A strange little side quest
Between one round of Max: The Secret of Grandpa's Letter and the next, this is worth knowing: By 1987, fantasy role-playing had become a major computer-game direction, with Zelda, licensed Dungeons & Dragons games and other story-led adventures expanding the form. Another piece of context lands nicely beside it: Street Fighter II, released in 1991, turned head-to-head arcade fighting into a worldwide phenomenon and helped define the modern fighting-game genre. The details change, but the appeal of learning a system and trying again is remarkably persistent.