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146 free Video Game trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
25 free Video Game trivia questions with answers. Video Game trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Video Games trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01PlayStation controllers have face buttons marked with a circle, a cross, a square and which other shape?
A triangle
A triangle: designer Teiyu Goto meant it as the player's viewpoint, the square as a sheet of paper for menus and documents, and the circle and cross as yes and no.
Q 02The original Game Boy ran on four of which battery size?
AA
AA cells: four of them ran a Game Boy far longer than its colour-screen rivals lasted, because Nintendo chose battery life and a low price over a better display.
Q 03Which Pac-Man ghost is the red one that chases the player most directly?
Blinky
Blinky is 'Oikake', the chaser, in the Japanese original and makes straight for Pac-Man, while Pinky, the ambusher, tries to get ahead and cut him off.
Q 04Geralt of Rivia is the protagonist of which popular video game series?
The Witcher
The Witcher's author, Andrzej Sapkowski, sold the game rights for a lump sum instead of a share of sales, and in 2018 demanded 60 million zloty more.
Q 05Microsoft's Xbox took its name from which of the company's graphics technologies?
DirectX
DirectX powered the console, so its engineers called it the DirectX Box and then shortened that to Xbox; Microsoft's marketers preferred names such as 11-X.
Q 06Ken Levine was creative director of which shooter series that began in the undersea city of Rapture?
BioShock
BioShock Infinite shipped in March 2013, yet within a year its studio, Irrational Games, was wound down, and Ken Levine kept about 15 staff for a smaller one.
Q 07Which studio led development of Grand Theft Auto V?
Rockstar North
Rockstar North is based in Edinburgh, Scotland; to build the game's version of Los Angeles its researchers shot around 250,000 photographs and hours of video on trips to California.
Q 08In Mario Kart, which item seeks out the race leader no matter who throws it?
The blue shell
The blue shell arrived in Mario Kart 64 because, director Hideki Konno said, the team wanted every racer to stay in contention until the end.
Q 09Which 1971 release from Nolan Bushnell was the first commercially sold arcade video game?
Computer Space
Computer Space contained no computer: a minicomputer cost far too much for a coin-op machine, so its makers built the whole game from hard-wired circuits and a television set.
Q 10Why did Atari's Pong prototype break down soon after its 1972 debut in a bar?
Its coin box overflowed
Its coin box overflowed: the bar's owner rang Atari to say the game had stopped working, and the engineer who came to mend it found it jammed full of coins.
Q 11Shigeru Miyamoto first planned Donkey Kong as a game starring which cartoon character?
Popeye
Popeye was the plan: when Nintendo dropped the idea, Bluto turned into a giant ape and Popeye into Jumpman, the carpenter later renamed Mario.
Q 12The Legend of Zelda is named after its princess, but what is the hero the player controls called?
Link
Link got his name, the series' creator has said, because the hero was meant to be the link between past and future in an early version of the story.
Q 13Sony's '$299' announcement at E3 1995 undercut which rival console?
Sega Saturn
The Sega Saturn, priced at $399 earlier at the show, went on sale that day as a surprise, four months early; KB Toys, left out of the launch, refused to stock it.
Q 21Pokémon Red reached the West alongside Blue, but which colour was its partner in Japan in 1996?
Green
Green was Red's partner in February 1996; Japan only got Blue that October as a third version, and the West's 1998 release borrowed its name.
Q 22Which studio developed the original 1996 Tomb Raider?
Core Design
Core Design of Derby lost its creation in 2003: after The Angel of Darkness drew poor reviews, owner Eidos handed Tomb Raider to Crystal Dynamics in California.
Q 23Which US ratings board did the games industry set up in 1994 after Senate hearings on Mortal Kombat?
ESRB
The ESRB was the industry's answer to senators who threatened federal regulation over games such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap; it has rated games since September 1994.
Q 14Who composed the iconic 'Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII'?
Nobuo Uematsu
Nobuo Uematsu never studied music or composition: he began teaching himself piano at twelve, yet went on to write the score of Final Fantasy VII.
Q 15What is the name of the protagonist in the 'God of War' series?
Kratos
Kratos starts as a Spartan soldier serving the gods; he earns the title by killing Ares, the original god of war, at the end of the first game.
Q 16Which armoured supersoldier, designated John-117, is the hero of the Halo series?
Master Chief
Master Chief is a rank, not a name: the Spartan supersoldier is Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 of the UNSC Navy.
Q 17Nintendo got the NES into wary American toy stores in 1985 by bundling which plastic robot?
R.O.B.
R.O.B., the Robotic Operating Buddy, let Nintendo sell the NES as a toy to shops burned by the 1983 crash, although it worked with only two games.
Q 18Who co-founded Valve, the maker of Half-Life?
Gabe Newell
Gabe Newell dropped out of Harvard for Microsoft, spent thirteen years there working on early versions of Windows, then left with colleague Mike Harrington to start Valve.
Q 19What is the name of the main playable protagonist in 'Red Dead Redemption 2'?
Arthur Morgan
Arthur Morgan is new to the series: the game is a prequel to 2010's Red Dead Redemption, so that game's hero, John Marston, appears as a younger member of the gang.
Q 20Which company primarily develops 'The Elder Scrolls' series?
Bethesda Game Studios
Bethesda Game Studios carries the name of Bethesda, Maryland, where Christopher Weaver founded its parent company in 1986, although it moved to nearby Rockville in 1990.
Q 24Which engineer built Pong in 1972 as a training exercise set by Atari's Nolan Bushnell?
Allan Alcorn
Allan Alcorn had never built a game, so Bushnell passed the job off as a contract for General Electric; there was no contract, only a warm-up exercise.
Q 25In Christmas 1975, Atari sold its home Pong exclusively through which retailer?
Sears
Sears said yes after toy stores had turned Home Pong down: its sporting-goods buyer, Tom Quinn, ordered 150,000 units and sold them under the Tele-Games label.
Q 26Which Japanese company developed and published Space Invaders in 1978?
Taito
Taito had no tools for microprocessor games, so the game's designer spent months studying American machines and built his own development hardware.
Q 27Space Invaders began as its designer's attempt to top which Atari game?
Breakout
Breakout had hooked Tomohiro Nishikado; for targets he tried tanks, planes and soldiers before settling on aliens, because shooting people was frowned upon.
Q 28Why do Space Invaders' aliens speed up as the player shoots them?
Fewer to draw
Fewer to draw: the board's slow processor redrew a thinned-out swarm more quickly, so the survivors sped up, and the designer kept the quirk as a feature.
Q 29Under what title was Pac-Man originally released in Japan in 1980?
Puck Man
Puck Man was renamed Pac-Man for North America over fears that vandals would scratch the P into an F.
Q 30According to its designer, the Pac-Man character was inspired by the image of what?
A pizza with a slice removed
Toru Iwatani said Pac-Man's shape came from a pizza with a slice removed, though he has also credited rounding out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi.