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fact 1: For a game in 1990 he wore number 12
fact 2: He donated some of his salary to 9/11 relief efforts
fact 3: He has a phobia of water

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Michael Jordan has inspired millions of people to play basketball, and this includes all of this generation's best stars. In the discussion of the greatest of all time, he is the first name thrown into the ring and he is always the one that the latest greats are compared to. Those who were fortunate enough to follow him during his career will have vivid memories and remember his phenomenal ability, as well as his fierce competitiveness. Away from the hardwood, MJ is a businessman and brand, and there are dozens of strings to his bow which make him a fascinating individual.

10. For a Game in 1990 He Wore #12

In all of sports, Jordan's #23 has become so iconic that you see athletes choosing that number, despite playing a completely different sport. The number is synonymous with "His Airness," but it is not the only number he wore during his career. It is common knowledge that he temporarily wore #45 after returning from playing baseball (this was due to his #23 being retired). These are not the only numbers he wore in his pro career, however, as in one game in 1990 he was forced to wear a nameless #12 jersey. This was on a road game against the Orlando Magic, and prior to the game someone had managed to get into the locker room and steal his #23 jersey. As it turns out, Jordan plays better when he is mad as he dropped 49 points that game, but the Magic would emerge victorious.

http://www.si.com/nba/2015/02/18/michael-jordan-bulls-jersey-number-12 Source: Si.com

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10 Fascinating Facts About Michael Jordan - Goliath

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Michael Jordan has inspired millions of people to play basketball, and this includes all of this generation's best stars. In the discussion of the greatest of all time, he is the first name thrown into the ring and he is always the one that the latest greats are compared to.

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fact 1: Goku's voice actor passed out when recording once
fact 2: Goku is nice but has a bad temper
fact 3: Dragon ball z has a lot of fights in it

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The franchise didn't become popular in America until the late nineties. It was the original dub of on Toonami that created the Western fanbase for the show. When Dragon Ball Z was finished, Funimation went back and released an English dub of the original series. As Dragon Ball Z was shown first, there are many fans who prefer it to the comparatively tamer original series.

What it lacks in extended periods of screaming and spiky gold hair, the original Dragon Ball series more than makes up for it with an excellent fantasy story. It's time to give the first adventures of Goku and company their due. We are here today to look into the history of how Dragon Ball got started. From the forgotten Dragon Boy to the time that the Goku met his adult self.

Here are Fifteen Things You Never Knew About The Original Dragon Ball Series!

15 The Series Was Inspired By A Comic Called Dragon Boy

Most Dragon Ball fans are aware that the series was inspired by Journey to the West. The story of Journey to the West follows Sun Wukong, the monkey god, as he leads Xuanzang the priest to India. There are many shared elements between Journey to the West and Dragon Ball that lasted until the Z era of the series. Goku was supposed to be Sun Wukong, Oolong was Zhu Bajie, Yamcha was Sha Wujing, etc.

There was another direct inspiration for the Dragon Ball manga.After Akira Toriyama finished Dr. Slump, he tried to come up with an idea for a new series. His editor suggested that he attempt something based around martial arts, as Toriyama was a huge fan of Bruce Lee movies. This led to the creation of a two-part manga series, known as

Dragon Boy starred a young kid named Tanton (who resembles Gohan more than Goku). He is a martial artist who trains in the mountains with his master. Tanton is tasked with escorting a spoiled princess back to her homeland. On the way, they encounter a shapeshifting cat named Binyao, who can only change form for three minutes. Tanton owns an item known as a Dragon Ball, but it can only summon a tiny dragon that is useless in battle.

The two issues of Dragon Boy were well-received by fans. Akira Toriyama used elements from the comic and reworked them into Dragon Ball.

14 Dragon Ball Almost Came To America In The Eighties

The mainstream acceptance of manga & anime in the West can be linked to the success of the franchise in the late '90s. There were many attempts to bring Japanese cartoons and animated movies to America before this, with varying degrees of success. Shows like Battle of the Planets and Robotech were well-received, and the Studio Ghibli movies would see a limited English language release (before Princess Mononoke helped them to find a huge audience in the West).

As strange as it might seem now, we almost had an English language version of Dragon Ball in the late '80s. A company known as Harmony Gold owned the distribution rights for the Dragon Ball anime in America. They dubbed five of the episodes into English, as well as one of the movies. They did this so they would have enough material for focus testing. Due to negative feedback, the episodes were shelved and the rest of the episodes were never dubbed.

Some of the Harmony Gold episodes have leaked online, though they are tricky to find due to content strikes. One of the most infamous aspects of this dub is the fact that most of the characters had their names changed. Goku was called Zero, Bulma was Lena, Krillin was Bongo, and Korin became Whiskers the Wonder Cat!

13 The First Dragon Ball Game In America Had Nothing To Do With The Series

Due to Dragon Ball's popularity in Japan, it is only natural that it has received many different video game adaptations over the years. These stretch back to the days of the Famicom. There were many Dragon Ball games for Nintendo's first console, most of which never saw an international release.

The one Dragon Ball game to make its way to America during this period was totally retooled to remove any references to the show. It was originally called Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo but had its name changed to Dragon Power.

Dragon Power altered Goku's appearance so that he now resembled the design of Sun Wukong. Master Roshi was changed to look like a more traditional depiction of a wizard (and the panties that gave him a nosebleed were flipped over and turned into sandwiches). The Dragon Balls became Crystal Balls and the Kamehameha became the Wind Wave. An unedited version of the original game was released in France, due to Dragon Ball being shown there throughout the '80s.

12 The Dragon Ball Educational Films

If there is one person you want teaching your children about safety, it's a kid who travels the world looking for people to get into fist fights with.

Due to Goku's popularity with the youth of Japan, he was chosen to star in two educational films. The first was about traffic safety. Master Roshi and Krillin watch as a young boy is taught not to run out into the road, and Goku learns that he should always look left and right before crossing. Goku might not be the best spokesperson for traffic safety. He can easily survive being hit by a car (like during his first fight with Tien) and he grew up to be one of the worst drivers in the world.

The second film is about fire safety. Goku is a member of the local fire brigade, along with Krillin, Yamcha and Master Roshi. He spends his free time teaching kids about firework safety. Goku uses his Power Pole to save a lady and her cat from a burning building.

11 Growing Up Goku

There have been many different theories over the years that discuss when exactly Dragon Ball was intended to end. Most fans have heard the (incorrect) fact that Akira Toriyama wanted to end Dragon Ball with the Frieza saga, but was forced to keep going by his editors due to the popularity of the series.

All of these so-called "original endings" for the series are not true. Toriyama never intended to end Dragon Ball after Frieza or Cell. The series ended when he wanted it to end.

There was a point when Toriyama did threaten to end the series, but it concerned an ultimatum that Shonen Jump magazine was almost certain to accept. When the battle against King Piccolo ended, Toriyama said that he would only continue Dragon Ball if Goku was allowed to grow up and become an adult. The editors readily accepted as the series was becoming a huge hit. If the editors had taken a stand (out of fear that Goku was only popular as a young boy), then Dragon Ball may have ended with the death of King Piccolo.

10 The Chinese Dragon Ball Movie

Creating a live-action Dragon Ball movie would be expensive, assuming that the creators wanted to stay close to the source material. This hasn't stopped people from trying. In 1991, an unofficial live-action adaptation of Dragon Ball was made in China. It was called Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins and it loosely followed the story of the first Dragon Ball movie ( Curse of the Blood Rubies).

Despite not being an officially licenced movie, Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins has decent effects and costumes for the time. This is even more impressive when you consider the fact that it was intended to be a cheap knock-off. While it still looks like a film made in 1991, there was clearly a lot of love put into the movie. It follows the source material more closely than Hollywood's terrible attempt at a Dragon Ball movie.

Regardless of its quality, Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins is still better than Dragonball Evolution. Then again, sticking your face into a beehive is better than Dragonball Evolution.

9 The Coveted VHS Audio

There was a period of time when television shows existed, but home media (like VHS and DVD) did not. During this time, TV shows were considered disposable media. Some shows were not archived after they were broadcast, due to the producers having no plans to broadcast them ever again. It is for this reason that many early episodes of and Johnny Carson's iteration of The Tonight Show have been lost to time.

When Dragon Ball was first being broadcast, Toei was more concerned about storage space than they were about quality. The audio masters for the show were wiped, with a lower quality sound being stored on the film reel. This means that the Japanese versions of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z have a much lower quality audio than other releases of the show.

Due to the diligence of fans, some of the first broadcasts of the episode have been saved. There were people who recorded the episodes of the show on VHS tapes when they were first shown. This means that some of the higher quality audio episodes have survived and been archived online. VHS tapes with these episodes have become highly sought out by Dragon Ball fans.

8 The First Dragon Ball Video Game

Throughout its run, Dragon Ball has closely been involved with Bandai. As one of the biggest video game and toy manufacturers in the world, Bandai has been a major player in marketing and merchandising Dragon Ball all across the globe.

Since the days of the Famicom/NES, almost every single Dragon Ball video game has been made by Bandai. There is one exception to this. The first ever Dragon Ball video game had nothing to do with Bandai and was released on an obscure Japanese gaming console. was released on the Epoch Super Cassette Vision.

Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyou was a top-down shooter, in a similar vein to 1943. The game came on a cassette tape rather than a disk or cartridge. You play as Goku as he flies around on his nimbus cloud. He fights enemies using his Power Pole and Kamehameha as he soars across the sky. Dragon Ball: Dragon Daihikyou is a primitive game that wouldn't look out of place on the original Atari. It is only remembered due to its historical significance as the first Dragon Ball video game.

7 The Dr. Slump Crossover

Akira Toriyama will forever be known as the creator of Dragon Ball. It is the most famous of his works, with an audience of devoted fans that spans the globe. Dragon Ball has even eclipsed the success of his work on video games, like Chrono Trigger and the Dragon Quest series.

Before Dragon Ball became a success, Toriyama created lots of one-shot manga stories and short series. Most of these can be read in various collections of Toriyama's work. The most famous non- Dragon Ball manga series that Toriyama worked on was called Dr. Slump. Unlike Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump was mainly a comedy series. It followed a young robot girl named Arale, as she learns to live around the people who inhabit her hometown of Penguin Village.

Akira Toriyama has always had a soft spot for Dr. Slump. It is because of this that Dragon Ball and Dr. Slump crossed over on many occasions. Goku travelled to Penguin Village and teamed up with Arale during the Red Ribbon saga in Dragon Ball. Arale would go on to guest star in many Dragon Ball video games. She has appeared as recently as Dragon Ball Super, where she fought against Vegeta and Beerus.

6 The Nude Scenes

The original English dub of Dragon Ball Z was notorious for the absurd lengths in which it attempted to censor violence. While Dragon Ball Z was certainly violent, it didn't have much sexual content that needed to be removed. The most that needed censoring was Maron's swimsuit during the Garlic Jr. filler episodes, and a nude young Gohan.

In the original Dragon Ball manga, there was a lot more sexual humour and innuendos in the story. Both Goku and Bulma appeared nude on several occasions. As Goku is still a child throughout most of Dragon Ball, his nakedness is supposed to represent his innocent nature (as is often seen in Japanese media). In Bulma's case, she is shown topless on several different occasions, despite only being 16/17 years old at the time. Yamcha witnesses her leaving the shower (which freaks him out, due to his fear of girls) and Krillin pulls down her top so that the blood shooting from Master Roshi's nose will cover the invisible man enemy fought during the Fortuneteller Baba saga.

These scenes were mostly removed or toned down the anime (and completely removed in the English dub). Some English releases of the manga have censored these scenes.

5 The Muscle Tower/Kung Fu Master Connection

Due to the harsh schedule that most weekly manga authors have to endure, they have very little time for leisure activities. The process of writing & drawing eighteen pages of comic each week means that most manga authors are lucky to get a few hours of sleep a day. It is due to these stresses that they cannot spend much time with their family and friends. We only need to look at the case of Masashi Kishimoto (the author of Naruto), who didn't take a honeymoon until after Naruto ended, which happened over a decade after his wedding took place.

If there is one activity that manga authors do enjoy, it's gaming. This is mainly due to how easy it is to have a console set up in their work environment. One such gamer is Akira Toriyama. He has lent his character designs to numerous video games, as well as creating original content for some of the Dragon Ball games.

One game that left an impression on Toriyama was for the NES. This was a fighting game that involved a martial artist fighting enemies through several floors of a tower. It would be released in the West as Kung Fu Master. Toriyama liked the game so much that it inspired the Muscle Tower from the Red Ribbon Army saga.

4 The Dragon Quest Cameos

Along with his manga work, Akira Toriyama is famous for his character designs. He has designed all of the monsters in the Dragon Quest series, which dates back to 1986. While the early Dragon Quest games first appeared on the NES, the imaginative designs of Toriyama's monsters managed to shine through the primitive graphics. Outside of Dragon Quest, Toriyama designed the characters & monsters for Chrono Trigger on the Super Nintendo. Chrono Trigger is often regarded as one of the best video games of all time. Toriyama's artwork is certainly one of the reasons that the game still looks so good (even if we have to admit that Crono is basically Goku with red hair).

As Toriyama created the designs of the Dragon Quest monsters while still working on Dragon Ball, he used them in the background of several scenes of the manga. The Shaman and Killer Tiger monsters both appeared during the second World Martial Arts Tournament saga. The Cureslimes of Dragon Quest have recently appeared during Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods.

3 Dragon Ball Is The Third Best-Selling Manga In The World

When it comes to the manga series, all of Dragon Ball is called Dragon Ball. The letter Z was added to the series for the anime (starting with the appearance of Raditz). This change only happened in the anime. The Dragon Ball manga refers to the events that begin with Goku meeting Bulma for the first time and ending with the appearance of Uub.

In terms of sales, Dragon Ball is the third biggest-selling manga series in the world. Since its debut in 1984, Dragon Ball has sold an estimated 240 million copies across the world.

The two series that are ahead of Dragon Ball are One Piece and Golgo 13. As a franchise, One Piece is a phenomenon in Japan. It's far bigger than things like or the Marvel movies in its homeland. The creator of One Piece (Eiichiro Oda) has listed Akira Toriyama and Dragon Ball as his primary inspirations. The two series even crossed over in a one-shot called Cross Epoch.

Golgo 13 is a highly acclaimed and long-running manga series about an assassin. One of the main reasons that Golgo 13 has sold so many copies is due to its sheers length. The series started in 1968 and is still going.

2 The Dragon Ball Ban

As we mentioned earlier, the original series of Dragon Ball had more sexual themes and humour than Dragon Ball Z did. Those who were introduced to the series through Z might have been surprised by how different the early issues of the manga are compared to, say, the Frieza saga or the Majin Buu saga.

The raunchy humour and nudity found in the older issues of Dragon Ball have managed to get the series banned in some places. There have been several instances of libraries and schools removing collected issues of Dragon Ball, due to its inappropriate content.

While these might seem like isolated incidents, there were enough complaints to ensure that Toys R Us would stop selling the Dragon Ball manga.In 1999, all Toys R Us stores across America removed all issues of the Dragon Ball manga from their shelves. This is what prompted the edited versions of the early chapters that were released later.

1 I Used To Call Me On My Cellphone

One of the most obscure pieces of Dragon Ball Z merchandise has to be Dragon Ball Z: Atsumare! Gokū Wārudo. This was a game & VHS combo that was meant to be played on a system known as the Terebikko. The Terebikko was a toy phone with four buttons, that was meant to be connected to a VHS player. At certain points during the tape, the player would be asked a question that corresponded to one of the four buttons on the phone. These questions were all very simple, as the Terebikko was intended for very small children.

In Dragon Ball Z: Atsumare! Gokū Wārudo, Goku and his friends travel through time using Future Trunks' time machine. At one point during their journey, they travel back to the days of Dragon Ball. Goku leaves the time machine and meets himself from when he was a child. He pats his former self on the head before Future Trunks pulls him away.

Kid Goku is pretty docile during this encounter. If this portrayal was more faithful to his characterisation in Dragon Ball, then he would likely have challenged his older self to a battle. Goku, being the fool that he is, would probably have accepted and accidentally wiped himself from existence.

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About The Author

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15 Things You Never Knew About The Original Dragon Ball Series

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The franchise didn't become popular in America until the late nineties. It was the original dub of on Toonami that created the Western fanbase for the show. When Dragon Ball Z was finished, Funimation went back and released an English dub of the original series.

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fact 1: Michael Jackson had a dream of being spider man
fact 2: When he died he owed $500 million
fact 3: Michael Jacksons house sold for a very low price

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Despite being gone for over a decade, Michael Jackson is still one of the most famous pop singers and entertainers of all time. Here are 31 facts about the King of Pop.

1. Birthdate
Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958.

2. Dreams of Being Spiderman
Jackson dreamed of playing the role of Spiderman so much that he once tried to purchase Marvel Comics when it filed for bankruptcy just so he could cast himself as the character.

After his dream to play Spiderman went unfulfilled because of the failed bid to purchase Marvel Comics, Jackson unsuccessfully tried to win the role of Professor X in the X-Men movie franchise.

3. Favorite Type of Takeout Food
Jackson claims Mexican food was his favorite type of cuisine to order for takeout.

4. His Death Crashed The Internet
On the day that Jackson died on June 25, 2009, Wikipedia, AOL, and Twitter all crashed at the same time at 3:15 pm.

5. Passed Away Owing Debts
Despite boasting assets of $1 billion at the time of his death, Jackson also allegedly owed $500 million in unpaid debts.

6. Royalty in Gabon
The residents of Gabon on the Ivory Coast gave Jackson the title of king in their village, making him royalty in this little corner of the world.

7. Racking Up the Fines:
It was once reported that Jackson racked up over $1 million in library fines because of overdue books.

8. Could Not Leave Llamas:
While many fans are familiar with Jackson's treasured pet llamas, Louis and Lola, they may not know that he routinely took the pair with him to his recording studio in Los Angeles.

9. Medical Center in His Name:
After being so impressed with the treatment he received at the Brotman Medical Center in California following the accident in the Pepsi commercial, Jackson donated $1.5 million to the hospital, resulting in the naming of the "Michael Jackson Burn Center."

10. Michael Jackson's home sold for a low price
The Neverland Ranch mansion was listed for $100 million in 2015, but was discounted several times until the Pittsburg Penguins co-owner purchased the estate for $22 million in 2019.

11. Honorary Director of Soccer Team:
After becoming close with the co-chairman of Exeter City FC, Uri Geller, Jackson was named as an honorary director of the soccer club.

12. His Sister Claimed He Was a Pedophile
Not a stranger to controversy, Jackson's own sister LaToya once said that she thought her brother was a pedophile.

13. Soft Spot for Pinocchio
The legendary singer said that his favorite animated character of all time was Disney's Pinocchio.

14. Lost a Baby Brother
While the Jackson family is very well known, many people do not know that Marlon had a twin brother named Brandon who tragically died within 24 hours of his birth.

15. Top Security for Neverland
The security of Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Santa Ynez, California required the employment of at least 40 security guards patrolling the grounds at one time.

16. Two Stars on the Walk of Fame
Jackson has not one, but two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, representing his work as a solo artist and as a part of the Jackson 5.

17. Married His Dermatologist's Nurse
Although everyone knows that Jackson was once married to Lisa Marie Presley, it is not as common knowledge that he also once married the nurse of his dermatologist.

18. Michael's Father Played in a Blues Band
To earn extra money on the weekends, Joe Jackson performed in a blues band known as The Falcons.

19. Fearful of Father
Jackson said that he lived in fear of his father, saying that he would beat him with a belt when he made mistakes performing as a child in the family band.

20. Left His Father Out of Will
After Jackson's death, it was revealed that he left his father and siblings out of his will, choosing to leave his estate to only his mother and his children instead.

21. Jackson's Daughter Claimed Her Father Was Murdered
Jackson's daughter, Paris, claimed that her father's doctor at the time of his death murdered him, casting doubt on the professionalism of Conrad Murray.

22. "Bad" Was Originally Planned as a Duet
The hit song "Bad" was originally supposed to be a duet between Jackson and Prince, however, Prince turned down the opportunity due to the lyrics of the song.

23. He Lived in a Two-Bedroom House
While growing up, Jackson lived in a small two-bedroom home in Gary, Indiana, along with his eight siblings and parents.

24. Jackson and Siblings Got Start at the Chitlin' Circuit
The Jackson 5 got their musical start at a group of nightclubs and musical venues throughout the Deep South and the Midwest known as the Chitlin' Circuit.

25. "Thriller" Preserved by US Library of Congress
"Thriller" is the only music video preserved for posterity by the US Library of Congress, recognizing its contribution to American media and culture.

26. Received Humanitarian Award
Because of his important work supporting various HIV/AIDS causes, Jackson was presented with a humanitarian award by former President Ronald Reagan.

27. First Public Song
The first song that Jackson ever crooned for the public was "Climb Every Mountain," performed at the young age of five.

28. Cheap Costumes
While they may have looked as if they cost a fortune, the amazing costumes from the popular "Thriller" music video were all thrift shop bargains found at the Salvation Army.

29. Michael Jackson was almost killed in the 9/11 Attack
Jackson was scheduled to be attending a meeting at the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, however, he missed the event because he overslept.

30. Incredibly Shrinking Waist
Jackson's longtime costume designer, Michael Bush, once revealed that the entertainer had a 28-inch waist that would sometimes shrink by an entire inch after performing particularly strenuous dance routines.

31. Michael Jackson Height
Michael Jackson had a larger than life stage presence, however, he was only 5′ 9″ and a 9.5 shoe size

Did we miss any interesting facts? Let us know in the comments!

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31 Interesting Facts About Michael Jackson

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Despite being gone for over a decade, Michael Jackson is still one of the most famous pop singers and entertainers of all time. Here are 31 facts about the King of Pop. 1. Birthdate Michael Jackson was born on August 29, 1958. 2.

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fact 1: “Lucky day” learned the rope tricks in Disneyland
fact 2: Randy Newman played as the singing Bush
fact 3: It was martin shorts first movie roll

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15 Infamous Facts About ¡Three Amigos!

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Steven Spielberg almost directed, Randy Newman played the Singing Bush, and Steve Martin developed permanent tinnitus.

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fact 1: Nintendo made it for mainly portability
fact 2: Multiple games you could play with this little device
fact 3: Pokémon was super popular the most popular

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1. THE KONAMI CODE'S ORIGINS ARE IN GRADIUS.

Way back in 1985, Kazuhisa Hashimoto was working on the arcade game Gradius. Because he didn't want to actually play the whole game during the testing process, he developed a little shortcut that gave him a full set of power-ups, letting him live long enough to easily get to where he needed to without dying. When the game went live in 1986, the code was still there. To get full power-ups, all a player had to do was enter the code up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A.

The trick caught on, and soon, the so-called " Konami Code" could be found in a number of arcade and video games. Most notably, it gave you 30 extra lives in Contra. This super-secret (...or not) code has a special place in the hearts of geeks who have since grown up and used the insider code in websites, in movies, and on TV shows.

2. SUPER C USED A DIFFERENT CODE.

The original Contra was famous for featuring the Konami Code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start) to score a player 30 lives. For whatever reason, Super C, the Contra sequel, instead used the code Right, Left, Down, Up, A, B, Start, which only gave a player 10 lives.

3. BALLOON FIGHT WAS ONE OF SATORU IWATA'S FIRST PROJECTS.

Balloon Fight

was one of the first games the late Satoru Iwata worked on as he began his career at Nintendo. He later went on to become Nintendo's president and CEO, presiding over the launches of the Nintendo DS and Wii.

4. BUBBLE BOBBLE IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN.

Bubble Bobble

may seem rudimentary by today's video game standards, but it proved that video games can be good for the brain. Educators praised the game's ability to help kids overcome developmental challenges with its focus on problem-solving, strategy, and motor skills.

It's not easy to create a game based solely on the concept of eating. But Namco employee Toru Iwatani did just that in 1980 by taking the idea of a pizza with a slice missing, and then having it eat a bunch of dots while being chased by ghosts in a maze. (Iwatani has also said that the shape is a rounded version of the square Japanese character for "mouth.") The name of the game, Pakkuman, was inspired by the Japanese onomatopoeia, "paku-paku," which describes the sound of eating, similar to the English word "chomp." As the game was brought to market, the title morphed into Puck Man.

But when made his way to North America there was concern that the arcade cabinets would be vandalized by making the P into an F to spell something entirely different. A compromise was reached and the game became known as instead. Thanks to the American marketing machine, the name Pac-Man was eventually adopted for the game all over the world.

6. AN ORIGINAL COPY OF CASTLEVANIA IS WORTH SOME SERIOUS CASH.

The Dracula-based video game Castlevania is particularly valuable these days. Sealed versions of the game sell for upwards of $900, depending on the condition. Original Nintendo NES editions of Castlevania and Castlevania 2 have sold for more than $950.

7. ICE CLIMBER GAVE BIRTH TO SUPER MARIO BROS.

Ice Climber

was the first game that Kazuaki Morita worked on. He would go on to refine the game's formula for his next title at Nintendo: Super Mario Bros., where the action moved horizontally instead of vertically.

8. THE REAL MARIO WAS A LANDLORD, NOT A PLUMBER.

During the development of Donkey Kong, Jr., a Nintendo employee reportedly pointed out that the character looked a lot like Mario Segale, the Italian landlord of Nintendo's U.S. office. Thus, Mario was born. The original "Lady" character became "Pauline" at the same time in honor of one team member's wife, Polly.

9. THE GAME VERSION OF MARIO WAS ORIGINALLY A CARPENTER.

In Mario's first appearance in Donkey Kong, he was portrayed as a carpenter. But after a colleague remarked that his overalls made him look more like a plumber, legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto changed the character's occupation. This alteration also led to the game being set underground in the pipe-populated sewers of New York City.

10. THE NEW YORK TIMES THOUGHT MARIO AND LUIGI WERE JANITORS.

When longtime Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi passed away in 2013, The New York Times ran an obituary that quoted one of its own articles from 1988, in which Mario and Luigi were incorrectly described as janitors. On September 27, 2013-25 years after the article in question ran-the paper ran a correction:

"An obituary on Sept. 20 about Hiroshi Yamauchi, the longtime president of Nintendo, included a quotation from a 1988 New York Times article that inaccurately described the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. 2. The brothers Mario and Luigi, who appear in this and other Nintendo games, are plumbers, not janitors."

11. THERE'S AN EXCITEBIKE ARENA IN MARIO KART 8.

In 2014's Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U, an Excitebike arena became available as downloadable content (DLC), allowing the original game's 8-bit track to be played in a 3D environment.

12. FINAL FANTASY GOT ITS NAME FROM ITS CREATOR'S DESIRE TO RETIRE.

One of the most popular role-playing game franchises of all time got its name from almost becoming the last project its creator ever worked on. According to Hironobu Sakaguchi, he named the game he'd been working on Final Fantasy because he planned to quit the video-game industry if it didn't sell well. Despite the small staff of developers he was afforded for the game, it managed to sell-to the tune of 400,000 copies initially and a long list of sequels, spin-offs, and remastered releases in the years to come. Sakaguchi went on to serve for several years as President of Square USA, the company that first took a chance on Final Fantasy.

13. A U.S. COURT RULED THAT DONKEY KONG AND KING KONG ARE TWO DIFFERENT APES.

Filed in 1982, argued in a federal court in May of 1984, and concluded that October,Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. represented Universal's demand for a piece of Nintendo's Donkey Kongaction. The game had pulled in $180 million in sales from around 60,000 arcade machines by 1982, and the studio alleged copyright infringement due to the titular villain's resemblance to King Kong.

Attorney John Kirby, Jr., who represented Nintendo (and for whom it's believed the company's puffiest character was named, in thanks), pointed out that Universal itself had proved in the case of Universal City Studios, Inc. v. RKO General, Inc. that the plot and characters of King Kong were in the public domain. In the Nintendo case, the court ruled that Universal had acted in bad faith with the suit, had no right to the characters, and that, in any case, the studio had failed to prove that "there was any likelihood that an appreciable number of prudent purchasers [were] likely to be misled or confused as to the source of Donkey Kong " based on the ape's and the game's attributes.

14. YES, METROID AND KID ICARUS ARE RELATED.

If you think Metroid and Kid Icarus are similar, there's a reason for that: They were both developed by the same team, including director Satoru Okada, co-director/artist Yoshio Sakamoto, and composer Hip Tanaka.

15. METROID LOOKED TO ALIEN FOR INSPIRATION.

A fantastic game on its own, 1986's became the stuff of legends when it saved its biggest surprise for the final moments. After a player completed the game, a short scene revealed that the space-suited, missile-blasting hero was in fact (* gasp*) a woman! This shocking revelation wasn't something that had been planned from the start, and was instead the result of a programmer asking, "Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?" midway through the game's development. The Metroid team already counted Ridley Scott's female-led, sci-fi horror movie Alien as one of the game's chief inspirations, so they decided to run with that innocent suggestion-and the rest is gaming history.

16. WE MAY NEVER KNOW WHO JUSTIN BAILEY WAS.

Justin Bailey was a programmer. Justin Bailey was an inside joke. Justin Bailey was referencing British slang for "bathing suit."

If you played Metroid in the 1980s, chances are you've heard one of these explanations for the game's most infamous password. Entering " Justin Bailey" and keying in an additional 12 blank spaces allowed players to begin the game with heroine Samus Aran appearing in a leotard instead of her armor while being supplied with a full arsenal of missiles. Where did he come from? Was he man or myth? Or was it all just one very weird fluke?

Turns out, he could very well have just been a bored player who accidentally became the most famous (and hypothetical) NES gamer of all time. (Click here for a much more detailed explanation.)

17. THE ARCADE VERSION ENDING OF DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE IS DIFFERENT FROM NINTENDO'S.

The end of Double Dragon II: The Revenge differs on both the NES and arcade. On the NES, damsel-in-distress Marian is brought back to life after being killed early in the story; the arcade version ends on a much more dour note, leaving her dead. You can compare both versions below:

18. A SEQUEL TO MEGA MAN 2 WAS ANNOUNCED, BUT NEVER MATERIALIZED.

In 2010, Capcom announced that it would release Mega Man Universe for the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade the following year. The company promised that the new video game would have similar gameplay to Mega Man 2 and would give the player the ability to customize their own levels and stages. But a few months later, Capcom canceled the game and apologized to Mega Man fans who were anticipating the new release.

Capcom didn't disclose a specific reason why they canceled Mega Man Universe, instead citing "various circumstances," which might have included the exit of the designer of Mega Man Universe, Keiji Inafune.

If Mega Man Universe had actually been released, it would have been the first time the character would have been called "Mega Man" in his native Japan. Historically, the character was called "Rock Man," but was changed when the video game was imported to the United States.

19. NINJA GAIDEN REVOLUTIONIZED THE CONCEPT OF CUTSCENES.

's director, Hideo Yoshizawa (credited as Sakurazaki), wanted the NES version of the game to have a much deeper story than the arcade version, so he implemented 20 minutes of cinematic cutscenes. Though standard now, a story told through cutscenes was revolutionary at the time.

Nintendoficionados who submitted high scores from 1987's Golf U.S. Course Famicom Tournament received gold-colored Famicom (the Japanese equivalent of the NES) cartridges containing 's near-identical precursor, with Super Macho Man as its final foe.

21. TO ADVANCE IN STARTROPICS, YOU NEEDED TO HAVE THE BOX.

In StarTropics, to advance the story, players were required to input a code that was attached to a letter. However, the letter didn't exist in the game; it was physically included in the box the game came in. This obviously caused problems as players could easily lose it (or wind up with a rental copy lacking the letter at all) and be stuck forever, so Nintendo had to reprint the code in Nintendo Power magazine to try and help confused gamers.

Despite being conceived in Japan, The Legend of Zelda's titular princess was named after a native Alabaman. Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Zelda Fitzgerald-novelist, feminist, and wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald-was the inspiration for his Hyrulian heroine's handle.

23. THERE IS SIGNIFICANCE TO LINK'S NAME, TOO.

Originally, The Legend of Zelda was meant to be a game that spanned in-universe time periods, beginning in the canonical "past" and ending up in the "future," with the Triforce acting as a mode of transport between them. The series hero's unusual moniker was meant to symbolize his role as a link between the eras. But Nintendo's current position is that he is a "link" between the player and the game.

24. SHIGERU MIYAMOTO WAS DISAPPOINTED BY ZELDA II.

When gaming site Kotaku asked Miyamoto if he's ever made a bad game, the designer responded that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link didn't live up to his expectations. "We could have done more with [ Link]," he said. "It would have been nice to have had bigger enemies in the game, but the [NES] hardware wasn't capable of doing that."

Not only is Ghosts 'n Goblins known as one of the hardest games of all time, you actually have to beat it twice to actually complete it (it turns out the first play-through is all just a dream for the player).

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25 Fun Facts About Your Favorite Nintendo NES Games

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1. THE KONAMI CODE'S ORIGINS ARE IN GRADIUS. Way back in 1985, Kazuhisa Hashimoto was working on the arcade game Gradius. Because he didn't want to actually play the whole game during the testing process, he developed a little shortcut that gave him a full set of power-ups, letting him live long enough to easily get to where he needed to without dying.

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fact 1: Michael Jackson is one of the best artists ever, and is still listened to today
fact 2: van Halen: Most popular for its song “jump”
fact 3: Snoop dog is one of the best rappers ever, for his memorable music and iconic commercials

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80s music: 101 interesting things you may not have known

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Feeling nostalgic or curious? Brace yourself! Here are 101 Interesting 80s music facts you may not have known!

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fact 1: The atari was the most popular video game that all 80s kids remember
fact 2: One of the most original toys, space legos are toys that were used in the 80s but are still played with to this day
fact 3: Rubiks cube is a cube that you turn around to make all sides a certain solid color, this toy is also still used to this day

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Children of the 80's primarily have wonderful memories about their cabbage patch dolls and strawberry short cake. This infographic provides some fun unknown facts about our favorite 80's toys.

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Children of the 80's primarily have wonderful memories about their cabbage patch dolls and strawberry short cake. This infographic provides some fun unknown facts about our favorite 80's toys.

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fact 1: Michael jordan bought some of the charlotte hornets
fact 2: Michael jordan was apart of the dream team
fact 3: He won many championships with the bulls

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Michael Jordan has inspired millions of people to play basketball, and this includes all of this generation's best stars. In the discussion of the greatest of all time, he is the first name thrown into the ring and he is always the one that the latest greats are compared to. Those who were fortunate enough to follow him during his career will have vivid memories and remember his phenomenal ability, as well as his fierce competitiveness. Away from the hardwood, MJ is a businessman and brand, and there are dozens of strings to his bow which make him a fascinating individual.

10. For a Game in 1990 He Wore #12

In all of sports, Jordan's #23 has become so iconic that you see athletes choosing that number, despite playing a completely different sport. The number is synonymous with "His Airness," but it is not the only number he wore during his career. It is common knowledge that he temporarily wore #45 after returning from playing baseball (this was due to his #23 being retired). These are not the only numbers he wore in his pro career, however, as in one game in 1990 he was forced to wear a nameless #12 jersey. This was on a road game against the Orlando Magic, and prior to the game someone had managed to get into the locker room and steal his #23 jersey. As it turns out, Jordan plays better when he is mad as he dropped 49 points that game, but the Magic would emerge victorious.

http://www.si.com/nba/2015/02/18/michael-jordan-bulls-jersey-number-12 Source: Si.com

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10 Fascinating Facts About Michael Jordan - Goliath

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Michael Jordan has inspired millions of people to play basketball, and this includes all of this generation's best stars. In the discussion of the greatest of all time, he is the first name thrown into the ring and he is always the one that the latest greats are compared to.

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fact 1: Dressed with mo hawks and leather jackets
fact 2: Suit and tie: This was very popular because this is what you wear at work
fact 3: The most popular dressing for the 80s is yoga clothes because yoga was big in the 80s

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The 80s are easily identifiable. This is where your favorite trend came from! This amazing decade featured fast music, sporty cars, TV in every home, and new materials that changed the world. The 80s were the opposite of boring in everything they did. From the tunes on the radio to the hair on folks' heads, everything was a little...louder. It would be impossible to write an exhaustive list of all the amazing things that came out of the 80s, because there's just too many. Even though we can't name them all, these are things that you'll see in pictures that make you say, "Yep, that was the 80s."

1. BIG HAIR

Perms, perms, and more perms - you could have sailed the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria in some people's flows. Whether it was big bangs, big curls, or big feathers, 80s hair was just big.

2. SPANDEX

Lycra changed the world, and the 80s made sure it knew. Everyone was wearing spandex. Men, women, boys, girls, it didn't matter. Spandex was the material of the future, and everyone was in on the trend.

3. RIPPED KNEES

When folks weren't wearing skin tight leggings, they were wearing jeans. But the jeans had all seen better days. Whether you bought them that way or cut them out yourself, every pair of jeans had the knees torn out. Grandma hated it.

4. LACEY SHIRTS

You know what every shirt needs? MORE SHIRT. That's what they said in the 80s at least, since every shirt had frills on frills on frills. Nice button up shirt? Toss some frills on it. T-shirt? Let's try a couple of frills. Bedtime gown? Oh yea, that needs some frills for sure. Just check out Prince to see what frills were all about.

5. LEG WARMERS

Who has ever been somewhere and said, "You know what? The rest of my body is fine, but my calves are just freezing!" Probably nobody, but that didn't stop the 80s from creating leg warmers - pants for your calves only.

6. HIGH WAISTED JEANS

Whether people just didn't like belly buttons or they had to figure out a way to keep their pants up without belts, high waisted jeans were in. Now commonly referred to as mom jeans, these high rise beauties made a statement. We're not sure what kind of statement, but they made one.

7. NEON COLORS

Why go big and bold if you're just going to use muted colors? It doesn't make any sense. That's why neon colors were everywhere in the 80s. Plus, the neons really popped at the skating rink during the black light skate.

8. MULLETS

Business in the front, party in the back, baby. The 80s were the only time when mullets were cool. Maybe they weren't ever cool, but the 80s were definitely a time of mullets.

9. SIDE PONYTAILS

I guess asymmetry was all the rage in the 80s, because pony tails migrated to the side of heads. This trend is a head scratcher that's gone the same way as the mullet - probably gone forever.

10. CUT-OFF SWEATSHIRTS

I guess in order to offset the incredible height of jeans' crotches, people cut off the bottom of sweatshirts to show a little belly. Why this combination? Who knows. This particular trend spread across the genders also, even though I particularly liked it when Kelly Lebrock wore it.

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The 80s are easily identifiable. This is where your favorite trend came from! This amazing decade featured fast music, sporty cars, TV in every home, and new materials that changed the world. The 80s were the opposite of boring in everything they did.

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fact 1: Jimmy carter gave his military career to a peanut family farm
fact 2: Carter was a “dark horse” president
fact 3: Carter got a Nobel prize in 2002

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Today we celebrate the 94th birthday of former President Jimmy Carter. The Plains, Georgia native is certainly unique in comparison with other Presidents.

Carter, the only United States Naval Academy graduate to be elected to the White House, endured a roller-coaster four years in office. But much of his public career began after leaving Washington, D.C. in 1981.

Here's a quick look at some fascinating facts about the 39 th President:

1. Born on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, young James Earl Carter Jr. was the first person on his father's side of his family to graduate from high school.

2. Carter entered Annapolis during World War II. The future President graduated in the top 10 percent of his class in 1946, and he and his new wife, Rosalynn, moved frequently as his Navy assignments changed.

3. Carter gave up his military career to save the family peanut farm. And as a parent, Carter became involved in local politics when he served on an education board.

4. He supported civil rights, which hurt his early political career in Georgia. After a poor showing the 1966 governor's race, Carter adopted a more centrist image, and he won election in 1970. He became known as a budget cutter while in office.

5. Carter was a "dark horse" presidential candidate in 1976. The future President was tied for 12th in early polling, well behind former Alabama Governor George Wallace and former nominee Hubert Humphrey. He used his image as a Washington outsider to defeat Gerald Ford in the general election.

6. The Carter presidency was a study in contradictions. President Carter played a key role in the Camp David peace accords, but he also struggled with Congress and the media. The Iranian Hostage crisis proved to be a significant factor in his 1980 loss to Ronald Reagan.

7. Carter's legacy grew after the 1980 loss. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote there are no second acts in American lives, but Carter's public career after the White House is surely an exception.

8. In 1982, he founded the Carter Center, which has played an active role in human rights and disease prevention issues globally. The Carters helped publicize Habitat for Humanity, also.

9. Carter received his Nobel Prize in 2002. He received the award "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

10. Harry Truman was Carter's favorite President. Carter told The Guardian in 2011 that he admired Truman for not trying to profit off his presidency.

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10 fascinating facts about former President Jimmy Carter

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Today we celebrate the 94th birthday of former President Jimmy Carter. The Plains, Georgia native is certainly unique in comparison with other Presidents. Carter, the only United States Naval Academy graduate to be elected to the White House, endured a roller-coaster four years in office.

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fact 1: Trains opened in 1863 but are still used today
fact 2: Trains draw power from the electricity in the rails
fact 3: Train tracks are usually consisted of steel

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Railroading today, unlike what the industry witnessed between the end of World War II and 1980, has witnessed a renaissance with profits and ton-mileage steadily increasing.

Particularly in the 1970s times were not good and many seemed to think that the industry was an outdated mode of transportation that needed to be replaced.

However, with the creation of the Staggers Act and deregulation of the industry things slowly began to change. Now free to set their own rates and more open to abandon unneeded trackage railroads slowly began to recover.

The mega-merger movement also continued during the 1980s as many more famous names like the Milwaukee Road, Southern Railway, Norfolk & Western Railway, Rio Grande and others all disappeared during the decade.

While its been unfortunate to see these names gone forever railroads found a new role in the transportation market during the 1980s and today they play an extremely important role in moving goods and materials.

While bankruptcies and mergers saw many fabled companies disappear in the 1960s and 1970 the process only increased after 1980 with the Staggers Act. This act was named after Rep. Harley O. Staggers of West Virginia who originally sponsored it.

It was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 14, 1980, which allowed enormous deregulation of the railroad industry.

Some of the advantages included allowing railroads to enter into contracts with shippers to set prices and services, both without ICC approval. Other incentives including allowing railroads to more freely abandon unprofitable lines.

One of the first to go was the fabled Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (Rock Island), which was liquidated on January 25, 1980 after a strike crippled the railroad and it was unable to move freight. In 1980 there was over two-dozen Class I railroads still in operation.

The Beginning, The 1820s and '30s

A New Industry Takes Flight, The 1840s

The 1850s, A Blossoming Industry

The 1860s, Railroads In The Civil War

Heading West, The 1870s

A Standard Time Achieved, The 1880s

Safety And Steel, The 1890s

The "Golden Age" Comes To A Close, 1900-1920

The "Silver Age," Streamliners And The 1930s

Railroads In World War II, The 1940s

The Industry In Decline, The 1950s

Mergers And Bankruptcies, The 1960s And 1970s

However, by 1990 that number had dropped to just nine; CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Conrail, Santa Fe, Burlington Northern, Illinois Central, and Kansas City Southern (by this time lines like the Florida East Coast and Chicago & North Western railroads were considered Class II, Regionals).

While famous, classic railroad companies steadily disappeared after 1980 the industry itself was on the rebound. Since 1980 rail freight ton-miles have steadily increased from 932 billion in 1980 to over 1.5 trillion in 2006.

What's more is that market analysts and experts expect this number to continue to rise as shippers, and even trucking companies, look for more efficient and faster means of transporting their products with highways steadily becoming more choked and clogged.

Between 1990 and 2000, however, we saw even more famous railroads disappear into merger, most notably the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway.

In 1994 the Santa Fe agreed to merge with northwestern giant, Burlington Northern, to form the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, who recently changed its name to simply the BNSF Railway.

With the merger thus ended one of the most famous railroads to ever operate worldwide although its legend will forever live on in the products bearing its name and famous "Warbonnet" livery. The Santa Fe, however, wasn't the only well-known railroad to disappear in the '90s.

In 1995 the Chicago & North Western Railway became another arm of the Union Pacific, the Illinois Central Railroad was purchased by the Canadian National in 1998, and in 1999 Conrail was split up among CSX and Norfolk Southern.

Since the fall of Conrail no other major mergers have taken place leaving North America with seven major Class Is; CSX, NS, BNSF Railway, UP, Kansas City Southern, CN and Canadian Pacific.

With technological improvements such as continuous welded rail (CWR) in the 1950s and the widespread use of concrete ties, today company's can operate faster trains while at the same time reducing maintenance to both the track structure and equipment.

In the 1970s locomotives began to built with computer control systems and EMD's SD40-2, one of the most successful diesels of all time, is perhaps best remembered. In the 1990s both EMD and General Electric began constructing locomotives that employed alternating current (AC) traction motors.

While AC locomotives operate at lower speeds they produce vast amounts more of tractive effort making them ideal for drag service hauling coal over steep grades.

Today, the newest locomotives are equipped with the latest electronics and are becoming increasingly more environmentally friendly as has been seen with GE's and EMD's newest models the Evolution Series™ and SD70ACe. Railroads of the present era are seeing a renaissance of freight traffic not experienced since World War II.

Freight ton-miles have more than doubled since the mid-1940s with railroads hauling 43% (the most) of all transportation types, and freight revenue reached $57 billion in 2007.

While coal still makes up nearly 50% of all freight revenue for railroads other commodities are also important to the industry such as chemicals, intermodal and agricultural products.

Even though Amtrak over the years has operated almost entirely on "life support" with just enough funding to survive year to year, support for the carrier has increased, particularly in the post-9/11 era and it commonly breaks annual ridership records.

Along with Amtrak, state passenger railroading operations are gaining support and receiving increased attention and funding, particularly as highways become increasingly congested and gas prices skyrocket. Perhaps the two most noted states that are giving passenger railroading serious attention include North Carolina and California.

Both are doing a magnificent job at developing passenger rail corridors in their respective states, particularly North Carolina.

As transportation issues are becoming more of a topic today, passenger and commuter rail are both gaining increasing support and its future looks very bright, as everything from local trolley systems to large state-supported passenger rail systems are being planned and developed.

Today's freight trains are a far cry from thirty to forty years ago when much of the public thought it an outdated mode of transportation that was no longer needed.

Now, today, it is as strong as ever and looks to be solidly entrenched as an important component of of our transportation network.

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Railroads In The 21st Century: Facts, Statistics, Photos

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Railroading today, unlike what the industry witnessed between the end of World War II and 1980, has witnessed a renaissance with profits and ton-mileage steadily increasing. Particularly in the 1970s times were not good and many seemed to think that the industry was an outdated mode of transportation that needed to be replaced.