewar!", written on a PDP mainframe, was the first graphical computer game ever created, it was in fact "OXO", which was a tic-tac-toe implementation written on the EDSAC computer in 1952 at Cambridge University. Another lesser known fact about "OXO" was that it was one of the first demonstrations of artificial intelligence, since the computer opponent was capable of playing a perfect game.

Answer: Sierra

Complementing each other, Roberta did the design work while Ken Williams was responsible for the programming. Sierra, which is now a subsidiary of Activision, was responsible for such hits as the "King's Quest" series, as well as many point-and-click 3D adventure games such as "Phantasmagoria", and "Shivers".

Answer: Tristram

The town of Tristram, set in perpetual twilight, featured an excellent ambient soundtrack and a cast of interesting characters including Farnham the town drunk, Griswold the blacksmith, and of course, Deckard Cain the wizened sage. It acted as the player's sanctuary when returning from the crypts under the cathedral.

Answer: Fremen

There were three primary playable classes in Westwood Studio's "Dune II". Setting a precedent for later RTS games, each class had respective strengths and weaknesses, as well as special abilities. The Harkonnen could deploy a nuclear strike called the Death's Head, the Atreides had a tank which emitted bursts of sonic energy, and the Ordos used a neural gas which could temporarily convert enemy units into allies.

Although the Fremen were not a selectable class in "Dune II", they played a strategic role as a military ally of House Atreides.

Answer: Threepwood

Guybrush Threepwood, the inept wannabe pirate of LucasArt's "Monkey Island series", seeks to become the most notorious pirate of the Caribbean in a satirical and often tongue-in-cheek adventure. One particularly nice difference in the "Monkey Island series" as opposed to other adventure games of that time was that it was difficult to get the game in an unwinnable state by accidentally forgetting some item earlier in the game.

Answer: Leonard Nimoy

"Civilization" is a turn-based strategy series created by Sid Meier, the first of which was published in 1991. In addition to Leonard Nimoy, better known as Spock to trekkies, the theme song for the game, Baba Yetu, actually won a 2011 Grammy, and was written by Christopher Tin.

Answer: Flood

"SimCity", which spawned an entire industry of simulation-based games, included disasters which were randomly encountered, and also ones that could be initiated by the player if they felt like wreaking havoc on their cities. The common disasters included: earthquake, fire, flood, and tornadoes, although the game also had more unusual ones such as monsters and UFOs.

Answer: Submarine

In "Operation Neptune", the player was responsible for collecting parts of a mysterious satellite that had inexplicably lost orbit and crashed into the ocean. To do this, he or she had to carefully navigate treacherous underwater areas, including coral reefs, shark infested waters, and narrow caves. Unfortunately for the player, their submarine was apparently cobbled together from paper machete and rubber cement, since even bumping into a tropical fish could cause irreparable damage.