Many things could mean instant death, from broken bones and accidental gunshot wounds to perhaps the most memed of The Oregon Trail game deaths: DYSENTERY. Along the way, children could learn about famous Oregon Trail stops and landmarks, as well as the ever-present dangers along the way. Leave too late and your wagon could end up snowbound before ever reaching Fort Dalles. If you left too early in the year, flooding was a concern. The video game was such an immersive world.

On a black 16-color VGA background, your job was to guide your wagon from Missouri to Oregon’s Willamette Valley, braving the dangers of rattlesnake bites, dangerous river crossings, and attacks by hostile tribes. Classic Gameplay, Educational Purposes Image via / Great Big Story / YouTube

To this day it remains one of the most popular games in the world. There have been subsequent updates all the way up to 2021 (more about that updated version later), but the original is still the most nostalgic for many people. Think of it as an early, digital Choose Your Own Adventure novel in which you typed out commands instead of clicking them.īy 1984 the classic game version that I knew and loved as a kid was published, and a year later it was developed for the Apple II computer.

This was strictly a text-based game with no graphics yet. Rawitsch was an eighth-grade teacher who wanted a learning aid to teach his class about what life was really like on the trail from Independence, Missouri to The Dalles, Oregon in the 1850s. Join for Free! A Brief History of The Oregon Trail GameĪs early as 1971 there was a very early version of the video game developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in Minnesota.

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