A strange little side quest
There is a neat bit of history hiding behind the kind of play you find in Spongebob Glove Universe. Space Invaders arrived in 1978 and helped turn electronic games from an arcade curiosity into mainstream entertainment. And then there is this: Early computer role-playing games helped turn rules, inventories, exploration and character progression into systems that could support long-form digital adventures. The details change, but the appeal of learning a system and trying again is remarkably persistent.
