10 Video Games That Got History Wrong

In the instruction manual for Tim Schafer's time-bending point 'n' click masterpiece Day of the Tentacle, LucasArts explain their 'Historical Accuracy Policy':

We don't have one. This game is not intended to teach the history of our country nor its possible future. Please don't get into an argument at school or at a party and say, "Well, LucasArts said that John Hancock wrote his name big because it impressed girls." We're both going to look silly.

The game purposefully plays fast and loose with the facts for the sake of fun, presenting everything school kids are taught about the Founding Fathers in the context of comedy. The apocrypha of George Washington chopping down a cherry tree is present and correct, only in DoTT he actually fells a kumquat tree painted red. Likewise, we hear about Hancock's idiomatic signature, explained not by King George's poor eyesight, but his amorous intent.

That said, some of those facts taught to children, lampooned in the game, aren't quite right. Hancock didn't actually attend the Constitutional Convention; he was busy dying at home. Thomas Jefferson also missed it on account of being in France. In fact, of the 55 people who made it to Philadelphia's Independence Hall on 17 September 1787, only Washington and Benjamin Franklin appear in the game!

What's more, Franklin's famous kite experiment is depicted in Day of the Tentacle, though it was actually performed by Thomas-François Dalibard 30 years prior. There's also no evidence to suggest that Betsy Ross - seen knitting the stars and stripes just as the stories tell - really did make the first American flag. Or if she did it in the shape of a tentacle.