Submitted by K Mack

Originally, this game was called “The Captain’s Mistress.” From mastersgames.com:

The classic game of ‘Four In A Row’, (aka 4 In A Line), that has been enjoyed by children and adults for centuries.

During his long sea voyages, Captain Cook was apparently often absent of an evening and eventually the crew began to joke that he must have a mistress in his cabin. When they discovered that the Captain had simply been playing this game with the ship’s scientists, the game was christened ‘The Captain’s Mistress’!

They now make a giant version of Connect Four! This rocks (and makes it harder for sis to be sneaky):

Photo via mastersgames.com

Submitted by C Klima

Oregon Trail had a few things going for it that made it a truly epic game. The first was that there was always a chance of truly random DEATH!, which we here at OUAW support 100%. You didn’t even have to do much to end up like this:

Or this:

The second thing was that since this game was educational, it was in most schools’ computer labs, and all the computers were networked. If you had a DEATH!, you could leave a tombstone for your fallen family member. Hilarity could then ensue:

You also had to do an insane amount of hunting and bullet buying. What’s not to love about Oregon Trail? Educational games FTW!

Submitted by T Wolfwind

Here’s the opening sequence and theme music from the game. I have it on good authority that the music for this game was ahead of its time in terms of complexity:

Legions of fanboys verge on nuclear meltdown because this IS NOT REAL:

Game cases and a whole lotta bling after the jump.

Click to see more… »

From Wikipedia:

Jackson’s legend was further cemented by his digital counterpart, affectionately known as “Tecmo Bo”, in the video game Tecmo Super Bowl for the Nintendo Entertainment System. “Tecmo Bo” is one of the best running backs — and arguably the most lethal athlete — in video game history. Players using “Tecmo Bo” have been able to rush for 800-900 yards per game and run all over the field on one play and run out the time of a whole quarter without being tackled.

From Wikipedia:

Space Invaders (スペースインベーダー, Supēsu Inbēdā?) is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and features two-dimensional graphics. The aim is to defeat waves of aliens with a laser cannon and earn as many points as possible. In designing the game, Nishikado drew inspiration from popular media: Breakout, The War of the Worlds, and Star Wars. To complete it, he had to design custom hardware and development tools.

Though simplistic by today’s standards, it was one of the forerunners of modern video gaming and helped expand the video game industry from a novelty to a global industry. When first released, Space Invaders was very successful and popular. Following its release, the game caused a temporary shortage of 100-yen coins in Japan, and by 2007 had earned Taito US$500 million in revenue. Guinness World Records ranks it the top arcade game.