We can't quite believe it, but it's been 15 years since the release of the original Max Payne.

Originally released on the PC, it was eventually ported to the Xbox, PlayStation 2, Mac OS and even the Game Boy Advance.

It's iconic in so many ways – as are the sequels, although some might disagree on Max Payne 3 – from bullet time to the noir stylings.

To celebrate 15 years of Max Payne, here are 15 things you might not know about the series.

1. Max Payne was designed to look like Sam Lake

Although the voice of Max Payne has always been James McCaffrey, the original face of Max Payne was none other than creator Sam Lake.

The original game had such a limited budget that developer Remedy used Sami "Sam Lake"Jarvi, one of the studio's founders and the main writer of the game, for the graphic novel sequences.

2. And Lake kept it in the family for Nicole Horne's face

Remedy used Sam Lake's own mother for the facial model of the evil Nicole Horne.

3. But Max Payne's actually had a few faces

For Max Payne 2, Remedy used actor Timothy Gibbs, then in Max Payne 3, voice actor James McCaffrey – the voice of Max Payne in all three games – also offered his face for the motion capture in the game.

4. There was a weird rat Easter egg in the original game

It's in Part 1, Chapter 2: Live from the Crime Scene. If you throw a grenade through the hole in the brick wall Max starts near, a new objective will flash up stating you "have declared a war against rats" just after the detonation.

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Cue rats wielding guns that appear later in the level. Watch out for the rodent with the Desert Eagle and a thirst for revenge.

Goodness knows how they deal with the recoil.

5. But also a reference to Dopefish

Older gamers may know what Dopefish is, but for the uninitiated, it's a common gaming Easter egg that actually first appeared in the 1991 title Commander Keen 4.

Well, Dopefish also appears in Max Payne in the form of a poster on a wall bearing the slogan "Dopefish Lives" with the rather goofy-looking fish in question dual-wielding pistols.

(Dopefish didn't stop there. It went on to appear in a number of other titles including RAGE, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning; Hitman 2, Quake, Alan Wake and more.)

6. It was the first game to introduce Bullet Time

Although several games have used a similar mechanic since, Max Payne was the first video game to employ a bullet-time mechanic. It started life in a Rolling Stones video directed by Michel Gondry, was popularised by the Wachowskis in The Matrix and was then brought into the video games industry by Max Payne and Remedy.

7. The theme tune has a backstory

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Rather adorably, the Max Payne theme tune "The Late Goodbye" is inspired by a poem written by Sam Lake.

So he's not only behind the face of Max Payne, but he's also behind the music.

8. All of Remedy's other games pay homage to Max Payne

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There are Max Payne Easter eggs in every other game that Remedy has ever made.

Take Alan Wake for example. In Episode 2: Taken, the first two levels of the manuscript you find are read by James McCaffrey – the voice of Max Payne.

Later, in Alan's apartment, you'll notice two golden Beretta handguns, which just happen to be Mr. Payne's handgun of choice.

In Quantum Break, there's an Alan Wake video playing in a tent near the Physics Building in the game's opening scene. But Sam Lake is in it playing Max Payne – a nice nod to the studio's legacy.

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9. There are two Max Payne 2 endings

If you played through Max Payne 2 on anything but the highest difficulty, you were presented with one ending where *SPOILERS* Mona dies in Max's arms.

But, if you managed to complete the game on the hardest difficulty, you'd unlock the secret ending where Mona actually survives.

And to the series' merit, Mona's demise is never confirmed or debunked in Max Payne 3 or the related graphic novels.

What really happened to Mona Sax?

10. "Play it again Max!"

In every Max Payne game, our vengeful protagonist takes time to tinkle the ivories. It's possible to make Max bash out the game's theme on a piano in each of the three games.

During a chapter called Angel of Death in the original game, Payne performs a few notes of the theme inside the Punchinello Manor.

Then in the second game, in Chapter 7: The Million Dollar Question, Max tinkles on the piano that's near the cleaners. He also plays the tune in the second room of Chapter 7: Love Hurts.

Finally, in Max Payne 3, Max gets a little obsessed with the ebonies and the ivories, as he has the potential to play the theme tune in Chapters 1, 8, 11 and 12.

11. Max Payne 3's soundtrack was a game changer

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The Max Payne 3 soundtrack is an absolute masterpiece. Created by LA noise band Health, the soundtrack completely drives the game as the music surges and pulses underneath the action, timed perfectly with the various scenes of the game's story.

It manages to make the game a goddamned unforgettable experience as the music continuously drives you forward to a ridiculous crescendo in the airport.

We only wish other action game developers would follow suit.

12. The series didn't have a cover system until Max Payne 3

For the first time in the series, Max Payne 3 introduced a cover system into the game's main mechanics, a la GTA 5.

Long-term fans were very irked by the addition, as they believed it would dilute the franchise's usual run-and-gun gameplay. However, the game was well received and the tweaks to gameplay actually brought Max Payne more aline to the more modern shooters.

13. There was a "Say No to Max Payne 3" campaign online

The first two Max Payne games were made by Remedy Entertainment, but the most recent Max Payne 3 was actually made by Rockstar Vancouver.

Fans of the series were so unhappy about the changes the studio were making to the Max Payne formula that they actually created a petition called "Say No to Max Payne 3" at petitiononline.com. (It no longer exists.)

However, any efforts to stop the game being made were fruitless, especially as the petition only got a measly 316 signatures.

14. You could have had your face in Max Payne 3

Forget Sam Lake, because your face could have been in Max Payne 3. Back in 2011, developer Rockstar held auditions to find players that could have their face immortalised in pixels. The idea was that the players would become the multiplayer gang characters for the game.

Winners were selected at random on Twitter, with the eventual gang squad hailing from all over the world including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, London, New York and Southern California.

15. Captain Baseball Bat Boy is a biopic

You might remember that the Max Payne series features an ultra violent, but also very childlike, comic strip and TV show called Captain Baseball Bat Boy.

But if you watch and read it carefully, you'll soon realise that it's a self-reflexive tale. Baseball Bat Boy calls his enemies "freaking zombie demons from outer space", but they're actually a reference to Max's foray in the Ragnarok nightclub in the original Max Payne game.

As he explores the club, Max discovers quite the literature treasure trove, including one title that reads "Freaking Zombie Demons from Outer Space".

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