History AnachronismStew / VideoGames

** Texas Hold'em being the go-to version of poker. While it's possible that Texas Hold'em was invented by 1899 (the history of the game is rather obscure), it didn't become popular until at least 1925. Four or Five Card Stud would have been the go-to card game of the era.
** The available firearms are an odd mix of guns which would have been obsolete for decades and guns not even invented yet in real life. For example, the Carbine Repeater (modeled after the real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_repeating_rifle#/media/File:Spencer_Carbine.JPG Spencer Carbine]]) is about 30 years past its prime by 1899, and the Volcanic pistol was an obscure museum piece from before the Civil War. Meanwhile, the Semi-Auto Shotgun (modeled on the real life Browning Auto-5) was patented in 1898 but wouldn't be produced until 1902, with the in-game being a post-1950 example based on the reload animation[[note]]Examples of the Auto-5 produced prior to 1950 required the bolt release button to be held in order to insert rounds into the magazine. An update during the period introduced a two-piece shell lifter, allowing the magazine to be topped up without requiring the bolt release to be held.[[/note]]. The Maxim machine guns are Model 1908s, here appearing nine years too early. Perhaps most flagrant is the Carcano Rifle, based on the Carcano 91/38. That "38" stands for ''1938''. It is also an Italian weapon, and finding even a period appropriate Italian rifle (such as the Modello rifle) in the American west would have been extremely unlikely.
** The original Carcano 91 would have been around (at least in Italy), but in its 1891 form was a much longer rifle than the in-game model copied directly from the infamous "Lee Harvey Oswald" version.

** While pre-rolled cigarettes were available in cartons and packs in 1899, hand-rolling cigarettes was by far the more popular method of the era. It wouldn't be until UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne (where the easier-to-ship pre-rolled cigarettes were included in solder's rations) and the subsequent advertising boom of the 1920s that pre-rolled cigarettes took over.

** Telegraph (and even some telephone) poles and lines were much more common in real-life 1899 than what is depicted in the game. They would have ran along pretty much every rail road track and most major roads.
** Milton and Ross introduce themselves as Pinkerton agents acting as lawmen on behalf of the US government. This arrangement was common in the 1870s and 80s, but had been made illegal by 1899.

** In Chapter 6, it is possible to overhear Dutch [[TalkingToThemself talking to himself]] at camp where he seems to be running through a game of chess in his mind. He mutters "ah, yes, White to d4," which is the Algebraic Notation of for describing chess moves. However, that system of notation didn't become popular until the 1980s. During the era of the game, Descriptive Notation would have been used instead. (Ex. "White Queen's Knight 4".) As an EasterEgg, the move Dutch describes is the first in a strategy known as the "Dutch Defense".

* Similar to the above, ''Star Trek: Fleet Command'', a MobilePhoneGame from the minds that [[FollowTheLeader ripped off]] ''VideoGame/GameOfWarFireAge'', has a bunch of Continuity Snarls: characters from all over the franchise are recruitable as crew for your ships. This wouldn't be a problem if the franchise didn't involve an AlternateTimeline started when Creator/JJAbrams decided to {{reboot}} the series. Thus, Captain Kirk (the version from the Abrams' Kelvin Timeline, played by Creator/ChrisPine) can and does co-exist with Captain Kirk (the version from the Prime Timeline, played by Creator/WilliamShatner), who can serve alongside ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''[='s=] Deanna Troi (Creator/MarinaSirtis) and ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''[='s=] Quark (Creator/ArminShimerman) even though there's a 100-year TimeSkip between them and the Kirks.

* ''[[VideoGame/InazumaEleven Inazuma Eleven GO 2: Chrono Stone]]'', ''everybody'' plays soccer, regardless of their time period or whether they are actually from story books. Expect people from Sengoku Japan and Medieval France to play soccer wearing chunks of armors.

* Similar to the above, ''Star Trek: Fleet Command'', a MobilePhoneGame from the minds that [[FollowTheLeader ripped off]] ''VideoGame/GameOfWarFireAge'', has a bunch of Continuity Snarls: characters from all over the franchise are recruitable as crew for your ships. This wouldn't be a problem if the franchise didn't involve an AlternateTimeline started when Creator/JJAbrams decided to {{reboot}} the series. Thus, Captain Kirk (the version from the Abramsverse, played by Creator/ChrisPine) can and does co-exist with Captain Kirk (the version from the Prime Timeline, played by Creator/WilliamShatner), who can serve alongside ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'''s Deanna Troi (Creator/MarinaSirtis) and ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'''s Quark (Creator/ArminShimmerman), who were introduced after a 100-year TimeSkip.

** Likewise the Portuguese special units are the Cazadores, a kind of light infantry from the Napoleonic wars, and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribauldequin Ribauldequin]], a multi-barrelled organ gun that went out of fashion by the end of the War of the Roses.

** The available firearms are an odd mix of guns which would have been obsolete for decades and guns not even invented yet in real life. For example, the Carbine Repeater (modeled after the real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_repeating_rifle#/media/File:Spencer_Carbine.JPG Spencer Carbine]]) is about 30 years past its prime by 1899, and the Volcanic pistol was an obscure museum piece from before the Civil War. Meanwhile, the Semi-Auto Shotgun (modeled on the real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browning_Auto-5 Browning Auto-5]]) was patented in 1898 but wouldn't be produced until 1902, with the in-game being a post-1950 example based on the reload animation[[note]]Examples of the Auto-5 produced prior to 1950 required the bolt release button to be held in order to insert rounds into the magazine. An update during the period introduced a two-piece shell lifter, allowing the magazine to be topped up without requiring the bolt release to be held.[[/note]]. The Maxim machine guns are Model 1908s, here appearing nine years too early. Perhaps most flagrant is the Carcano Rifle, based on the Carcano 91/38. That "38" stands for ''1938''. It is also an Italian weapon, and finding even a period appropriate Italian rifle (such as the Modello rifle) in the American west would have been extremely unlikely.

** In ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance Harmony of Dissonance]]'', you can find an "Old Radio" as a decoration for your room. Despite the fact that it takes place in 1748, and Marconi wouldn't [[Music/{{Starship}} play La Bamba]] for another 150 years.

** [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] also mentions that aside from the purely sci-fi gadgets like the Tesla Cannon, the spraycan he uses with a zippo lighter as a [[AerosolFlamethrower makeshift flamethrower]] would only be invented a few decades after the game is set. Likewise, the ammo pickups for the completely fictional Napalm Cannon are jerry cans, which (as the name implies) were a German invention from around UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and Caleb's shotgun of choice appears to be a Rossi Overland, a model that wouldn't enter production until 1978.[[note]]Although this one ''might'' be intentional as a reference to ''Film/TheUntouchables'', which is set in the same 1920s time frame and gave Creator/SeanConnery's character the same anachronistic shotgun.[[/note]]

** ''VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2'': If you have the original game along with the ''Rise of the Samurai'' and ''Fall of the Samurai'' [=DLC=]s, you can have a battle between a 19th century army with riflemen, cannons, revolver/carbine cavalry and [[GatlingGood Gatling guns]], up against a 16th century army of ashigaru and samurai warriors armed with spears, swords, bows and matchlock muskets. In a head-on fight in an open field, [[RealityEnsues the modern army will]] [[CurbStompBattle usually win pretty handily]], but with the right tactics, the traditionalists [[GunsAreWorthless can pull through]] [[RockBeatsLaser and win it]] [[labelnote:Hint]]Hills and forests are your friend[[/labelnote]]. You even get an achievement for winning a battle like this as either side.

** In ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance Harmony of Dissonance]]'', you can find an "Old Radio" as a decoration for your room. Despite the fact that it takes place in 1748, and Marconi wouldn't [[Music/JeffersonStarship play La Bamba]] for another 150 years.

** In ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance Harmony of Dissonance]]'', you can find an "Old Radio" as a decoration for your room. Despite the fact that it takes place in 1748.

* It would be easier to list the things that ''aren't'' anachronistic in ''[[VideoGame/SoulSeries Soul Calibur]]'''s version of the 16th century.
** Let's see: there's no electricity or telephones, aaannnnd... we're done.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' takes place in the mid 1980s, but features items and Sega franchises that wouldn't be invented until the 1990s: Ryo can get figurines based on ''VideoGame/VirtuaFighter'' and ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' from gacha machines and play video games on a UsefulNote/SegaSaturn.

* ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' takes place during the age of Greek gods. SchizoTech abounds: on top of [[FrickinLaserBeams laser weapons]] and MiniMecha, the Greek Gods also seem to have access to the Internet (complete with its own version of Wikipedia), pizza delivery, motorized drills, and matchlock rifles, just to name a few examples. The food in the game also clashes with the setting: it's a safe bet that they didn't have tempura in ancient Greece.

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' gets pretty insane with the sheer weirdness of how they reconcile most of SchizoTech, though usually the base level of technology (at least for humanity) is about on par with that of ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam''. However, past that bare minimum the mecha range anywhere from uber futuristic to looking like an escapee from a museum, and their fuel sources range anywhere from plain gasoline to fusion engines to outright AppliedPhlebotinum. It also kinda helps that in the case of series with a definite anachronistic touch, like ''Anime/TheBigO'', ''Anime/TurnAGundam'', ''Manga/GiantRobo'', or ''Anime/{{Xabungle}}'', there is generally [[DeusExMachina a good reason]] why such dated looking tech exists in the same universe as the futuristic stuff.
** In an InUniverse example, series from ''Gundam''[='=]s [[AlternativeCalendar Universal Century]] timeline that are featured in ''Super Robot Wars'' very frequently mix-and-match elements from each other. The most "generic" grouping of Universal Century Gundam series is ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'', ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ'', and ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack'', which span six years in its home canon; that's before getting into series like the original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' (set eight years before ''Zeta Gundam''), "late UC" entries such as ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91'' and ''Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam'' (30 and 60 years after ''Char's Counterattack'' respectively), and the far-flung sequels ''Anime/TurnAGundam'' and ''Anime/GundamReconguistaInG'', all of which have interchangable units and pilots. For just one example of how this works out, ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAdvance'' features ''Char's Counterattack''-era Amuro Ray fighting soldiers from the original ''Mobile Suit Gundam'', including Char Aznable who later switches from his original ''Mobile Suit Gundam'' design to his ''Zeta Gundam'' "Quattro Bajeena" persona, while also dealing with Anavel Gato from the interquel ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam0083StardustMemory''. The protagonists of ''Zeta Gundam'' and ''Gundam ZZ'' are all part of the BadassArmy from ''Char's Counterattack'' and can team up despite [[spoiler:Kamille originally spending much of ''Gundam ZZ'' recovering from his MindRape at the end of ''Zeta Gundam'']].
** There's less frequent InUniverse anachronisms among the ''Mazinger'' and ''Getter Robo'' franchises as well: the former blending together ''Anime/MazingerZ'', ''Anime/GreatMazinger'', and ''Anime/UFORoboGrendizer'', while the latter generally focusing on when [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute Benkei]] replaces [[HeroicSacrifice Musashi]] relative to ''Getter Robo''[='=]s original canon.

** Before ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsX'' began, [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamF91 Seabook and Cecily]] seem to have participated in the events of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamCharsCounterattack Char's Counterattack]]'' alongside [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ the Gundam Team]], despite said movie taking place 30 years before ''F91'' in canon. However, the situations with ''Steel 7'' and ''Anime/GundamReconguistaInG'' are another trope entirely. They involve time travel shenanigans. A large part of Char's characterization in this game stems from learning that things are still crappy centuries later.

* The ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' series has this in spades, cheerfully throwing vending machines, electric devices and Elvis pins into the 17th century [[WelcomeToTheCaribbeanMon Caribbean]]. Given the tone of the series, this is often cheerfully {{lampshade|Hanging}}d, as when Guybrush complains about the shoddy, 17th century electrical wiring.

* The primary setting of ''VideoGame/PrincessConnect'', Landsol, is a [[MedievalEuropeanFantasy fantasy kingdom vaguely based on Medieval Europe]] that also happens to contain [[MoreDakka gatling guns]], VideoGames, and GiantRobots.