A strange little side quest
New Christmas Parade may feel immediate, but the ideas around puzzles have been evolving for a very long time. Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in 1984 after drawing inspiration from pentomino puzzles, then simplified the idea around shapes made from four squares. That is only half the story. Midway's Gun Fight from 1975 was the first arcade video game to use a microprocessor. So a round of New Christmas Parade is not just a quick distraction; it is a tiny stop on a much longer puzzles timeline.
