History Main / VideoGameGeography

* In ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'' (where RPG clichés have precedence over realism), a scientist makes the alarming discovery that [[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5758783607eaa0b68fc52697/57616ce645bf211a51aea8f7/57616d14746fb95af2714b77/1466002709721/0345.GIF?format=750w it is impossible for the world to be round]].

* ''VideoGame/HyperRogue'' is a roguelike where the world is a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbolic_geometry hyperbolic plane]].

* Completely averted in Jeff Weeks' [[http://www.geometrygames.org/HyperbolicGames/index.html Hyperbolic Games]]. You can play a simply maze game or pool on the surface of a sphere (or torus, or even on something insanely exotic called a "hyperbolic surface").

* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestI'' featured the land of Daventry in a toroidal shape, while the next three games in [[VideoGame/KingsQuest the series]] had somewhat of a WrapAround shape of a sideways cylinder, where the east and west were impassible but north and south wrapped around. Oddly enough, the first three games (and possibly the fourth) all take place in the same world, with the third one explicitly revisiting the land of the first one at the end (turns out you can escape a toroid if you climb up a high enough mountain), which meant that the world had different sections that were shaped like cylinders and toroids somehow. Or possibly AWizardDidIt. An official novelization/walkthrough of the series explained this away as an in-universe "magical law of containment" [[http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/Magical_law_of_%22containment%22]].

-->-- ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' [[note]]Well, actually, in game, it's the solution to a puzzle: ERAU QSSI DLRO WEHT. [[LampshadeHanging It was Square's catchphrase at the time.]])[[/note]]

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsArena Arena]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' have ''massive'' landmasses, with the landmass in ''Daggerfall'' explicitly stated to be twice the size of Britain. The later installments in the series have explorable areas that are only 6-16 square miles. This is largely the result of the switch between the randomly-generated content of the first two installments and the hand-crafted content of the later two. The time and expense of the latter method (which is the customary method in computer games) necessitated a vast decrease in the actual size of the game world. Using computers to procedurally assemble landscapes and settlements from basic building blocks allowed for the game world in the first two installments to have a 1:1 scale (and for the dungeons to be vast complexes) but had the drawbacks of making them seem generic and repetitive.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', being the first game in the series to be hand-build rather than relying on [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally generated sections]], still feels ''much'' more massive than most video games despite being considerably smaller than its predecessors. However, the ability to remove the persistent in-game fog in order to increase visibility to realistic levels brings with it the uncomfortable realization that all of Vvardenfell's major settlements are about 100 feet apart.
** Mountains in ''[[Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' illustrate the heavy SpaceCompression. The tree line occurs at about 50 feet above sea level. It's a bit jarring to be walking though a temperate field and the suddenly end up on a blizzard-swept peak, only to look back five feet and see the field. The tallest mountain in the game tops out at 766 meters tall, and its "7000 steps" are actual 732.

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* The arcade game ''Harley Davidson: L.A. Riders'' includes Lincoln Fabrics, a relatively obscure local landmark, but doesn't put it on Lincoln Blvd. which gave the store its name. Why bother?
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/PennAndTellersSmokeAndMirrors''' mini-game "Desert Bus", where the player makes a trip from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada by bus, and the gameplay is, if anything, even more boring than it would be in [[https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Tucson,+AZ/Las+Vegas,+NV/ real life]]. Maximum speed: 45 mph. Pausing: none. Total trip time: Approximately [[BladderOfSteel 8 hours]].

[[Real Life]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Adventurers}}'' (where RPG clichés have precedence over realism), a scientist makes the alarming discovery that [[http://adventurers.keenspot.com/d/0345.html it is impossible for the world to be round]].

* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestI'' featured the land of Daventry in a toroidal shape, while the next three games in [[VideoGame/KingsQuest the series]] had somewhat of a WrapAround shape of a sideways cylinder, where the east and west were impassible but north and south wrapped around. Oddly enough, the first three games (and possibly the fourth) all take place in the same world, with the third one explicitly revisiting the land of the first one at the end (turns out you can escape a toroid if you climb up a high enough mountain), which meant that the world had different sections that were shaped like cylinders and toroids somehow. Or possibly AWizardDidIt.

* Like ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'', most ''Franchise/TalesSeries'' have the toroidal world going on. And there are times when the whole planet is seen as a sphere in cutscenes.

* The Blue Sphere special stages in the ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series also take place on checkered donuts, though this ''could'' be chalked up to ring symbolism. If you're feeling incredibly charitable.

* '''Flat and country-shaped''': You can't walk off the edge of the map, which is shaped like any real-world border, irregular and conforming to mountains, rivers, etc. You can see some [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_Detail LOD]] land beyond the border, but you cannot get there and discover that it's sound stage quality. Most well known from the Bethesda {{RPG}}s (Franchise/TheElderScrolls and the new {{VideoGame/Fallout}}s).

** Later installments have explorable areas that are only 6-16 square miles. Compared to earlier installments with more realistically sized land masses (the landmass in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' is twice the size of Britain). This is largely the result of the switch between the randomly-generated content of the first two installments and the hand-crafted content of the later two. The time and expense of the latter method (which is the customary method in computer games) necessitated a vast decrease in the actual size of the game world. Using computers to procedurally assemble landscapes and settlements from basic building blocks allowed for the game world in the first two installments to have a 1:1 scale (and for the dungeons to be vast complexes) but had the drawbacks of making them seem generic and repetitive.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' is actually something of an interesting case, thanks to recent technological developments. Because the world was hand-crafted rather than randomly generated, it still seemed just as large to players as the (in reality) much-larger Daggerfall. However, the ability to remove the persistent in-game fog in order to increase visibility to realistic levels brings with it the uncomfortable realization that all of Vvardenfell's major settlements are about 100 feet apart.
** Mountains in ''Videogame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' illustrate the heavy space compression. The tree line occurs at about 50 feet above sea level. It's a bit jarring to be walking though a temperate field and the suddenly end up on a blizzard-swept peak, only to look back five feet and see the field. The tallest mountain in the game tops out at 766 meters tall, and its "7000 steps" are actual 732.

* Later installments in ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' have explorable areas that are only 6-16 square miles. Compared to earlier installments with more realistically sized land masses (the landmass in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' is twice the size of Britain). This is largely the result of the switch between the randomly-generated content of the first two installments and the hand-crafted content of the later two. The time and expense of the latter method (which is the customary method in computer games) necessitated a vast decrease in the actual size of the game world. Using computers to procedurally assemble landscapes and settlements from basic building blocks allowed for the game world in the first two installments to have a 1:1 scale (and for the dungeons to be vast complexes) but had the drawbacks of making them seem generic and repetitive.

* The later ''{{Ultima}}'' games also did this--the earlier games had a world map and separate cities, but the later ones had a single map where everything was laid out, which meant that a city only had a dozen or so buildings in it and the world was only a few miles around.

* The first ''VideoGame/{{Commandos}}'' game presented a rather strange image of 1940s Norway. Civilian housing was depicted as either half-timbered (rare in real life, and confined to older buildings in the capital and nearby areas) or curiously medieval-looking. One mission centered around sabotaging a railroad gun located in the lapp village of Masi, with a large ruined stone manor nearby. The real Masi is located far from any past or present railroads, and any building found in that area would be wooden.

* ''MetalWolfChaos'' has the hero defending the Statue of Liberty from a tank, which is rolling down a loooong suspension bridge that apparently leads right to the landmark. Perhaps the developers thought the tank would have looked lame if it took the ferry, which is the only real-life way to get to Liberty Island. Not to mention that, judging by the direction the Statue is facing, the other end of said bridge must be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' follows the same methods to box the player in. There are also a few blocked off roads to nowhere and collapsed caves that appear on the map but don't serve any importance, although some are used as entrances to DLC content. As with ''RDR'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', you can glitch out of the map at certain points and explore the endless [[MinusWorld outer landscape]].

* ''UltimaOnline'' standard torus world map.

* The Blue Sphere special stages in the ''SonicTheHedgehog'' series also take place on checkered donuts, though this ''could'' be chalked up to ring symbolism. If you're feeling incredibly charitable.

* Earlier ''BreathOfFire'' games have the toroid topology.

* Played straight in ''{{Nostalgia}}'', especially egregiously since the world map is supposed to represent OUR Earth.

* ''{{Ultima}}'' games in general adhere to the regular torus model, but the first game in the series is an unusual case. There are four different continents in the game, with each occupying a roughly square space. If you go straight in one direction, you'll pass through all four continents and end up where you started. However, if you always make a 90 degree turn after you reach a new continent, you will ''also'' pass through all four and end up where you started. Try not to think too much about what kind of world shape allows this.

* '''Toruses ("donut-shapes")''': Going off one side of the screen causes the player to appear at the opposite, implying a toroidal (or donut) shape[[note]]Actually a duocylinder, which has the same topology as a toroid but without the deformation. Unlike a toroid, a duocylinder cannot be represented in 3D space; it requires that you connect the two ends of a cylinder through a 4th dimension so that it does not distort the surface outwards or inwards.[[/note]]. Thus you scroll off the bottom and end up at the top, instead of going in the opposite direction from a different area at the bottom. It allows, among other things, faster travel around the map, allowing players to not have to cross the equator every time they want to get from the north pole to south pole and vice-versa.

* The Franchise/{{Lufia}} series is a particularly odd example. The world of VideoGame/LufiaAndTheFortressOfDoom is definitely toroidal, and that's all fine and good...except that the world map in [[VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals the prequel]] is completely different. And they explain this by saying that Lufia II takes place in "North Land", while Lufia I takes place in "West Land". No matter how far west of North Land you go, you will never reach West Land. Same with South Land and [[BlindIdiotTranslation Estoland]]. [[EpilepticTrees Maybe they're toroids looped around each other??]]

* ''{{Tetrisphere}}'', of all things, really should have been called Tetristorus.

* ''{{Asteroids}}''? More like ''As-toroids''!

* Justified and/or Lampshaded in ''{{Creatures}}'', where the "planet" is actually stated as being cylindrical. [[FridgeLogic ...With very odd gravitational properties]]. (And there's no cylinder world trope, but this also fits in WorldShapes.)

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** The above-mentioned [[VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV]] also had a similar infinity in the swamp, which stretched out in every direction once you were sufficiently far away from the shore. This was explained as getting lost in the swamp due to copious amounts of evil magic at work.

* ''StarControl 2'' had the various planet surfaces that you explore as cylinders (despite seeing the planet floating there as a sphere in 3 different modes of the game, and being able to orbit and '''run into''' them during [[TwoDSpace Ship-to-Ship combat]]).

* The [=SNES=] game ''{{Terranigma}}'', contains not one, but two world maps - [[HollowWorld underworld Earth]] (although there is no way for you to cross all the way around in any direction, as you cannot cross the lava seas), and overworld Earth - both of which are toroidal. In the overworld, which is supposed to be '''Earth''', go north from Greenland and you'll end up in the Antarctic.
* ''TailConcerto'' uses the "there's more to the world but you can't go there" method ([[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by claiming navigation systems go haywire when you reach the edge of Prairie and it's just too dangerous to continue, but somehow Waffle and friends manage to make {{Continuity Cameo}}s in ''{{Solatorobo}}''). [[http://www.cc2.co.jp/mamoru/bronx/img/bronx.jpg This map]] shows Prairie (''TailConcerto'') relative to Nipon (from the ''Mamoru-kun'' disaster preparedness promotions), but leaves out future installments like Shepherd (''{{Solatorobo}}'') and whatever land ''StrelkaStories'' will be based in.