The Amazon trail is a great game. I remember the first version that I played came in a cereal box, and I played it so many times when I was a little kid that it just stopped working. So for years, I looked for another version of it that would work. Finally, I found the DOS game. The game is not as addictive as I remember it being, and the pictures are really terrible. However, the game is still a great fun thing to play.
You start out in a village in South America (present day when the game was made) and have the option of choosing one of two guides. A man and a woman. The guides are very appealing and will do whatever you want them to do, while giving you advice and notifying you whenever you get sick. Which is quite often. It is easy to die in the Amazon, apparently. You quest your way down the river searching for things to give to the Inca King, who you will meet at the end of the quest. I have never beaten it because I have not the time to spend all at once, but I look forward to meeting the Inca King.
The game is very educational. Along the way, you stop at
different Amazonian villages, meeting historical figures from all around the world. Some Americans include Teddy Roosevelt, the former president of the United States who ruled with Big Stick diplomacy with regards to South America, and Levi Strauss, the man who made Levi bluejeans, which were the first bluejeans in the world. You also meet people from various tribes along the Amazon, who tell you about the rainforest and about their tribes and what is going on. You meet Portuguese and Spanish explorers, a woman who is searching for her husband.
You can trade with these people for food, plants, herbs, roots, items, dyes, animals, and they will tell you which way to go on your way down the river so that you do not get lost in the twists and turns of the winding river. If you do get lost, your guide knows which part of the river you are at, usually. Sometimes she does not. In which case, you are allowed the option of "turning back", and you are returned to the last turning bend point in the river. This comes in handy, because otherwise, you might just keep going down the wrong way for hours. What a waste of time.
All in all, the game is very interesting, educational, and a good way to shit away the time.
