A strange little side quest
Before the next round of Feudalia, here is a piece of the bigger picture. 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. There is another connection worth keeping in the same mental pocket: 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. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.