A strange little side quest
A quick detour while Smoothie Operator waits for your next move: Spacewar! appeared on MIT's PDP-1 in 1962 and became one of the earliest influential computer games shared among programmers. There is another connection worth keeping in the same mental pocket: Pong was field-tested in California bars in 1972 and helped launch the modern arcade-game era. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.