Oregon Trail
As one of the most successful games in American history, Oregon Trail is an early educational computer games that was one of the most played computer games at the time. In the background of Oregon Trail, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette River and valley in Oregon. Although the Oregon Trail is an education game about Westward Movement in the 19th centry, the game gave up the boring historical narrative. Instead, it tried to represent the most “real” trip to Oregon. This is what makes the Oregon Trail appealing to people in the past and even now: let the player write their own sotries instead of experiencing a major historical event.
At the first glance, Oregon Trail doesn’t make me have the desire to play, especially for someone who has experienced a lot of modern games. After I play the game, I found a lot of this game seems to be the archetype of many modern games. I like how this game gives the player the power to decide based on the game background. For example, the player need choose the provisions to stock up, name of the pioneers who join the trip, when to rest during while traveling, and how much food to eat…etc. With different choices, the Oregon Trail will lead to different endings, which makes the game more challenging and fun to play. In short, the storytelling and unknown outcome are what attracted me to this game.
PONG
Founded in 1972, Pong is one of the classic early games that appears in many people’s childhood. Unlike the rich storyline of the Oregon Trail, Pong is a table tennis–themed arcade game with simple game interface. Like table tennis, Pong is a two-player game: the player can play with the computer or another player. Although the principle of the game is very simple, and does not require too many skills, Pong still become one of the appealing early game. One of the reason why this simple game is so appealing could be the joy of interacting with another player even with computer! Just like the sport game, Pong stimulated the player’s competitive spirit. In addition, Pong is accessible for most of the player since it hardly needs players to learn and easy to understand how to play. Therefore, Pong is one of the successful early game.
