A strange little side quest
Put Thing Thing next to the history of video-game history and a few unexpected connections appear. Computer Space reached arcades in 1971 and became one of the earliest commercial electronic arcade games, even though its controls proved demanding for many players. The timeline takes another interesting turn: Spacewar! appeared on MIT's PDP-1 in 1962 and became one of the earliest influential computer games shared among programmers. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.
