The Wayback Machine: Great Educational Games of the 80’s

By Joe Haygood | September 29, 2008

For those of us that grew up with computer lab in the 80’s, it was a time of wonder.  For the first time, computers were being used in the school environment, from high school, all the way down to elementary school.  While there were typing classes you could use them with, and Programming BASIC classes, the thing I remember most are the games that we got to play while at school.  Anyone who is anyone will recognize the above image, because you saw it many times.  Oregon Trail was the quintessential education game, which was fun to play, yet brutal to win.  I think I actually succeeded in that game a handful of times.

I bring all this up, because the Educational Games Research blog has put up their top nine educational games of the 80’s up, and Oregon Trail has made the list.  Head on over to see where it fared along with several other memorable titles, including a gal in a red jacket that I searched the globe to find only to be disappointed.