Oregon Trail

After my dogs, my wife died.

The Oregon Trail was not only played by millions, it was the first contact with video games for a whole generation. Installed on classroom PC's during the 80's, children grew up with the righteous sense that it was okay to play video games during school hours.

As the name suggests, the player needs to cross the Oregon Trail as a pioneer in the late 1800's. There are a number of problems to juggle during your journey - food supply, firearms, clothes, spare parts, oxen, hunting, river crossing, trading, native-americans, thieves, diseases, etc. The game is punishingly difficult no matter what difficulty level you choose, even by today standards.

Mostly text-based, there are some graphical moments and even some shooter action (it takes a surprisingly good aim to become a good hunter) making this a solid strategy game. In the Mass Effect era, it is still a fun game to play, although I doubt you'll get a History lesson from it (as originally intended). However it does (did) teach kids about the importance of making plans, rationing and risk vs. reward.

From the countless ports and remakes since its 1971 debut, the 1985 version for Apple II computers is generally acknowledge as the definitive one, featuring detailed color graphics ahead of their time.

Name: The Oregon Trail

Genre: Strategy/Edutainment

Platform: Various

Date of release: 1971, 1985 (Apple II)

Publisher: MECC

Rating: 9/10

Spacewar!

Somehow, I expect Leonard Nimoy to be standing in front of this screen.

Spacewar! is probably the least attractive but more important video game you will ever play as it is (arguably) the most influential video game ever (11 years before Pong).

Before Spacewar! there are only a couple of video games worth mentioning:

- (1952) OXO or Noughts And Crosses - this is a tic-tac-toe game running on a 1949 EDSAC computer (you can follow this link to download an EDSAC simulator that includes a copy of the game - watch it here);

- (1958) Tennis for two - The technology consisted of an analog Donner computer linked to an oscilloscope used as display. The game was played by two people using hand controls (watch it here).

There are other older wannabe video games (like CRT Amusement Device, or  NIM) but they fail to qualify as they rely on other stuff than video for the output (this is a personal opinion - if you do not agree, fell free to post).

You can read all about Spacewar! in this wikipedia article. Fortunately the original Spacewar! can be played on any computer with Java enabled. Simply go to this link. After reading the "readme" page you can play the game as in 1961.

The game is a monstrous effort for any 1961 programmer - not only does it feature vector graphics, it also imitates some real life physics. Imagine the load on a  200kHz processor (that is not a misprint) and 9 kB of main memory!

Thrust is awkward as it has little power and only switches between full and none - but this is what makes it challenging to play. You can alter your orbit around the star (usually called the sun) with just the right amount of thrust and end up in an perfect circular or elliptical orbit (stand in awe as you see Newton's laws in motion - your speed is anything but constant).

Unfortunately, the shots fired (missiles?) are not under the influence of the star's pull (there was no processing power left) which makes it pretty easy to shoot your fellow opponent - this is probably the only downfall of the game. It ends so quickly, you sometimes wish there was no other player so you could watch yourself orbit around that sparkling thing in the middle.

Naturally there are no sound effects, no music, no storyline, no dialogs, no bosses, etc which, as strange as it may seems, benefits the overall experience.
Make no mistake - although 11 years older (this is equivalent to a couple of centuries in dog-techno-years), Spacewar! blows Pong out of the water.

Name: Spacewar!

Genre: Shooter/Competitive Multiplayer

Platform: DEC PDP-1

Date of release: 1961

Publisher: MIT (Martin Graetz, Stephen Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen)

Rating: 10/10