There are all sorts of great ways to procrastinate. For some, it's an hour (or three) of some trashy marathon on television; others fritter their work-time away with the incredibly addictive Facebook.com. But these unenlightened individuals have yet to realize there is a whole world of interactive activity just waiting to take the place of their homework: classic shareware.How many of us remember our elementary school youth, when Reader Rabbit and Bill Nye taught us most of our basic academic skills? Equally reminiscent of that golden age are the amazing worlds of black, white and 256-colored gaming into which we gleefully disappeared. With today's high-tech gadgets and games such as Xbox 360, World of Warcraft and TiVo, it's hard to remember why we found something as mundane as getting a cloth-covered wagon to the Oregon coast so entertaining. That is, until you give it another go.

I refer, of course, to the incomparable Oregon Trail. The sweet simplicity of dragging a hapless (and incredibly disease-prone) quintet of characters across the United States is enough to keep you from your schoolwork for the better part of an hour.

If you're in a more colorful mood, the equally excellent, albeit incredibly more difficult Amazon Trail might also suit your needs. Rather than using a rapid-fire musket to lay waste the fauna of the American West, you get the opportunity to use a sharpened stick to spear maddeningly evasive fishes on your quest into South America, all to the backdrop of a brilliant 256-color palette.

If playing God is more your fancy, the addictive world of Lemmings is just the ticket. Here, you assign tasks to your helpless little underlings as they desperately try to escape from a maze of slashing blades, freezing water and other forms of heinous death.

On the more realistic side of things, Sim City 2000 gives you the chance to build a metropolis tailored to your whim. You can create stadiums, parks and subway systems, or merrily whip up earthquakes, firestorms and flying aliens with death-rays to wipe out your unsuspecting citizens.

For those seeking an arcade experience, Space Cadet 3D Pinball is a very satisfying substitute. Unlocking the plethora of secrets and techniques without losing a piggy bank in the process make it one of the most enthralling shareware experiences.

Similarly enthralling, but much more directly related to my once-declining high school GPA is the progressively unique Snood. For some inexplicable reason, getting lines upon lines of strange little colored faces matched up in the proper combinations proves to be far more attractive than that 14-page research paper due in eight hours. Go figure.

The slightly educational (assuming you're in 3rd grade) Texttwist tests your ability to create the maximum number of words out of an assortment of letters while on the clock. Although it seems simplistic, even by shareware standards, I lost a week of my life (and gained a minute amount of new vocabulary) to this crack-cocaine repackaged as a download.

Incredibly "uneducational," but even more amazing, is the little-known Snail Mail. You assume the role of a gun-toting snail with rocket boosters on a mission which takes it zipping through winding tracks in outer space while avoiding foes at every turn. I never thought I'd find a French delicacy so entertaining.

Oregon Trail, Amazon Trail, Lemmings, Sim City 2000 and a host of other great games are available for Apple computers at mac.the-underdogs.org (Windows users can get in on the fun at www.the-underdogs.org/). Space Cadet 3D Pinball, Snood, Texttwist and Snail Mail can be found with good old-fashioned Google.

Whichever you choose, be warned that your academic welfare will never be the same.