Did you know?

* The big new game of the Islamic Empire was chess. The Arabs learned to play chess from the Sassanians when they conquered them, and probably the Sassanians learned it from people in India. Indian people themselves seem to have learned at least some version of chess from people in China. 

* The history of video games goes as far back as the 1940s, when in 1947 Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. and Estle Ray Mann filed a United States patent request for an invention they described as a "cathode ray tube amusement device."

 

* Although Sudoku name is in Japanese, its origins are actually European and American, and the game represents the best in cross-cultural fertilization.

* The first game that was pre-installed onto a mobile phone was a Tetris game in the Hagenuk MT-2000device from 1994.

* The Microsoft Xbox was the first video game system to provide full support for HDTV.

* The PlayStation 3 uses a Cell processor. Developed by Toshiba and IBM specifically for the game system.

 * Sonic The Hedgehog isn't only the name of Sega's speedy mascot, but also a gene on chromosome 7 of the human genome. Well, it was until recently when the science community decided to ditch all of its 'comedy' names for genes. Party poopers.     

    

* The first color portable video game system was the Atari Lynx, introduced in 1989 and priced at $149. 

* The PlayStation 2 was the first video game system to use DVD technology and was the first system to have graphics capability better than that of the leading-edge personal computer at the time of its release.