A strange little side quest
Bonsai Tree Builder belongs to a much longer story of play than a browser tab might suggest. M.U.L.E. arrived in 1983 with multiplayer competition built around gathering resources and keeping a colony alive, an early example of resource-driven strategy play. The surprising part is how quickly the next milestone followed. Pac-Man went on sale in 1980, and its creator Toru Iwatani famously linked the character's shape to a pizza with a slice missing. The screen is modern; the urge to test skill, pattern and timing definitely is not.
