Which famous computer game in its first version was released in 1971?

The famous computer game in its first version that was released in 1971 was 'The Oregon Trail'. It was an educational computer game. Don Rawitsch was a student teacher who taught an 8th grade history class. He used the game to teach his class of kids about the realities of 19th century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. Rawitsch used HP Time-Shared BASIC running on an HP 2100 minicomputer to write the computer game program. Rawitsch recruited two friends and fellow student teachers, Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann, to help him.

In 1974, the original game was produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). In this game, a student as a player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers in 1848 from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon.

Spin-offs of 'The Oregon Trail' computer game include 'The Amazon Trail' (1993), 'The Yukon Trail' (1994), 'MayaQuest: The Mystery Trail' (1995), and 'The Africa Trail' (1995). The latest game version release of 'The Oregon Trail' (aka, 'The Oregon Trail 40th Anniversary Edition') occurred on December 6, 2011. This virtual life game was developed by American studio SVG Distribution; it was published by Crave Entertainment.