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

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