A strange little side quest
A small trivia drop for Vexed Zoobies: Arthur Wynne published a diamond-shaped 'Word-Cross' in the New York World on December 21, 1913; the name later shifted to 'Cross-Word' and then 'crossword'. And then there is this: Nintendo's Donkey Kong arrived in 1981 and introduced the character first known as Jumpman, who later became Mario. That history is one reason familiar mechanics can still feel new when they are recombined well.