The original game did not include a fast-forward option, meaning the player would have to wait in real time for the lemmings to either die or exit the level. It was only after working on the ultimately doomed attempt to create a Lemmings arcade cabinet for Data East in 1991 that the fast-forward icon was included in Lemmings on the Atari Lynx and Lemmings 2 and the process was sped up. Guinness World Records Gamers’ Edition 2009.

Until TOCA Touring Car Championship’s release in 1997, players were used to driving only the fastest supercars in the world. TOCA took a different angle, offering a variety of production cars that were available in showrooms across the country, including theHonda Accord, Vauxhall Vectra and Nissan Primera in the first videogame recreation of the British Touring Car Championship. Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition 2009.

On 19 November 1997 Sir Paul McCartney performed his new classical work, the 75-minute symphonic poem Standing Stone. Taking four years to compose, it was broadcast live from Carnegie Hall in a multifaceted presentation of radio, TV, interactive on-line interview and Internet audio and video broadcast across the World Wide Web.

Many video games have featured a day/night cycle that affects the gameplay in some way – for example, recent Pokémon games have used an internal clock to tell whether it should be light or dark and changed the game’s settings to match it. The Gameboy Advance title Boktai took this idea one step further by including a light sensor on the cartridge that affected the strength of the game’s vampire enemies. Many gamers were tempted to play only in bright sunlight. Guinness World Records Gamers’ Continue reading →

Introduced in the Book 13 update, fishing was the first of many hobbies available to inhabitants of Middle-earth. This can be done anywhere in the world with a large variety of fish available to catch. The largest fish that a player can pull out of the water is the 50-lb (22.6 kg) salmon, while the hardest fish to catch is the 20-ft (6.1-m) white sturgeon. Guinness World Records Gamers’ Edition 2009.

The first species of lungless frog was confirmed in 2008. Previously known only from two specimens, Barbourula kalimantanensis, an aquatic species from Borneo, obtains all of its oxygen by direct absorption through its skin and hence has no need of lungs. This was verified by studies following the recent discovery of two new populations of this species in Kalimantan.

Phil and Susan Ershler (USA) were the first married couple to successfully climb Everest, reaching the summit on Thursday 16 May 2002 – the same day that a record 54 people (including the Ershlers) reached the top. The couple have also scaled the highest peaks on every one of the world’s continents.

A controversial figure, Thomas Beatie (USA) was born female but legally became a man in his home state of Oregon, USA. He underwent sex reassignment surgery in 2002 but did not have his female reproductive organs removed. As a man, Beatie was legally able to marry Nancy, his female partner, in 2003. Nancy had previously had a hysterectomy, so when the couple wanted to start a family it was Thomas who, with the help of an anonymous sperm donor, conceived and carried the child. The Continue reading →

NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission landed in Ares Vallis on 4 July 1997. The lander deployed a small mobile laboratory, or rover, called Sojourner, capable of travelling a few hundred metres from the lander. Sojourner weighed just over 10.6 kg (23 lb 5 oz) and was able to conduct basic experiments such as measuring the chemical compositions of Martian rocks. Pathfinder (pictured below) and the Sojourner rover operated until contact was lost on 27 September 1997.

Spider-Man creator Stan Lee appeared as a voice artist in Spider-Man, released in 2000 for PlayStation. The game featured enthusiastic narration from Lee, welcoming players with the line “Greetings, true believers and newcomers alike!”. Stan Lee created Spider-Man in 1962. The character first appeared in the comic book Amazing Fantasy #15 before going on to become a huge international hit in his own comic-book series. Television, film, videogames and mass-merchandising soon followed for the web-spinning wonder. Guinness World Records Gamers’ Edition 2009.