A strange little side quest
Put Guess the Country! next to the history of learning games and a few unexpected connections appear. The Oregon Trail eventually appeared across generations of computer hardware and sold tens of millions of copies, making it one of the most enduring educational games. That old idea kept changing rather than disappearing. Arthur Wynne published a diamond-shaped 'Word-Cross' in the New York World on December 21, 1913; the name later shifted to 'Cross-Word' and then 'crossword'. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.
