‘The Oregon Trail’ Deserves to be in Video Game Hall of Fame
I remember sitting in class at Washington Elementary in Hibbing, Minnesota, waiting to see if our group survived our latest move in The Oregon Trail computer game.
After entering information on a keyboard, we had to wait for the answer on a dot matrix printer. Oregon Trail is up for consideration for induction into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. I hope it earns entry. Results will be announced in early May. It would join the likes of Pong, Tetris and Pac-Man in the hall, which only came into existence a year ago.
I also recall a lemonade game where we had to decide how many cups and how much sugar to buy and then how much to charge for a glass. After entering the data we would hold our collective breath while we waited for the dot-by-dot answer to be fed back to us. Charge too little and go bankrupt. Charge too much and not sell any lemonade.
Games have come a long way in a short time, but I think it's good to recognize those early titles. I can remember as a kid when we got the Atari 2600 game system and the hours my brother and I played games that would be considered prehistoric to my kids. The football game, as a I remember it, was four guys on offense and three on defense. Each play was either no gain or a touchdown.
I haven't heard of all the games on the list, though Space Invaders has always been a favorite and my son spent a whole lot of time on Minecraft a few years ago.
You can vote for the games you would like to see enter into the hall. Nominees include
- Elite
- Final Fantasy
- Grand Theft Auto III
- John Madden Football
- The Legend of Zelda
- Minecraft
- Nurburgring
- The Oregon Trail
- Pokemon Red and Green
- Sid Meier's Civilization
- The Sims
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Space Invaders
- Street Fighter II
- Tomb Raider