2026-09-14 · history
Mastermind (1970) — A Telecoms Engineer's Four Colors, Later Reborn as Fallout's Hacking Screen
In 1970, Israeli telecommunications engineer Mordecai Meirowitz devised Mastermind, a game that reveals only a count of hits and near-misses from four hidden color pegs. Rejected by major toy companies, it was released by Invicta Plastics in 1971 and sold over 30 million sets within the decade. In 1976 Donald Knuth showed it could be solved in five moves or fewer, and in 2007 a Bethesda programmer built it directly into Fallout 3's hacking minigame. This piece traces how a half-century-old constraint — telling the player only a number, never the answer — still shapes puzzle design in the age of Wordle.
