Emerged from the primordial soup fully formed and has never once needed to change. Oregon Trail has done so anyway and for the better, but as one of the only good, explicitly educational games to this day, and as something that was AT LEAST ten years ahead of its time, even the original incarnation of Oregon Trail deserves to be forever enshrined as a true cultural achievement.

Oregon Trail, like Space War!, the Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device, and a few others, stands as a proof of concept for all of video games. Oregon Trail is not just the computerization of an existing board game or table-sport. It is an original game that is far removed from any electronic predecessors, and like Space War!, it's actually good.