A strange little side quest
The rules may be simple on screen, but the backstory around Hex Match is anything but tiny. 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'. The surprising part is how quickly the next milestone followed. Atari's Gran Trak 10 from 1974 is recognized as the first arcade racing video game. So a round of Hex Match is not just a quick distraction; it is a tiny stop on a much longer puzzles timeline.
