The Oregon Trail (computer game)
Encyclopedia
The Oregon Trail is a computer game originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974. The original game was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th century pioneer
life on the Oregon Trail
. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding his party of settlers from Independence, Missouri
, to Oregon
's Willamette Valley
over the Oregon Trail via a Conestoga wagon
in 1848. The game has been released in many editions since the original release by various developers and publishers who have acquired rights to it.
in Northfield, Minnesota
, in the HP Time-Shared BASIC environment running on an HP 2100
minicomputer
. 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.
The Oregon Trail debuted to Rawitsch's class on 3 December 1971. Despite bugs, the game was immediately popular, and he made it available to others on Minneapolis Public Schools
' time-sharing
service. When the next semester ended, however, Rawitsch deleted the program, although he printed out a copy of the source code
.
In 1978 MECC began encouraging its schools to adopt the Apple II
microcomputer. The first published version of The Oregon Trail was in Creative Computing
s May-June 1978 issue. It was written in BASIC 3.1 for the CDC Cyber 70/73-26. The program was then adapted by John Cook for the Apple II, 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. By 1995 The Oregon Trail comprised about one third of MECC's $30 million in annual revenue.
An updated version, Oregon Trail Deluxe, was released for DOS in 1992, followed by Oregon Trail II
in 1995, The Oregon Trail 3rd Edition in 1997, and 4th and 5th editions. , more than 65 million copies of The Oregon Trail have been sold.
. Using guns and bullets bought over the course of play, 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 could aim a rifle in one of eight directions and fire 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 rabbit
s and squirrel
s 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; bears were between bison and deer in all three properties. 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. In the later version, you could hunt in different environments. For example, hunting during winter would result in graphics showing grass covered in snow.
, snakebite
, dysentery
, typhoid, cholera
, and exhaustion. People could also die from drowning or a broken leg. Your ox
en were also subject to illness and death. When one of your party members dies, a funeral
is briefly held, at which you may write a suitable tombstone epitaph, and after which you continue down the trail.
. 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 phrase "You have died of dysentery
" has been popularized on T-shirts and other promotional merchandise
.
In 2007, Thule corporation
created Thule Trail as a promotional tool. It changed the starting location to Chicago, Illinois, the destination to the "Atlantis Music Festival" in Santa Barbara, California
, wildlife to snacks, and made other modern adjustments. In 2008, the band Fall Out Boy
released a similarly altered version of the game, "Fall Out Boy Trail," to promote the release of the Folie à Deux.
The game resurfaced in 2008 when Gameloft
created an updated version for cell phones. The rights for this version were later bought up by SpeedDate.com, which replaced the game with an online dating application. A new release for the iPhone
and iPod Touch
is also available from Gameloft. The game went live in the iTunes App Store on March 11, 2009. On January 7, 2010, the Palm webOS version was released to the Palm App Catalog. On November 11, 2010, an Xbox Live
version was released on Windows Phone 7
.
The cell phone version of the game is similar to the original, but varies in that the player can choose one of three different wagons: A basic wagon, a prairie schooner or a Conestoga Wagon. The player can also choose to become a banker, a carpenter
, or a farmer, each of which has unique benefits. Unlike the computer version of the game, players in the iPhone and iPod Touch version do not need to buy guns and bullets.
On December 28, 2009, a Nintendo DSi
DSiWare version of the game was released in North America.
On February 2, 2011, a new version of Oregon Trail was released on the social networking site Facebook
.
Settler
A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
life on the Oregon Trail
Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail is a historic east-west wagon route that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon and locations in between.After 1840 steam-powered riverboats and steamboats traversing up and down the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers sped settlement and development in the flat...
. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding his party of settlers from Independence, Missouri
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...
, to Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
's Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...
over the Oregon Trail via a Conestoga wagon
Conestoga wagon
The Conestoga wagon is a heavy, broad-wheeled covered wagon that was used extensively during the late 18th century and the 19th century in the United States and sometimes in Canada as well. It was large enough to transport loads up to 8 tons , and was drawn by horses, mules or oxen...
in 1848. The game has been released in many editions since the original release by various developers and publishers who have acquired rights to it.
History
The Oregon Trail was created in 1971 by three student teachers at Carleton CollegeCarleton College
Carleton College is an independent non-sectarian, coeducational, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, USA. The college enrolls 1,958 undergraduate students, and employs 198 full-time faculty members. In 2012 U.S...
in Northfield, Minnesota
Northfield, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,147 people, 4,909 households, and 3,210 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,452.2 people per square mile . There were 5,119 housing units at an average density of 732.1 per square mile...
, in the HP Time-Shared BASIC environment running on an HP 2100
HP 2100
The HP 2100 was a series of minicomputers produced by Hewlett-Packard from the mid-1960s to early 1990s. The 2100 was also a specific model in this series. The series was renamed HP 1000 by the 1970s and sold as real-time computers, complementing the more complex IT-oriented HP 3000, and would be...
minicomputer
Minicomputer
A minicomputer is a class of multi-user computers that lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems and the smallest single-user systems...
. 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.
The Oregon Trail debuted to Rawitsch's class on 3 December 1971. Despite bugs, the game was immediately popular, and he made it available to others on Minneapolis Public Schools
Minneapolis Public Schools
Minneapolis Public Schools or Special School District Number 1 is a school district that covers all of the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minneapolis Public Schools enroll 36,370 students in public primary and secondary schools...
' time-sharing
Time-sharing
Time-sharing is the sharing of a computing resource among many users by means of multiprogramming and multi-tasking. Its introduction in the 1960s, and emergence as the prominent model of computing in the 1970s, represents a major technological shift in the history of computing.By allowing a large...
service. When the next semester ended, however, Rawitsch deleted the program, although he printed out a copy of the source code
Source code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
.
MECC
In 1974 Rawitsch took a job at Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC), a state-funded organization that developed educational software for the classroom. He added many historically accurate features and uploaded The Oregon Trail into the organization's time-sharing network, where it could be accessed by schools across Minnesota. The game became one of the network's most popular programs, with thousands of players monthly.In 1978 MECC began encouraging its schools to adopt the Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
microcomputer. The first published version of The Oregon Trail was in Creative Computing
Creative Computing
Creative Computing was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from 1974 until December 1985, Creative Computing covered the whole spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format than the rather technically-oriented BYTE. The magazine...
s May-June 1978 issue. It was written in BASIC 3.1 for the CDC Cyber 70/73-26. The program was then adapted by John Cook for the Apple II, and provided on A.P.P.L.E.'s
Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange
A.P.P.L.E., also known as Apple Pugetsound Program Library Exchange was initially established in 1978 by Val J. Golding. The group provided software, hardware and support services for the Apple world until 1990. Val Golding left the group in 1984 and the group became a Co-Operative in 1985...
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. By 1995 The Oregon Trail comprised about one third of MECC's $30 million in annual revenue.
An updated version, Oregon Trail Deluxe, was released for DOS in 1992, followed by Oregon Trail II
Oregon Trail II
Oregon Trail II is a video game released by MECC in 1996. It was published by SoftKey Multimedia.It is a revised version of the original Oregon Trail computer game. It was redesigned with the help of American Studies PhD Wayne Studer...
in 1995, The Oregon Trail 3rd Edition in 1997, and 4th and 5th editions. , more than 65 million copies of The Oregon Trail have been sold.
Editions
- 1981 to 1985 The Oregon Trail (Apple II)
- 1992 The Oregon Trail (Macintosh)
- 1992 The Oregon Trail Deluxe (DOS)
- 1993-96 The Oregon Trail Ver 1.2 (Windows)
- 1996 The Oregon Trail II (Windows)
- 1997 The Oregon Trail 3rd Edition (Windows)
- 2001 The Oregon Trail 4th Edition (Windows)
- 2011 The Oregon Trail (Nintendo 3DS)
- The Oregon Trail 5th Edition (Windows)
- The Oregon Trail: Mobile Edition (iPhone, iPod Touch)
- The Oregon Trail for Facebook
Hunting
An important aspect of the game was the ability to huntHunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
. Using guns and bullets bought over the course of play, 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 could aim a rifle in one of eight directions and fire single shots at animals. In later versions, players hunted with a crosshair controlled by the mouse. Bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
were the slowest moving targets and yielded the most food, while rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s and squirrel
Squirrel
Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...
s were fast and offered very small amounts of food. Deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
(eastern section) and elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
(western section) were in the middle in terms of speed, size, and food yield; bears were between bison and deer in all three properties. 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. In the later version, you could hunt in different environments. For example, hunting during winter would result in graphics showing grass covered in snow.
Death
Throughout the course of the game, members of your party could fall ill and die from various causes, such as measlesMeasles
Measles, also known as rubeola or morbilli, is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
, snakebite
Snakebite
A snakebite is an injury caused by a bite from a snake, often resulting in puncture wounds inflicted by the animal's fangs and sometimes resulting in envenomation. Although the majority of snake species are non-venomous and typically kill their prey with constriction rather than venom, venomous...
, dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
, typhoid, cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
, and exhaustion. People could also die from drowning or a broken leg. Your ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
en were also subject to illness and death. When one of your party members dies, a funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
is briefly held, at which you may write a suitable tombstone epitaph, and after which you continue down the trail.
Scoring
At the conclusion 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.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 TrailThe Amazon Trail
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 down the Amazon, hoping to make...
. 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 phrase "You have died of dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
" has been popularized on T-shirts and other promotional merchandise
Promotional merchandise
Promotional merchandise, promotional items, promotional products, promotional gifts, or advertising gifts, sometimes nicknamed swag or schwag, are articles of merchandise used in marketing and communication programs. They are given away to promote a company, corporate image, brand, or event...
.
In 2007, Thule corporation
Thule corporation
Thule AB is a Swedish company which manufactures roof racks as well as ABS plastic roof boxes, trailers, towing systems, and organizing solutions. It was founded in 1942.- Thule Trail :...
created Thule Trail as a promotional tool. It changed the starting location to Chicago, Illinois, the destination to the "Atlantis Music Festival" in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, wildlife to snacks, and made other modern adjustments. In 2008, the band Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist, guitarist and composer Patrick Stump, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band released five studio albums from 2003–2008...
released a similarly altered version of the game, "Fall Out Boy Trail," to promote the release of the Folie à Deux.
The game resurfaced in 2008 when Gameloft
Gameloft
Gameloft SA is a major French computer and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Paris, France. The company also has subsidiaries in 31 countries around the world....
created an updated version for cell phones. The rights for this version were later bought up by SpeedDate.com, which replaced the game with an online dating application. A new release for the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
is also available from Gameloft. The game went live in the iTunes App Store on March 11, 2009. On January 7, 2010, the Palm webOS version was released to the Palm App Catalog. On November 11, 2010, an Xbox Live
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
version was released on Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...
.
The cell phone version of the game is similar to the original, but varies in that the player can choose one of three different wagons: A basic wagon, a prairie schooner or a Conestoga Wagon. The player can also choose to become a banker, a carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
, or a farmer, each of which has unique benefits. Unlike the computer version of the game, players in the iPhone and iPod Touch version do not need to buy guns and bullets.
On December 28, 2009, a Nintendo DSi
Nintendo DSi
The is a handheld game system created by Nintendo and launched in 2008 and 2009 in Japan, North America, PAL territories, and other regions. It is the third iteration of the Nintendo DS, and its primary market rival is Sony's PlayStation Portable...
DSiWare version of the game was released in North America.
On February 2, 2011, a new version of Oregon Trail was released on the social networking site Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
.