A strange little side quest
If Mr.Meaty: Holiday Havoc sends you down a curiosity rabbit hole, start here. 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. And then there is this: 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. The details change, but the appeal of learning a system and trying again is remarkably persistent.