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The Oregon Trail (1971 Video Game)
''The Oregon Trail'' is a text-based strategy video game developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) beginning in 1975. It was developed as a computer game to teach school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. In the game, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon via a covered wagon in 1847. Along the way the player must purchase supplies, hunt for food, and make choices on how to proceed along the trail while encountering random events such as storms and wagon breakdowns. The original versions of the game contain no graphics, as they were developed for computers that used teleprinters instead of computer monitors. A later Apple II porting, port added a graphical shooting minigame. The first version of the game was developed over the course of two weeks fo ...
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Teleprinter
A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device that can be used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels, in both point-to-point (telecommunications), point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communication, point-to-multipoint configurations. Initially, from 1887 at the earliest, teleprinters were used in telegraphy. Electrical telegraphy had been developed decades earlier in the late 1830s and 1840s, then using simpler Morse key equipment and telegraph operators. The introduction of teleprinters automated much of this work and eventually largely replaced skilled labour, skilled operators versed in Morse code with Data entry clerk, typists and machines communicating faster via Baudot code. With the development of early computers in the 1950s, teleprinters were adapted to allow typed data to be sent to a computer, and responses printed. Some teleprinter models could also be used to create punched tape for Compute ...
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Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what is now the states of Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. The western half crossed the current states of Idaho and Oregon. The Oregon Trail was laid by fur traders and trappers from about 1811 to 1840 and was initially only passable on foot or horseback. By 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a wagon trail had been cleared to Fort Hall, Idaho. Wagon trails were cleared increasingly farther west and eventually reached the Willamette Valley in Oregon, at which point what came to be called the Oregon Trail was complete, though further improvements in the forms of bridges, cutoffs, ferries, and roads would make the trip faster and safer. From various starting points in Iowa, Missouri, or Nebraska Territo ...
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The Amazon Trail
''The Amazon Trail'' is an educational computer game created by MECC. It was inspired by the popularity of '' The Oregon Trail'', featuring the areas surrounding the Amazon River and some of its tributaries. In this 2D adventure, the player is asked to set out on a journey up the Amazon, hoping to make it to the lost Inca village of Vilcabamba. Along the way, the player learns about the people who live on and use the river for their survival. ''The Amazon Trail'' is known for being significantly more difficult than its predecessors in the franchise, such as ''The Oregon Trail''. It was released in 1993 for MS-DOS, 1994 for Windows 3.x and 1996 for Windows and Macintosh. '' Amazon Trail II'' was released as a sequel to this game and '' Amazon Trail 3rd Edition'' was a re-release of that sequel with performance enhancements and new additions. Plot During the opening sequence, a short animation displays a person asleep in bed, coincidentally, in Peru, Indiana. They are visited du ...
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The Yukon Trail
''The Yukon Trail'' is a 1994 educational computer game from the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC), similar to their previous ''Oregon Trail'' series but set during the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th century. Players start out in Seattle and must make decisions concerning supplies, a partner, and travel plans as they head to Alaska before boating down a river to Dawson City and staking a claim to mine for gold. The game features the famous author Jack London and authentic 19th-century photographs that show what life was like back then. Gameplay Start The game starts in Seattle in August 1897 (right before the actual Klondike Gold Rush). The player must first choose one out of four partners. Each partner has unique advantages over the others. Next the player purchases two tickets for a ship to Skagway or Dyea. Tickets are more expensive for ships that depart immediately, and less expensive for those departing later. The player can buy equipment, food a ...
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World Video Game Hall Of Fame
The World Video Game Hall of Fame is an international hall of fame for video games. The hall's administration is overseen by The Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic Games, and is located at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, United States. The museum began the International Center for the History of Electronic Games in 2009, announced the formation of the hall of fame in February 2015, and opened it on June 4, 2015. It is located in a dedicated part of the "ESL Digital Worlds: High Score" exhibit at the National Museum of Play; prior to an expansion of the museum in 2023 it was located in the museum's "eGameRevolution" exhibit. The Strong has also run the National Toy Hall of Fame since 2002. Video games become eligible for the World Video Game Hall of Fame by meeting four criteria: * Icon Status – is widely recognized and remembered * Longevity – is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time * Geograp ...
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The Oregon Trail (1985 Video Game)
''The Oregon Trail'' is an educational strategy video game developed and published by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). It was first released in 1985 for the Apple II, with later ports to MS-DOS in 1990, Mac (computer), Mac in 1991, and Microsoft Windows in 1993. It was created as a re-imagining of the popular text-based game The Oregon Trail (1971 video game), of the same name, originally created in 1971 and published by MECC in 1975. In the game, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail in 1848. Along the trail, the player makes choices about supplies, resource management, and the route, and deals with hunting for food, crossing rivers, and random events such as storms and disease. The game was designed and created by a team at MECC led by game designer R. Philip Bouchard over a ten-month period from 1984 to 1985. It was inte ...
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Atari 8-bit Computers
The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 6502 CPU and three custom coprocessors which provide support for sprites, smooth multidirectional scrolling, four channels of audio, and other features. The graphics and sound are more advanced than most of its contemporaries, and video games are a key part of the software library. The 1980 first-person space combat simulator ''Star Raiders'' is considered the platform's killer app. The Atari 800 was positioned as a high-end model and the 400 as more affordable. The 400 has a pressure-sensitive, spillproof membrane keyboard and initially shipped with a non-upgradable of RAM. The 800 has a conventional keyboard, a second cartridge slot, and allows easy RAM upgrades to 48K. Both use identical 6502 CPUs at ( for PAL versions) and coprocess ...
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Microcomputer
A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB). Microcomputers became popular in the 1970s and 1980s with the advent of increasingly powerful microprocessors. The predecessors to these computers, mainframes and minicomputers, were comparatively much larger and more expensive (though indeed present-day mainframes such as the IBM System z machines use one or more custom microprocessors as their CPUs). Many microcomputers (when equipped with a keyboard and screen for input and output) are also personal computers (in the generic sense). An early use of the term "personal computer" in 1962 predates microprocessor-based designs. ''(See "Personal Computer: Computers at Companies" reference below)''. A "microcomputer" used as an embedded control system may have no human-readable input and ...
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Mainframe Computer
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and large-scale transaction processing. A mainframe computer is large but not as large as a supercomputer and has more processing power than some other classes of computers, such as minicomputers, server (computing), servers, workstations, and personal computers. Most large-scale computer-system architectures were established in the 1960s, but they continue to evolve. Mainframe computers are often used as servers. The term ''mainframe'' was derived from the large cabinet, called a ''main frame'', that housed the central processing unit and main computer memory, memory of early computers. Later, the term ''mainframe'' was used to distinguish high-end commercial computers from less powerful machines. Design Modern mainfr ...
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Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Located in the state's center near the eastern border, it occupies both banks of the Upper Mississippi River and adjoins Saint Paul, Minnesota, Saint Paul, the state capital of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the surrounding area are collectively known as the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities, a metropolitan area with 3.69 million residents. Minneapolis is built on an artesian aquifer on flat terrain and is known for cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers. Nicknamed the "City of Lakes", Minneapolis is abundant in water, with list of lakes in Minneapolis, thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks, and waterfalls. The city's public park system is connected by the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway. Dakota people orig ...
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Porting
In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally designed for (e.g., different CPU, operating system, or third party library). The term is also used when software/hardware is changed to make them usable in different environments. Software is ''portable'' when the cost of porting it to a new platform is significantly less than the cost of writing it from scratch. The lower the cost of porting software relative to its implementation cost, the more portable it is said to be. This is distinct from cross-platform software, which is designed from the ground up without any single " native" platform. Etymology The term "port" is derived from the Latin '' portāre'', meaning "to carry". When code is not compatible with a particular operating system or architecture, the code must be "carried" to ...
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Computer Monitor
A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a electronic visual display, visual display, support electronics, power supply, Housing (engineering), housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls. The display in modern monitors is typically an Liquid-crystal display, LCD with LED-backlit LCD, LED backlight, having by the 2010s replaced cold-cathode fluorescent lamp, CCFL Backlight, backlit LCDs. Before the mid-2000s, most monitors used a cathode-ray tube, cathode-ray tube (CRT) as the image output technology. A monitor is typically connected to its host computer via DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-C, Digital Visual Interface, DVI, or VGA connector, VGA. Monitors sometimes use other proprietary connectors and signals to connect to a computer, which is less common. Originally computer monitors were used for data processing while television sets were used for video. From the 1980s onward, computers ( ...
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