A strange little side quest
One reason simulation games keeps producing good game ideas around Merchant Billionaire is that its history is full of strange turns. SimCity grew out of Will Wright's enjoyment of the map editor he had built for an earlier game; the act of shaping a city became the game itself. That is only half the story. In 1958, Tennis for Two used an analog computer and an oscilloscope to turn simple physics into a playable tennis-like demonstration. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.
