#1: The Oregon Trail (1971, MECC)

It's fitting that the first of the Thousand and One would be a game so revered by so many of my generation. The Oregon Trail, a 1971 edutainment program by MECC, found a home in computer labs around the country. For many, myself included, it was an early exposure to computer technology at a time when it still seemed magical.

The version of this game that I played was the Apple II virtual disk image available at virtualapple.org. This is a faithful representation of the game many of us are familiar with. Plenty of others are now available, including versions on the Wii and IOS.

Essentially you're an emigrant trying to make your way to Oregon to start a new life. To accomplish this you're going to have to make a bunch of tough decisions. Chief among these tough decisions is what you'll put on your tombstone when you inevitably run out of food and die of dysentery. Life wasn't easy in the Wild West.  The Oregon Trail is an edutainment game, meaning it was essentially a means of attempting to teach kids without having them realize they're learning. It's one of the few good examples of this idea - others include the Carmen Sandiego games and Math Blaster.