When the question of the origin of "blink" came up, as a verb to describe short-distanced teleportation, I thought of a precursor that still gets brought up: "to jaunt." I first saw it used in SuperGiant's Transistor. The earliest usage of "jaunt" I know of is Alfred Bester's sci-fi novel Tiger! Tiger! (aka The Stars My Destination), which came out in 1957.
Great episode as usual, by the way! I'm going to play some of Asher's games now : )