A strange little side quest
Put Transformers Armada: The Energon Within next to the history of simulation games and a few unexpected connections appear. The Oregon Trail mixed travel, supplies, risk and survival decisions decades before resource-management systems became common in mainstream games. And the history keeps stacking up: Chess changed dramatically in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries when the queen became the board's most powerful piece. That long chain of experiments is part of why simulation games still feels fresh when a game finds the right twist.
