Aztec Stones

A strange little side quest

If Aztec Stones sends you down a curiosity rabbit hole, start here. Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in 1984 after drawing inspiration from pentomino puzzles, then simplified the idea around shapes made from four squares. That is only half the story. Spacewar! appeared on MIT's PDP-1 in 1962 and became one of the earliest influential computer games shared among programmers. That gives Aztec Stones a little more company than it first appears to have.