During the development of the Joyboard peripheral for the Atari 2600, developers at Amiga struggled to overcome the device's unusually high sensitivity to crashes while engaged. In response, they conceived a stress management-oriented office game where staff members would try to sit still on the board, not engaging its sensors, for as long as possible. Later, this game served as the namesake of the "Guru Meditation" error message on early versions of AmigaOS.

In 2008, developer Ian Bogost expanded on the concept behind the original office game by turning it into an actual Atari 2600 homebrew title, requiring players to similarly sit still for as long as they can manage.