A strange little side quest
Tiny Red Bird may feel immediate, but the ideas around role-playing games have been evolving for a very long time. By 1987, fantasy role-playing had become a major computer-game direction, with Zelda, licensed Dungeons & Dragons games and other story-led adventures expanding the form. There is another connection worth keeping in the same mental pocket: Nintendo's Donkey Kong arrived in 1981 and introduced the character first known as Jumpman, who later became Mario. So a round of Tiny Red Bird is not just a quick distraction; it is a tiny stop on a much longer role-playing games timeline.
