A strange little side quest
The rules may be simple on screen, but the backstory around Checkers Mania is anything but tiny. Chess changed dramatically in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries when the queen became the board's most powerful piece. The timeline takes another interesting turn: 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. So a round of Checkers Mania is not just a quick distraction; it is a tiny stop on a much longer strategy games timeline.
