Video Game Quiz

Its creator first tried tanks, planes and battleships as targets, then switched to octopus-like aliens inspired by H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. Name this 1978 Taito arcade game.

• Space Invaders
• Galaxian
• Asteroids
• Defender

Answer: Space Invaders. Space Invaders, by Tomohiro Nishikado. The warships moved badly on screen, and the Star Wars buzz in Japan made aliens an easy swap.

Before a landlord gave him his famous name, Mario debuted in Donkey Kong as whom?

• Barrel Boy
• Jumpman
• Hammerman
• Climber

Answer: Jumpman. Jumpman, later renamed after Nintendo of America's landlord, Mario Segale.

Its Japanese name was changed so US vandals couldn't turn the P into an F. What was it?

• Munch Man
• Chomp Man
• Gobble Man
• Puck Man

Answer: Puck Man. Puck Man, from 'paku paku', Japanese for chomping.

A Soviet researcher named it after 'tetra', for four, and his love of tennis. Which game?

• Space Invaders
• Bejeweled
• Tetris
• Pong

Answer: Tetris. Alexey Pajitnov's Tetris (1984); every piece is made of four squares.

Atari tested its first hit in a California bar in 1972. Days later the bar called to say the machine was playing up: its coin box was jammed full of quarters. Name the game.

• Breakout
• Pong
• Computer Space
• Asteroids

Answer: Pong. Pong. Engineer Allan Alcorn went to fix it at Andy Capp's Tavern and found the coin box overflowing.

Ludo reached English homes in the 1890s as a simpler version of which Indian board game?

• Pachisi
• Kabaddi
• Chaturanga
• Pallanguzhi

Answer: Pachisi. Pachisi. Ludo swapped its cowrie shells for a single die and kept the cross-shaped race home.

Finland's Rovio had made 51 games and was close to going broke when its 52nd, released in 2009, took off. Which game?

• Fruit Ninja
• Clash of Clans
• Cut the Rope
• Angry Birds

Answer: Angry Birds. Angry Birds, built in under a year. Clash of Clans is also Finnish, but it came from Supercell in 2012.

Infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots became chess pieces. Name the ancient Indian game.

• Chaupar
• Pachisi
• Chaturanga
• Moksha Patam

Answer: Chaturanga. Chaturanga, meaning four divisions of an army.

Sega built Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 as its answer to which rival company's mascot?

• Pac-Man
• Mario
• Crash Bandicoot
• Mega Man

Answer: Mario. Mario. Sega wanted a fast, cheeky mascot to take on Nintendo, and a blue hedgehog won the internal design contest.

Founded in Kyoto in 1889, this company spent decades printing hanafuda playing cards before it ever made a video game. Name it.

• Nintendo
• Konami
• Sega
• Capcom

Answer: Nintendo. Nintendo. Fusajiro Yamauchi started it as a hanafuda card maker; its first home console came only in 1977.

Sony's first games console began life as a CD-ROM add-on for Nintendo's Super NES. When that deal fell apart, Sony launched it alone in 1994. Name it.

• Dreamcast
• Xbox
• PlayStation
• Saturn

Answer: PlayStation. The PlayStation. Engineer Ken Kutaragi kept the project alive after Nintendo dropped Sony for Philips in 1991.

This 2016 Niantic game grew out of a 2014 Google Maps April Fools' joke that hid creatures around the world map for users to catch. Name it.

• Ingress
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Minecraft Earth
• Pokémon Go

Answer: Pokémon Go. Pokémon Go. Tatsuo Nomura of the Google Maps team built the 2014 Pokémon Challenge prank, and John Hanke's Niantic, then a start-up inside Google, turned the idea into the game with The Pokémon Company.

Artist Toby Gard first called his adventurer Laura Cruz, before she got a more British-sounding name. Which series does she lead?

• Tomb Raider
• Uncharted
• Resident Evil
• Prince of Persia

Answer: Tomb Raider. Tomb Raider. Laura Cruz became Lara Croft before the first game came out in 1996.

This crime series was born in 1997 at DMA Design in Dundee, Scotland, the same studio that made Lemmings. Which series?

• Need for Speed
• Hitman
• Max Payne
• Grand Theft Auto

Answer: Grand Theft Auto. Grand Theft Auto. DMA Design later became Rockstar North, which still makes the series.

Shigeru Miyamoto named a Nintendo princess after the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby. What was her first name?

• Daisy
• Zelda
• Samus
• Peach

Answer: Zelda. Zelda Fitzgerald. Miyamoto has said he liked the sound of the name, and The Legend of Zelda followed in 1986.