A strange little side quest
The fun part of looking behind Pico's Infantry - Covert Operatives 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. And the history keeps stacking up: Pac-Man went on sale in 1980, and its creator Toru Iwatani famously linked the character's shape to a pizza with a slice missing. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.
