The Amazon Trail

The Amazon Trail
Cover art for version 1.0 release from MECC
Developer(s)	MECC
Platform(s)	DOS, Mac, Windows 3.1x
Release	1994
Genre(s)	Educational
Mode(s)	Single-player

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 2-D 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. There are two sequels, Amazon Trail II and Amazon Trail 3rd Edition. It was released in 1994.

During the opening sequence, a short animation displays a person asleep in bed, coincidentally, in Peru, Indiana. He/she is visited during a dream by a jaguar who calls himself the jaguar of the Inca King. The jaguar explains that the Inca people are endangered by malaria and European explorers, and the player will be taken back in time in order to search for cinchona and deliver it to the king.

Upon actually beginning a quest, the player has been transported to Belém, Brazil, and is given the option of choosing one of two native guides (Isabel or Antonio), who offer advice over the course of the game pertinent to navigating the river and maintaining ample supplies & good health. Each guide comes equipped with a slightly different spread of supplies (for example, Isabel has two tents while Antonio has three; in comparison, Isabel has more food). While on the quest, players find themselves meeting various people along the river, taking photographs of the flora and fauna of the area, fishing, and trying to avoid capsizing their canoe.

The jaguar from the dream appears throughout the game as a hazy vision, running off a checklist of items desired by the Inca King, and offering various gloomy sentiments about the rainforest in general. Players must navigate the treacherous waters of the Amazon to avoid hitting other boats, logs, and whirlpools or paddling up the wrong tributary, travel through the forest in search of exotic plants and animals to photograph and identify, use harpoons to fish in the river and then identify whether the catch is edible, and trade with the individuals encountered at the various stops along the river. In order to aid in identification, each time a picture is taken or fish caught, the player has the option of checking the guide, which lists all of the species in the game except for the "new species."