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5 Surprise Birthday Ideas For Your Girlfriend Or Wife

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There are plenty of reasons to give someone a birthday present, though it seems that more and more people these days don’t ask for or want anything on their special day. For those that are in a relationship, you know how difficult it can be to come up with the right gift for someone that won’t budge on the idea of wanting something.

For those that have a girlfriend or wife, coming up with something perfect can be extremely difficult. After struggling with ideas, why not try one of the five surprise gifts that you can get for your significant other. The surprise doesn’t have to be all that expensive to be special, and these ideas will truly have a personal touch that will make her birthday spectacularly memorable.

A trip

One thoughtful way to surprise your loved one for their birthday is by planning a nice trip for them. Whether it’s nearby, out of state, or even abroad, a trip of any kind is a great way to show you care and whisk your partner away from the monotony of their everyday environment. It can be a trip for just the two of you, a family trip, or a trip with all of their closest friends. It’s a great way to forget about daily stressors and spend quality time celebrating the one you love. 

A spa day

Another perfect birthday treat that anyone would love, is a spa day. Getting a manicure, pedicure, massage, and other luxurious treatments will put your partner into a well-deserved state of relaxation and zen. There are plenty of different services you can order to focus on your partner’s needs, or maybe you want to spoil them even further and buy a spa package with every luscious treatment available. Most spa locations offer a couples package as well, so you and your loved one can unwind together. 

A day with loved ones 

When you don’t know exactly what your partner wants to do for their birthday, you can start with the basics. Surprise them by gathering all of the people they’re closest to and working together to come up with something your partner will love. You could throw them a surprise party with all of their loved ones, or maybe go out to eat at their favorite restaurant and find a fun activity you can all do together. The presence of their friends and family will ensure they have a great time because sometimes it’s the people you’re with that really makes a special day more special. 

Gifts they love

Everyone loves gifts. Sure, birthdays aren’t all about the gifts, but most people would be lying if they said they didn’t get a little excited when presented with a surprise all wrapped up in pretty paper and a bow. Homemade or personalized gifts are a fantastic way to show your loved one how much thought you put into their gift and will touch their heart in a special way. Or maybe you want to go all out and buy them a fancy present. Though your gift doesn’t have to be expensive, homemade, or the best ever. The thought is enough to make them smile. 

Somewhere they loved going to or never got to go as a kid

A really fun gift idea that has been trending lately is doing fun things their inner child loves doing, or would have loved doing if it’s an activity they never had the chance to do. It makes for an extra special and thoughtful gift that is guaranteed to touch their heart. Whether it’s a place they’ve always dreamt of going, a fun activity that unleashes the big kid in them, or giving them the biggest and best cartoon-themed birthday they never had, it’s a memory they won’t forget. 

5 Ways To Make The Most Of The Sunset/Sunrise

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Every single day has a sunrise and a sunset, but not everyone has the opportunity to make these into daily events that we get to appreciate. There are few things that have the same natural beauty as a sunrise or sunset, so making the most out of them can be a great benefit to your health and happiness.

Instead of sleeping through every sunrise or working through every sunset, try to enjoy them as much as you can on a daily basis. If you’re lacking ideas on how to do that, we have some tips. 

Here are five ways in which you can make the most out of each sunrise and sunset.

Photography and Art 

A couple of creative ways to make the most of the sunrise and/or sunset is by using them as artistic inspiration. You don’t have to be a professional photographer to capture the beauty of the change of night into day or day into night. Though, if you have a quality camera, the pictures will come out more stunning. 

The sunrise or sunset in the background will make average scenery intensely beautiful and make already gorgeous scenery more jaw-dropping. If photography isn’t your thing, you can paint your own picture and capture the vibrant, or mellow colors a sunrise, or sunset can produce. 

Get Romantic

The sunrise and sunset are relatively quick and stunning daily occurrences, giving you plenty of opportunities to plan something wonderfully romantic during that time, but you have to plan it properly if you don’t want to miss it. 

Sunrises pair well with early morning breakfasts at the beach, an open-air breakfast joint, or a hotel balcony after a fun overnight stay. Sunsets are best enjoyed by a fire pit, at a romantic dinner spot with a view, waterside, or even cozied up on your backyard patio. 

Correct Your Circadian Rhythm and Exercise

Waking when the sun rises is something our bodies naturally crave. Certain physical, mental, and behavioral changes take effect within the daily 24-hour cycle that makes up our circadian rhythm. Biologically, humans, like most creatures, are predisposed to respond to changes in light and dark. 

Waking up when the sun first peeks out can help adjust your body to the proper wake and sleep cycle it needs to work more efficiently. Exercising within that time can be a healthy addition to your morning routine as well. It keeps your body limber and your mind focused and ready to take on the day. 

Enjoy Them By the Beach 

Sunrises and sunsets are beautiful in their own right, but one thing that enhances their beauty tenfold is the beach. No matter the time of year, if you’re down to take a trip to the beach or any large body of water, it would be a fantastic way to enjoy the dewy sunrise and vibrant sunset. 

You could book a room by the beach so you can take in the sights from the comfort of a waterside room.  Or maybe plan an early morning, or late night trip to your destination of choice to catch the sunrise or sunset. 

Have A Bonfire 

Bonfires are a fun and chill way to end a long day. You don’t have to save them for special occasions either. Plan a summer cookout, a cozy fall evening, or perhaps a refreshing spring evening after being cooped up inside all winter. 

Throw a little get together, invite friends and family, get the kids in on it, make s’mores, share laughs, and have a great time relaxing by a fire at sunset. Don’t forget to take plenty of pictures of the sunset while you’re at it. That feeling of seeing the bright colors and being surrounded by people you care about the most will spark a lot of joy in your life.

5 Most Popular Styles of Solitaire

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One of the most popular card games due to its simplicity, variants of styles, and ease of access (especially with those of us that grew up with shoddy internet), Solitaire is played by millions every day. Microsoft, who started the computer Solitaire craze, estimates that there are more than 100 million hands played on any given day.

A lot of people are accustomed to just one type of solitaire, though. Outside of the standard type, there are many other variants for Solitaire fans to try out. If you’re looking to mix it up, check out the five most popular styles of solitaire to expand your horizons.

Spider Solitaire

Spider Solitaire is one of the more popular variations of the zen phenomenon that is Solitaire, having been around since the mid-1900s. The game uses two 52-count decks of cards and displays eight piles needed to be filled to win the game, which is where it gets the name Spider Solitaire. 

There are seven variants of the Spider Solitaire series. Spider 1 Suit, Spider 2 Suit, Relaxed Spider, Will O’ The Wisp, Simple Simon, Mrs. Mop, and Spiderette. Studies show gameplay can improve cognitive function and mood. 

Pyramid

Another popular variation of Solitaire is Pyramid Solitaire. It’s a game of patience and simple addition. There’s a single set of 48 to 52 cards that are placed facing up in a pyramid shape, giving the game its name. The objective of the game is to remove pairs of cards from the 28-card pyramid, which together add up to a total of 13. 

You are given a deck of the remaining cards to use as pairings for the cards in the pyramid. Only fully uncovered cards can be chosen, besides Kings, as their value is already 13 and can be immediately picked out of the pyramid. To win, all cards from the pyramid and the remaining deck must be used. 

Klondike

One of the more difficult variations of Solitaire is Klondike Solitaire, also known as Canfield. It has a surprisingly low success rate, but perhaps that’s why people keep coming back to it. It has a 52-card Solitaire setup, minus the jokers. 

It’s similar to your standard Solitaire, besides the number of cards used, having seven tableaus instead of ten, and the objective is to get four piles of cards stacked from king to ace. 

Forty Thieves 

Forty Thieves, or Napoleon at St Helena, as it’s called in other countries, is a difficult Solitaire variation. This version got its name, Napoleon at St Helena, after Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was rumored to have played this Solitaire game during his exile to St Helena island. Forty Thieves is one of the more popular variants of the patience games and the odds of winning are 1 out of 10. 

The game uses two decks of 52 cards, has ten columns of four cards facing up, and has eight foundations to pile the used cards. There is a stock, but you can only go through it once. Besides that, it follows your usual solitaire rules where the objective is to gather families of cards from aces to kings. 

Yukon

Yukon Solitaire is similar to the Klondike variant, with the exception of a deck, or stock. There are seven tableaus and four suits where cards are piled up when chosen. All of the cards are presented in the beginning, with most of the cards face up and some being face down underneath the revealed cards in the tableau. 

The objective is the same as typical solitaire, get all cards from aces to the king, sans jokers. Fill the suits one by one and reveal the hidden cards as soon as possible to help in doing so.  There are some variants of Yukon Solitaire, such as Russian Solitaire, Alaskan Patience, and Australian Patience. 

5 Premier League Stars Whose Careers Were Hampered By Injury

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There’s nothing quite as frustrating as a supporter than having a player that you know is among the best in the world, but never reaches their full potential due to a string of injuries. Fans of almost every Premier League team have been through that with at least one player, but watching some players deal with injuries can be more devastating because you knew they were once bound to be all-time greats.

Out of all of the players that have dealt with injuries throughout their careers in the Premier League, these five were the ones that seemed to be on their way to being legends, only to have setback after setback as they were hampered by injuries.

Owen Hargreaves

Canadian-born Owen Hargreaves made his way to Europe from North America as a teenager, entering Bayern Munich’s youth system in 1997. He would begin his professional career with Bayern, as well, and after lengthy negotiations, he would join Manchester United in 2007 in one of the most anticipated transfers ever.

The injury problems for Hargreaves began before he even suited up for Man U, though. In the year leading up to his joining the squad, Hargreaves was dealing with several minor injuries and then broke his leg, which never fully recovered. Hargreaves then dealt with painful patellar tendinitis and had some of the worst knees that doctors had ever seen. Physicians attempted to help Hargreaves, but there was no recovery in sight and he retired in 2011 with just 29 EPL appearances.

Jack Wilshere

There is perhaps no great example of a great career that was derailed by injury quite like Jack Wilshere’s. While coming up through Arsenal’s youth academy, Wilshire was one of the finest midfield prospects that some had ever seen. He made his senior club debut in 2008 and appeared in a total of 125 matches with Arsenal before joining West Ham in 2018.

Wilshere remained with West Ham until 2020 and ended his career with AFC Bournemouth and finally AGF in Denmark. During the 2011-12 season, Wilshere fractured his ankle in a friendly, which started his long list of problems. Wilshire picked up injury after injury, and he expressed his frustrations about not being able to stay healthy.

Dean Ashton

Dean Ashton began his professional football career with Crewe Alexandra, and made his English Premier League debut in 2005 with Norwich City. He appeared in 44 matches with the club, and finished out his career with 46 more appearances with West Ham from 2006 to 2009 before retiring at just 26 years old.

Ashton had lingering injuries throughout his career, but there was one in particular that essentially ruined his career. While training with the English national team in 2006, Ashton broke his ankle and it never fully recovered. Surgeons advised Ashton to cut his career short or else he’d be unable to walk eventually.

Daniel Sturridge

Daniel Sturridge was just six years old when he joined the Aston Villa academy, while also spending time with Coventry City and Manchester City’s youth academies. He would join the latter’s senior squad in 2006 and made 21 appearances before joining Chelsea in 2009. Sturridge also spent time with Bolton, Liverpool, and West Brom during his English career.

Sturridge often missed weeks at a time with various injuries, which really started to pick up in 2013. He’s missed extended time due to groin strains, sprained ankles, and much more. One hip injury, in particular, kept him out for nearly six months. Sturridge simply couldn’t stay on the pitch long enough to reach his full potential.

Abou Diaby

After spending time with five different youth academies, Abou Diaby made his senior debut in France where he made just 10 appearances over three different years, and then made his way to Arsenal. Arsenal was the only EPL team that Diaby played for, as he ended his career with Marseille from 2015 to 2017.

Diaby’s injury problems started before he even made it to Arsenal, but the club was willing to take a chance on him due to his talents. It’s difficult to list all of the injuries that Diaby sustained, as he underwent multiple surgeries that slowed him down and kept him off the pitch. 

Why Do Some Premier League Clubs Have More Injuries Than Others?

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There are few things quite as frustrating as seeing your club put together a good season, only to have them lose a star player due to injury, derail the entire season, and end the chances of collecting any trophies. For some clubs, the injury bug seems to be much more infectious than it does for others.

Superstitious supporters will tend to believe that their club has been cursed, but there is far more to it than anything supernatural. There can be several reasons one club suffers more injuries than others, and we’ll break down some of the most common reasons.

The Pitch Type

The English Premier League is known for having some of the best-looking grass in the world, as there’s a high standard for pitches across the league. While most clubs have their pitches down to a science, there are some that are lacking in the pitch department. Some clubs haven’t invested in pitch types that are safer for players, and a bad pitch can result in a slew of ankle or knee injuries.

The clubs at the top of the fixture each year invest a lot into making sure that their pitches are perfect to protect their highly-paid players. Those that are lower in the fixture, though, may not be able to afford the upgrades. Jason Booth is the director of the Grounds Management Association, and he said that “We’ve had some clubs (that) have had to cut their cloth.” Even American football has the same problem, with some pitch types resulting in an increase of ACL injuries.

Conditioning

The more fatigued somebody is, the more prone they are to injury. One major study concluded that “fatigued muscles are able to absorb less energy before reaching the degree of stretch that causes injuries.” Because of this, it’s important that all of the players are in great condition, and the staff is responsible for making sure that they’re at that level.

Of course, with the football schedule the way it is, not every player is going to have time to work on their conditioning outside of matches. There are very few breaks throughout the year, and managers have to keep their stars accountable. Also, when a player is showing signs of serious fatigue, a good manager will pull them from a match before injury occurs.

Experience

There are certain ebbs and flows to a match at the Premier League level, and you can certainly tell the difference when watching an EPL match compared to lower levels. Some of the players aren’t accustomed to the speed and strategy of an EPL match, and that can lead to injuries. Accidents happen when a player is in the wrong spot or can take risks that cause them to crash into other players at a high speed.

This is why supporters of all sports are nervous to see their star players go against those that are inexperienced. Many of the top players are pulled from matches early or withheld altogether as their talents aren’t needed to beat the more inexperienced clubs, so the injury risk isn’t worth them playing.

Reported Injuries

There was a time when players would power through injuries because they didn’t want to lose their spot on a squad. However, players weren’t given millions every year. These days, players are a much larger investment for a club, and they want to know when their stars feel even the slightest bit of pain so that they can keep them out of the lineup.

Athletes are also receiving top care from health professionals, whereas in years past, they would simply take a few painkillers and get back on the pitch. Teams at the highest level have far more reported injuries due to the perceived minor ones being taken seriously. 

Summary

While these are the main reasons some clubs have more injuries than others, sometimes it comes down to just plain dumb luck. Even the most conditioned and experienced players can find themselves with a torn ACL or a concussion from just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Injuries happen all the time, and they’ll continue to happen to your favorite club, unfortunately. 

5 Websites That Frequently Go Down

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Very few things are as frustrating as doing something on your computer or phone, and then all of a sudden, it’s not working. We tend to first blame our equipment and throw around a few choice words, but it might not be a problem on your end at all. There are certain websites that are known to go down pretty frequently, so the problem could be on their end instead of yours. Here are the five websites that go down the most frequently, telling users that sometimes “it’s not you, it’s me.”

1. Discord

While there are plenty of voice, video, and instant messaging apps available, Discord is the one that has caught on most with the younger generations as it’s more casual than business. Discord is popular with gamers for voice chat and has communities for online interests, increasing in popularity on a large scale each year.

Due to the insane amount of bandwidth that’s required for so many video chats and different channels while also increasing dramatically in users on a daily basis, Discord is suscept to crashes quite frequently. The servers aren’t able to keep up sometimes, and Discord has been known to go down for hours at a time on occasion, though becoming more of a rarity as the years go on.

2. Steam

Game launchers are all of the rage for publishers, but the original will likely be the most popular until the end of time, and that’s Steam. Steam launched back in 2003 and has been a mainstay of the internet ever since, with people from all over the world using the client to download and play games, most of which are played online.

When a popular new game comes out, Steam can sometimes crash due to the influx in web traffic as people get their hands on the game. On a daily basis, you’ll see Steam crash in many major cities around the world, though it doesn’t tend to last for long. So many people downloading the same game at once can cause the servers to hiccup.

3. Instagram

Instagram may be the most surprising website to be featured on the list since most of the website is simply images being posted by people without too many frills. However, that hasn’t stopped Instagram from crashing and going down frequently. In most cases, users will find that their news feed failed to load or that they can’t even log in to the site.

Only a handful of cases for Instagram have been because of the website totally crashing and becoming unusable. While Instagram says that the more common issues are because of a user’s internet connection, it’s usually high traffic or a bug that causes your feed to sit there with the loading icon while trying to refresh.

4. YouTube

We go from perhaps the most surprising website to the least surprising. With hundreds of thousands of hours worth of video being uploaded to YouTube every single day, there are bound to be some freezes and crashes on the site. That much bandwidth and data happening around the world at one time is a stress test for servers, even if they are owned by Google.

Typically, YouTube outages don’t last for very long as Google makes more money from YouTube than anything, so they make it a top priority for fixes. Most outages are caused by servers being overloaded or Google performing maintenance so that a major and lengthy outage doesn’t occur.

5. Microsoft Teams

Earlier we discussed Discord and how it goes down so frequently because of its daily increase in popularity and high volume of video chatting and instant messaging. The same applies to Microsoft Teams, especially as the world becomes more virtual with remote workers. Even in-office, Teams is popular for chatting and can crash frequently.

With group video chats that can host hundreds of people, you’re likely to see a slowdown in the video before it ultimately crashes. Those that work for major companies that use Teams are probably surprised that it’s not the most frequently downed site.

5 Chinese Celebrities Who Crossed Over To Stardom In America

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Achieving fame in your own country is hard enough, but to find A-list level success on the other side of the world is even harder. For many years, Chinese celebrities didn’t find much stardom in the west outside of a select few. That’s what makes these five Chinese celebrities so unique, as they were able to become superstars in the United States.

1. Bruce Lee

A martial arts master, Bruce Lee became an icon in all parts of the world when he began appearing in martial arts films during the early 1970s, many of which he also directed. Some of his more prominent films include “Way of the Dragon” and “Enter the Dragon”, creating an interest in martial arts that has been around ever since.

Many credit Lee as the reason that they got into martial arts, and still remember him many years following his death. Lee was just 32 years old when he passed away on July 20, 1973, due to cerebral edema. Lee helped bridge the gap between Hollywood and East Asia during his career, breaking barriers in the process.

2. Jackie Chan

There are a handful of actors that have been known for doing their own stunts, but Jackie Chan sets the gold standard. Chan was born in what was then British Hong Kong in 1954 and appeared in Chinese films since the 1960s. Chan was among the world’s highest-paid actors during his peak, making his mark in action comedies such as “Rush Hour” and “Shanghai Knights”.

Throughout all of his films, Chan has performed his own stunts, which has led to some hilarious outtakes at times. He continues to act to this day, and his career was recognized at the 2016 Oscars when he won the Academy Honorary Award for his worldwide film achievements. Even the Shanghai International Film Festival has an award named after him for action films.

3. Chow Yun-Fat

Another icon that was born in British Hong Kong, Chow Yun-Fat came from humble beginnings where he worked odd jobs until getting involved in acting during the 1970s by appearing in several films and television shows per year, becoming a household name in China. After a career setback in the 1980s, Chow turned his career around and started to get notoriety in the United States.

Chow’s Hollywood career began in 1998 with the film “The Replacement Killers”, and the following year he co-starred with Mark Wahlberg in “The Corrupter”. Perhaps Chow’s most notable US venture, though, is 2003’s “Bulletproof Monk”. To date, Chow has earned more than a dozen major awards in China and has appeared in around 100 films.

4. Jet Li

Another martial arts icon on the list, Jet Li was born in Beijing in 1963 and used his skills in Wushu to begin an acting career. Li was still a teenager when he made his acting debut in 1982’s “Shaolin Temple” and became a superstar in China thanks to films including “Once Upon a Time in China” and “Fist of Legend”. 

During the late 1990s, Li was able to achieve fame in the west thanks to leading roles in the films “Lethal Weapon” and “Romeo Must Die”. Li turned down some major roles during his peak, but still took on plenty of other notable films including “Cradle 2 the Grave”, “Kiss of the Dragon” and “Unleashed”.

5. Yao Ming

When someone is described as “larger than life,” it’s usually figurative instead of literal. However, Yao Ming’s 7’6” stature makes him truly a standout. After beginning his professional basketball career in Shanghai with the Sharks, Yao became eligible for the 2002 NBA Draft. The Houston Rockets selected him with the first overall pick and helped to make the NBA popular in China.

Yao was an eight-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA selection during his career was cut short due to injuries. He posted 19 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game en route to a Hall of Fame induction. In 2017, Yao was named as the President of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Can Crosswords Make You Smarter?

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Among the most popular games in the world, you’ll find crosswords, with an estimated 50 million people worldwide playing on a daily basis. It takes a lot of patience and a large vocabulary to nail a crossword puzzle. Because of this, there are many wondering if doing the daily crossword will make them smarter.

The answer, and the scientific research that goes along with it, may surprise you. Let’s take a look at crossword puzzles and how they’re linked to overall intelligence.

The Intelligence Quotient

When determining IQ (intelligence quotient), there are five scores that are taken into consideration. These are verbal comprehension, visual-spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. Working on a crossword puzzle requires someone to use all of those IQ factors at once.

Research has shown that there are certain aspects of IQ that can be improved when doing crosswords. Working memory and processing speed typically require practice, and crosswords are a perfect way to make sure that you’re brain is staying active.

Crosswords and Aging

Many of the people that do crosswords on a daily basis tend to skew toward the older age bracket. While researchers were hopeful that games like crosswords would be able to slow down mental decline, they were able to find out that these games made it easier to cope with illnesses such as Alzheimer’s or dementia.

James Pickett of the United Kingdom Alzheimer’s Society said that “Although playing ‘brain games’…may not prevent dementia, it has been shown that regularly challenging yourself mentally seems to build up the brain’s ability to cope with (the) disease.” However, there was another study released a few years after Pickett’s that said that there was a link between crosswords and brain age.

What About Intelligence?

Keith Wesnes, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Exter Medical School, said that “We found direct relationships between the frequency of word puzzle use and the speed and accuracy of performance on nine cognitive tasks assessing a range of aspects of function including attention, reasoning, and memory.”

Wesnes added that “Performance was consistently better in those who reported engaging in puzzles, and generally improved incrementally with the frequency of puzzle use.” While he said it would take some time to prove how the crossword puzzles improve these skills, those that played the puzzles each day were likely to have younger brain ages.

Another study that was spearheaded by Tiffany Hughes and Chung-Chou Chang stated that “A lower risk of dementia was found for a greater number of activities and for a high compared with low weekly time commitment,” which included crossword puzzles. Their conclusion was that crosswords and related activities for one hour each day might be protective against dementia in late life.

Scores Don’t Lie

Those that participate at an elite level in crosswords and games like Scrabble are shown to have high-functioning cognitive abilities. One study took people who were nationally ranked in these games and compared their cognitive function to college students who scored an elite level of over 700 on quantitative and verbal SAT tests.

While there wasn’t a major difference, the crossword players did tend to score the highest in cognitive ability. This meant that the smartest crossword players were achieving the same in reading and writing as those with SAT scores that were good enough to get into Ivy League schools like Harvard or Yale.

Summary

At the end of the day, it wouldn’t be right to say that doing a crossword puzzle every day is certain to increase your intelligence, it is safe to say that it won’t hurt. In fact, the link between crosswords and improved cognitive ability shows that simply doing one puzzle daily leads to a lot of mental health benefits that are too good to pass up.

Even the great Carol Burnett has said “I do the New York Times crossword puzzle every morning to keep the old grey matter ticking.”

5 Best Selling Retro Games

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These days, you can simply download a video game to your mobile phone, computer or console and start playing right away and guides on how to play and beat the game are readily available before release. In the early days of video games, though, all of the secrets were reserved only for physical guides that you had to buy in addition to the game. Because of this, there were a lot of retro games that sold like hotcakes in the days before the internet.

There were also plenty of games that were simply addicting in nature as you tried to beat your personal high score or set a new standard amongst your friends. There’s a nice blend of both categories in the highest-selling games of all time. Here are the five that were released before 2000 that sold the most copies and had seemingly everybody in the world playing them.

Super Mario Bros. 

In 1985 Nintendo released the Super Mario Bros game in Japan for the Famicom (Family Computer), following the success of the Mario Bros arcade game released two years prior. Soon after, it was introduced in the US for the NES system for a short period of time. 

It remains one of the most successful video game franchises to this day. Most are familiar with the Super Mario Bros merchandise, toys, cartoon, and the movie adaptation set to be released in the Spring of 2023. 

Pac-Man

Pac-Man, previously called “Pukkuman” and “Puck Man” in Japan and Europe, is a hugely popular arcade game released by Namco in July of 1980. It was released worldwide later that same year by Midway Manufacturing. 

Many remakes and sequels have been made over the years, with Ms. Pac-Man having the greatest impact. Developers recognized the appeal of Pac-Man amongst their female players and decided it was time to welcome a sassy and cute new character. Both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man ended up being two of the highest-earning arcade games of all time in North America. 

Tetris

One of the most simple, yet endlessly entertaining video games is the retro classic, Tetris. Russian-born Alexey Pajitnov engineered this colorful puzzle game in 1984, but it wasn’t released in Europe and North America until 1987 and 1988. Tetris became one of the best-selling video games of all time over the years. 

Also providing surprising benefits as well. One benefit discovered by researcher Richard Haier shows that playing Tetris can improve brain function over time, in areas such as critical thinking. A separate study also found the usefulness of playing Tetris in treating older children suffering from lazy eyes, due to the game’s ability to keep the player focused and correct the lazy eye. 

Super Mario World

Super Mario World is the fourth addition to the Super Mario Bros. video game series. The game was developed by Nintendo and released in Japan in 1990, later released in Australia and North America in 1991 and 1992.  Unlike the previous three Super Mario Bros. games, the fourth was released for the SNES, the successor of the NES. 

An excellent addition to the series was everyone’s favorite dinosaur-like cutie, Yoshi. Nintendo had plans to incorporate Yoshi into previous Super Mario Bros. games, but were unable with the hardware limitations. The game received extremely high praise and ended up the best-selling videogame of its time. 

Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue

There are an astounding amount of Pokémon games available to play, with more being introduced on an almost yearly basis. The best selling and retro fan favorite is the first of the Pokémon games, Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue. Red and Green were first released for the Gameboy in Japan in 1996 under the name “Pocket Monsters”. 

Later released in Australia and North America in 1998 and Europe in 1999. Blue was released internationally a few years later in 1999. Through the years, they remain the highest earning Pokémon games of all time, showing you can’t beat the classics. 

5 Retro Games That Changed The World

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Video games were once seen as a niche hobby that some thought would be a passing fad but instead blossomed into one of the biggest industries in the world. Between console, mobile, and PC gaming, the video game industry now records around $200 billion in revenue each year. There are particular franchises that we can credit with video games becoming a staple of society.

What were the games that really set the tone? We’ve come up with five that changed the world, not based on gameplay, but on the impact that they had. These games had millions glued to their televisions or heading to the arcade, showing that video games should be taken seriously.

Super Mario Bros. 

The “Super Mario Bros.” franchise is one of the most successful and widely known throughout the world, continuing to provide Nintendo lovers with endless entertainment. The creation of the “Super Mario Bros.” game for the NES came after its predecessor and the first game of the series, Mario Bros, an arcade game released in Japan in 1983. 

Super Mario Bros and the NES console played important roles in reviving the video game industry after the video game crash in 1983. It also made way for other 16-bit games, like “Super Metroid”, “Street Fighter ll”, and “Sonic the Hedgehog”. 

Wolfenstein 3D

The third installment of the “Wolfenstein” video game series, “Wolfenstein 3D” has been dubbed the “grandfather of 3D shooters”. It was developed by id Software and later released in 1992 by Apogee Software and Formgen for PC. “Wolfenstein 3D” opened the door for future First Person Shooters and introduced action-packed and violent gameplay to the world of video games. 

It quickly became the best-selling game in 1992 and saw over a quarter million copies sold within the three years following. There was no other game like it on the market. It helped lead the way to the development of games like “Call of Duty”, “Doom”, and “GoldenEye 007”. 

Pong

One of the first arcade games, “Pong” was released in 1972 after Allan Alcorn developed the game as a training task given to him by Atari’s co-founder Nolan Bushnell. The founders of Atari enjoyed Alcorn’s creation so much, they began production of the simple, yet exciting ping-pong-style video game. 

The release of “Pong” sent players into a frenzy and it became an instant hit, leading to the release of Home Pong by Atari, sold exclusively through Sears. Many credit that move by Atari to be the first successful move in welcoming the era of home video game consoles. 

Grand Theft Auto

The first game of the series, “Grand Theft Auto” was released in 1997 for the PC and PlayStation and in 1999 for the Gameboy Color. The extremely popular action/RP game was surrounded by controversy even before it had been released due to the violent subject matter and the concern of parents over an increase of violence in video games over the years. 

The game still launched and went on to become a hit amongst players and went on to be one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time. In fact, “Grand Theft Auto V” has generated over $6 billion in revenue for Rockstar. 

Space Invaders

In 1978, Japanese developer Tomohiro Nishikado came up with the idea for “Space Invaders” after seeing that other arcade shooting games were taking off in the west. In “Space Invaders”, you play as a spaceship shooting at lines of UFOs that are slowly (at first) dropping down bit by bit until they’re all gone.

“Space Invaders” operated on a scoring system, and the appeal across both North America and Japan made the game a contest amongst friends. As a result, there were quarters being pumped into machines at all hours of the day, resulting in billions of dollars in revenue. Because of “Space Invaders”, arcade-style video games were taken seriously as a good business model for manufacturers.