A strange little side quest
The fun part of looking behind Mutato Potato is seeing how many older ideas are still alive in modern play. The word 'checkmate' is linked to the Persian expression 'shah mat', used when the king was trapped. The surprising part is how quickly the next milestone followed. Pong was field-tested in California bars in 1972 and helped launch the modern arcade-game era. The screen is modern; the urge to test skill, pattern and timing definitely is not.