The Oregon Trail (video game)
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| The Oregon Trail | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot from the Apple II version of The Oregon Trail |
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| Developer(s) | MECC |
| Publisher(s) | Brøderbund The Learning Company Gameloft |
| Platform(s) | Windows, Apple II, Macintosh, DOS, J2ME, iPhone OS, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile WiiWare |
| Release date(s) | 1971, 1974, 1985, 1992, 1996, 2001, 2008, 2009 |
| Genre(s) | Edutainment |
| Media | CD, Floppy disk |
| Input methods | Keyboard, Mouse (some versions) |
The Oregon Trail is a best-selling educational computer game developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by MECC in 1974. The game was inspired by the real-life Oregon Trail and was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th century pioneer life on the trail. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding his party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley by way of the Oregon Trail via a Conestoga wagon in 1848. The game was originally released in floppy disk format.
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[edit] Development
The original version of The Oregon Trail(K+T) was created in 1971 by three student teachers at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota,[1][dead link] using a mainframe computer.[2] One of these students, senior Don Rawitsch, had the idea to create a computer program for a history class he was teaching, and recruited two of his friends, Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann, both of whom were students teaching math, to help him. In 1974 Rawitsch took a job at Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, or MECC, a state-funded organization that developed educational software for the classroom. He uploaded his game into the organization's network where it could be accessed by schools across Minnesota.
The first Apple II version of The Oregon Trail was an Integer BASIC adaptation of the version listed in Creative Computing magazine from May-June 1978. The program was adapted by John Cook and provided on A.P.P.L.E.'s PDS Disk series #108. A further version called "Oregon Trail 2" was adapted in June, 1978 by J.P. O'Malley. The game was further released as part of MECC's Elementary series, on Elementary Volume 6 in 1980. The game was titled simply Oregon, and featured minimal graphics. It proved so popular that it was re-released as a standalone game, with substantially improved graphics, in 1985.
An updated version, Oregon Trail Deluxe, was released for DOS in 1992,[3] followed by Oregon Trail II in 1996, The Oregon Trail 3rd Edition in 1997,[4] and 4th and 5th editions.[5]
[edit] Hunting
An important aspect of the game was the ability to hunt. Using guns and bullets purchased over the course of the game, players select the hunt option and hunt wild animals to add to their food reserves. In the original version, there were no graphics and players were timed on how fast they could type "BANG," "WHAM," or "POW," with misspelled words resulting in a failed hunt. Later, players would control a little man who was capable of pointing a rifle in eight directions and firing single shots at animals. In later versions, players hunted with a crosshair controlled by the mouse. Bison were the slowest moving targets and yielded the most food, while rabbits and squirrels were fast and offered very small amounts of food. Deer (eastern section) and elk (western section) were in the middle in terms of speed, size, and food yield; bear were between bison and deer in all three properties. In some versions of the game, one can shoot bucks, which look like large deer. They provide as much meat as a bison. While the amount of wild game shot during a hunting excursion is limited by only the player's supply of bullets, the maximum amount that can be carried back to the wagon is 100 pounds in early versions of the game. In later versions, as long as there were at least two living members of the wagon party, 200 pounds could be carried back to the wagon.
[edit] Death
Throughout the course of the game, members of your party could fall ill and die from a variety of causes, such as measles, snakebite, dysentery, typhoid, cholera, exhaustion, and diarrhea. People could also die from drowning or a broken leg. Your oxen were also subject to illness and death. When one of your party members dies, a funeral is briefly held, after which you continue down the trail.
[edit] Scoring
At the end of the journey, points are awarded according to a formula weighted by the profession chosen (points are doubled for a carpenter and tripled for a farmer), the number and health of surviving family members, remaining possessions, and cash on hand.
[edit] Legacy
The game was popular among North American elementary school students in the mid 1980s to early 1990s. Many students in the United States and Canada had access to the game at school. MECC followed up on the success of The Oregon Trail with similar titles such as The Yukon Trail and The Amazon Trail.[1] The original title has been re-released many times, for different platforms and on different media; it is currently up to the fifth edition.
The term "You have died of dysentery" has been popularized on T-shirts and internet swag.
The game resurfaced in 2008 when Gameloft created an updated version for cell phones.[2] A modified version for Facebook also enjoyed a surge in popularity in early 2008.[6] The rights for this version were later bought up by SpeedDate.com, which replaced the game with an online dating application.[7] A new release for the iPhone and iPod Touch is also available from Gameloft.[8] The game went live in the iTunes App Store on March 11, 2009.[9]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Coventry, Joshua. "Educational computing for the masses". SiliconUser. http://www.siliconuser.com/?q=node/12. Retrieved 2007-06-12.
- ^ a b Mobile Game Review: The Oregon Trail PocketGamer. Retrieved October 10, 2008.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ 4th 5th
- ^ Beidler, Aurae (2008-01-31). "Facebook Oregon Trail Application: Social Networking Website's Version of the Original Educational Game". Suite 101. http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:9mdXPUCKLoQJ:social-networking-tagging.suite101.com/article.cfm/facebook_oregon_trail_application+social-networking-tagging.suite101.com/article.cfm/facebook_oregon_trail_application&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
- ^ Lowensohn, Josh (2008-10-23). "Oregon Trail Facebook app to be replaced with dating service". CNET News. http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10074004-2.html?tag=mncol. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
- ^ Buchanan, Levi (2009-02-25). "Oregon Trail iPhone Hands-On". IGN. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/957/957259p1.html. Retrieved 2009-02-27.
- ^ Alaburda, Bob (2009-03-11). "The Oregon Trail Out Now-On". ThePortableGamer. http://theportablegamer.com/2009/03/the-oregon-trail-out-now/. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
[edit] References
- Educational Software Classics: Interview with Don Rawitsch, the original designer of The Oregon Trail.
- GameSpot: The Oregon Trail
- Gaming Our Way Through History: A thorough exploration of the game and its implications.
- The Making of The Oregon Trail Presentation: Video presentation of Oregon Trail for Apple IIe with some of the original developers from MECC.
