A strange little side quest
The fun part of looking behind Black Navy War is seeing how many older ideas are still alive in modern play. The word 'checkmate' is linked to the Persian expression 'shah mat', used when the king was trapped. The same trail leads to another fact: Computer Space reached arcades in 1971 and became one of the earliest commercial electronic arcade games, even though its controls proved demanding for many players. So a round of Black Navy War is not just a quick distraction; it is a tiny stop on a much longer strategy games timeline.
