CREDIT: ATARI
I, Robot was the first game to use 3D polygons.

The history of video games is a long and rich one. Along the way, many developers, consoles and games were immortalized in the hall of video game fame. Conversely, just as many facts lay forgotten in the dust, though not for the lack of being cool and unusual.

Without further ado, here are some neat video game Did You Knows:

- That Mortal Kombat was originally meant to be a licensed game starring Jean-Claude Van Damme? The deal fell through, but development on the game continued anyway, with character Johnny Cage created as a parody of the actor.

- Despite its large library of 2D platformers and arcade fighters, the PS1 was actually almost incapable of doing real 2D graphics? Rather than rendering actual, 2D sprites, images were placed on two-dimensional polygons and manipulated to move.

- The first game to use actual 3D polygons was an arcade game by Atari, I, Robot, in 1983? The game wasn't very popular due to it being a massive step up from the relatively simple arcade titles of the era.

- Donkey Kong was created as a result of converting a different game? In 1981, Nintendo released a space shooter, Radar Scope, in North America, to poor reception. Rather than take the financial loss, Nintendo ordered Shigeru Miyamoto to improve the game. Miyamoto decided instead to create an entirely new game from the hardware, Donkey Kong, which, of course, went on to become a Kongsized hit.

- John Carmack and John Romero, the creators of Doom, recreated the first level of Super Mario Bros. 3 and sent it to Nintendo to show off the potential of sidescrollers on the PC market, with the use of their game engine? Nintendo was impressed but ultimately declined the offer to enter the PC market, and the engine was used to create the Commander Keen series of sidescrollers.

- Tomb Raider was originally released as a flagship title for the Sega Saturn? Of course, all subsequent games didn't even acknowledge its true roots.

- Back when the PlayStation 3 supported OtherOS (the ability to install Linux and other operating systems), various universities used it as a part of cluster computing? The U.S. Air Force harnessed the power of a 1,700 PS3 cluster to analyze high-resolution satellite photos. As the consoles were sold at a loss, it turned out to be more cost-effective.

- The PlayStation was originally going to be a CD add-on for the Super Nintendo? The deal ultimately fell through since Sony was refused by Nintendo to make use of their flagship characters for their own games. Sony went ahead and made the PlayStation an independent console, resulting in a losing lawsuit from Nintendo, thus birthing a new competitor.

- That there was going to be an open-world steampunk Batman game? Based on the Gotham by Gaslight comics, the game, developed by Day 1 studios (F.E.A.R 3) was to feature the caped crusader hunting down Jack the Ripper. Unfortunately, the game never made it past an early prototype stage.

- The world's first true 16-bit system, the Intellivsion, came out in 1979? Released as a competitor to Atari, the Intellivsion was a truly superior console with vibrant and detailed graphics (compared to its competitors at least), but lacking the simple and intuitive joystick that the 2600 had, opting for a rather clunky keypad-and-rotating-disc gamepad. Sadly, this innovative console was swept under the rug in the 1983 video game crash.

- Marking another point for Intellivision's innovation, the first online game service, PlayChannel was also introduced in 1981? Yes, predating the Sega channel for the Genesis by nearly 13 years, Intellivision's PlayChannel used local cable providers to deliver games that could be downloaded onto a console through means of an adapter. Unfortunately, the system proved too costly, and memory limitations ensured the system died prematurely.