A strange little side quest
Even a quick game like Murphy's Holiday Laws sits on top of decades — and sometimes centuries — of ideas. Early computer role-playing games helped turn rules, inventories, exploration and character progression into systems that could support long-form digital adventures. And the history keeps stacking up: Spacewar! appeared on MIT's PDP-1 in 1962 and became one of the earliest influential computer games shared among programmers. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.
