A strange little side quest
Zoom out from Rotate the Maze for a moment and the timeline gets surprisingly deep. The name Tetris combines a reference to four-square pieces with Pajitnov's interest in tennis. And then there is this: 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. So a round of Rotate the Maze is not just a quick distraction; it is a tiny stop on a much longer puzzles timeline.