A strange little side quest
Before the next round of Pixel Clash, here is a piece of the bigger picture. Space Invaders arrived in 1978 and helped turn electronic games from an arcade curiosity into mainstream entertainment. The surprising part is how quickly the next milestone followed. The word 'checkmate' is linked to the Persian expression 'shah mat', used when the king was trapped. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.