A strange little side quest
Monster Master may feel immediate, but the ideas around strategy games have been evolving for a very long time. Chess changed dramatically in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries when the queen became the board's most powerful piece. The same trail leads to another fact: Midway's Gun Fight from 1975 was the first arcade video game to use a microprocessor. The screen is modern; the urge to test skill, pattern and timing definitely is not.