The Oregon Trail (1985 video game): Difference between revisions

| caption = Cover art for 1990 MS-DOS versioncover art

| platforms = [[Apple II]], [[MS-DOS]], [[Classic Mac OS(computer)|Mac OS]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]]

| released = '''1985:''' (Apple II)<br>'''1990:''' (MS-DOS)<br>'''1991:''' (Mac OS)<br>'''1993''': (Windows)

''The Oregon Trail'' is an [[educational game|educational]] [[strategy video game]] in which the player, as the leader of a wagon train, controls a group journeying down the [[Oregon Trail]] from [[Independence, Missouri]], to [[Willamette Valley]], [[Oregon]], in 1848. The player controls the game via a keyboard, primarily by selecting one of several numbered options. They begin the game by selecting their characterscharacter's profession—banker, carpenter, or farmer—which correspondcorresponds with difficulty levels and give different amounts of money with which to start the journey with. They then name their character and their four party members, and purchase supplies for their journey from Matt's General Store: oxen to pull the wagon, food, clothing, ammunition, and spare parts to fix wagon breakdowns. The party then sets off on their journey. The path is divided into sixteen segments, each ending at a landmark such as a river crossing or a fort. Each landmark has different choices available to the player, such as purchasing supplies at a fort, talking to fellow travelers at a geographic landmark, or choosing how to cross a river.<ref name="BouchardIntro"/> Rivers can be crossed by fording the river, caulking the wagon and floating across, or in some cases by paying for a ferry; the chance of crossing without failure, which can result in losing supplies or damaging the wagon, depends on the state of the river and the weather.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/> TheAs pricesthe forparty supplies rise theprogresses further along the trail, the partyprices hasfor gonesupplies rise. At two landmarks, the player can choose to take a "cut-off", or shortcut; these paths are shorter but bypass the next landmark, a fort. For the final segment, the player can choose to either take a [[Barlow Road|toll road cut-off]] to the end, or raft down the [[Columbia River]] by playing a minigame wherein they must dodge rocks in the river.<ref name="BouchardMisc"/>

In between landmarks, the party journeys for days over a hundred miles, as shown to the player by a screen that displays the date, weather, health of the party, how many pounds of food the party has remaining, and the distances to the next landmark and from the previous. An animated oxen andox-pulled wagon is shown, with a representation of the next landmark sliding towards it from the left as the party travels and a landscape of the terrain for that segment in the background. Random events can occur during the traveling phase, such as a storm causing a delay or a party member falling ill.<ref name="mediumdevtravel"/> The player can also stop the journey at any point, and can then check the status of their supplies, look at the map of their journey, change the pace of travel, change the amount of food rationed for the party per day, stop to rest, trade with other parties for supplies, or hunt for food. Changing the pace of travel affects how long each segment takes and also the likelihood of different events, such as oxen going lame, and changing the food rations similarly affects how quickly food supplies are used and the likelihood of events.

If the player chooses to hunt, they are shown a minigame where they control a human character that can be moved around a fixed screen containing a randomized assortment of rocks and plants based on the terrain of the segment the party is in. The player can choose to aim their gun in one of eight [[cardinal directionsdirection]]s, start or stop moving in the direction they are aiming, and shoot, which fires a bullet that moves across the screen and uses up ammunition. Animals appear from the sides of the screen at random and move around the screen, and die if the player's shot hits them. When the player ends the minigame, they receive an amount of food based on what animals were killed, though a maximum of 100 pounds can be taken per hunt.<ref name="mediumdevhunting"/>

The game ends when the party reaches Willamette Valley by either the Columbia River or toll road, or when all five members of the party have died due to illness or injury. If the party reachedreaches the end of the journey, they are given a score based on the ending conditions and supplies of the party and the starting profession, which is stored and displayed on a high score table showing previous attempts as well as pre-populated scores named after real travelers on the trail.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/> If all party members die, the player is shown a gravestone with the party leader's name on it, and they can add an epitaph; on subsequent playthroughs the player can view the last gravestone made whenever they reach the point in the journey where it had been placed.<ref name="BouchardMisc"/>

In 1971, Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger developed a [[text-based game|text-based]] [[strategy video game]] titled ''[[The Oregon Trail (1971 video game)|The Oregon Trail]]'' for use in the 8th grade history class for which Rawitch was a student teacher for.<ref name="Floss"/><ref name="Yester"/> The game was written in around 800 lines of [[HP Time-Shared BASIC]] for the [[Minneapolis]] school district's [[HP 2100]] [[minicomputer]], to which schools could connect to via a [[teleprinter]].<ref name="mediumdevretro"/><ref name="PCG"/> It was a hitpopular with the class and other schools around the district, but was removed from the computer at the end of the semester.<ref name="PCG"/> In 1974, Rawitsch was hired by the [[MECC|Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium]] (MECC), a state-funded organization that developed [[educational software]] for the classroom, hired Rawitsch as an entry-level liaison for local community colleges.<ref name="Floss"/> MECC had a mainframe system to which schools around Minnesota could connect to, and Rawitsch, with permission from Heinemann and Dillenberger, rewrote and expanded the game using historical data for the MECC's time-sharing system, releasing it in 1975.<ref name="MBretro"/><ref name="PCG"/><ref name="rawitsch19780506"/><ref name="lussenhop20110119"/> The 1975 mainframe game was the most popular software in the system for Minnesota schools for five years, with thousands of players monthly.<ref name="PCG"/><ref name="lussenhop20110119"/>

In 1978, MECC began to move away from centralized mainframe games and software and towards distributing programs for [[microcomputersmicrocomputer]]s; it also began encouraging schools to adopt the [[Apple II]] microcomputer, purchasing large amounts at a discount and reselling them to schools.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/><ref name="lussenhop20110119"/> MECC began converting several of their products to run on microcomputers, and John Cook adapted ''The Oregon Trail'' for the Apple II; though the text-based gameplay remained largely the same, he added a display of the player's position along the trail on a map between rounds, and added graphics to the hunting minigame.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/><ref name="mediumdevtravel"/> A version for the [[Atari 8-bit familycomputers]], again titled ''The Oregon Trail'', was released in 1982.<ref name="RGretro"/> The Apple II version was included under the name ''Oregon'' as part of MECC's ''Elementary'' series, distributed to Minnesota schools for free and for profit to schools outside of the state, on ''Elementary Volume 6'' in 1980.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/><ref name="RGretro"/> ''Oregon''The Apple II version was ported to the [[Commodore 64]] in 1984 as part of a collection like ''Elementary Volume 6'' titled ''Expeditions''.<ref name="RGretro"/> By the mid-1980s, MECC was selling their educational software to schools around the country, and ''The Oregon Trail'' was their most popular product by far.<ref name="USGretro"/>

By 1984, the educational game market had shifted from one wherein which programs were almost invariably [[mainframe computer]] games created by amateur programmers like Rawitsch to a commercial market containing numerous companies selling educational games for [[home computer]]s. MECC had moved into this market the year before, hiring programmers to create original software titles for schools and home consumers. These titles had proven successful, and MECC decided to create modern updates to their three most popular titles of the 1970s: ''[[Lemonade Stand]]'', ''[[Odell Lake (video game)|Odell Lake]]'', and ''The Oregon Trail''. All three games had received [[porting|ports]] to the ''Apple II'' by 1980, but had not been changed substantially and did not compete graphically with contemporary titles. Development of a new version of ''The Oregon Trail'' began in October 1984, with R. Philip Bouchard as the lead designer and team lead. Bouchard was instructed to design an entirely new game based on the concept of the original ''Oregon Trail'', intended for the Apple II and as MECC's first game with home consumers as the primary market, with a target release date of autumn 1985.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/>

As the game was intended for the home market rather than primarilyschool for schoolssettings, it needed to be entertaining as well as educational; Bouchard set as a guiding principle that the entertainment "should arise from immersing the player in a historically accurate experience", and conversely that the educational aspect should bearise from that immersion rather than explicitly instructing the player about history.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/><ref name="BouchardBook"/> Bouchard also intended the game to appeal to girls as well as boys, who he felt had been more interested in the original version of the game.<ref name="BouchardBook"/> He measured the game as it was being developed by the metric of whether children that liked the original game enjoyed the new game more.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/> Development of the game took ten months, from October 1984 through July 1985, and was primarily done by a team of five people: Bouchard, lead programmer John Krenz, lead artist Charolyn Kapplinger, researcher Shirley Keran, and programmer Bob Granvin. While prior games at MECC had been developed using a system where the lead designer created a design document of notes and sketches that was then given to the programmers and artists to accomplish, Bouchard instead designed the game with the help of the other team members as a set of interconnected gameplay systems, all based on mathematical models in turn based on historical data, which would be refined in an iterative process as development proceeded.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/>

For many parts of the game which resemble the original game, the team added complexity and detail. In the 1975 game, the player plays through twelve rounds of decision making, each representing two weeks on the trail, with random events occurring in the rounds based on their historical probability at that point on the trail. For the new version, the team instead divided the game into 16 segments of varying lengths, each ending at a "landmark"; the player has a set of "activities" that could take place at each landmark, such as crossing a river, and a different set of activities, including hunting and having a random event occur, that they could do or have happen to them while traveling between landmarks. Each segment of the game had different environmental settings and probabilities, and the traveling periods are composed of some number of days which then act as the unit of time. Bouchard worked with Keran to pick the sixteen landmarks, as well as alternate "cutoff" routes that the player could take.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/> The team removed the medicine and doctor system of the original as historically inaccurate, and instead added multiple types of disease.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/><ref name="RGretro"/> They also added music to the game, which was based on melodies popular at the time of the actual Oregon trail.<ref name="RGretro"/>

The hunting minigame had been a popular part of the original game, where the player typed "BANG" to fire; as such the team felt it was an essential component to include in the new game. Bouchard wanted to include educational lessons as part of the game, including showing different landscape features based on where the player was on their journey, having different species of animal be present based also on where in the country they could be found, and limiting how many pounds of meat the player could take back from a hunt. The team was concerned that their design was not going to be possible using the [[Applesoft BASIC]] programming language on an Apple II like the rest of the game as it would not be fast enough; most other action games or sequences created at the time used [[assembly language]] for this reason. They first created a prototype to test it, and found that it ran too slowly; assembly programmer Roger Shimada was added to the team to create the final version. As he did so, the team discovered that the original design, which called for eighteen different animals, was too large for the memory space on the Apple II, and it was cut down to six animals with less complex animations. During the user testing in March 1985, as the "dead state" graphics had not yet been completed by Kapplinger, Shimada instead flipped dead animals upside down to indicate their deaths; this was kept in the final game, as the team and child playtesters found it humorous.<ref name="mediumdevhunting"/><ref name="BouchardBook"/>

Bouchard's primary design goal for the project was to incorporate accurate geography into the game with the segments; his second goal was to add human characters into the game, which had not been present in the 1975 version. Many of his ideas for this goal had to be cut from the game due to both the limitations of the game's budget as well as the size available for the game on a 5¼-inch [[floppy disk]]. He retained addingthe addition of player-named characters to the traveling party, as well as named characters to talk to at the start and landmarks, and including people in the graphics. One idea he was not able to keep, which he later described as his biggest regret about the game, was complex interactions with Native Americans, though he was able to include some simpler ones. Other priorities were including river crossings, for which the team built a system that takes into account the location and weather of the crossing, and adding [[replay value|replayability]], which he accomplished by adding a point system with difficult high scores to beat, multiple starting options, and a challenging hunting minigame. The team accomplished all of the goals they set out to do, and although the project ran over the original budget and timeline—as Bouchard had originally estimated they would be complete by March but they instead finished in July—''The Oregon Trail'' was published in autumn 1985 as planned.<ref name="mediumdevretro"/><ref name="BouchardBook"/>

After the initial Apple II release in 1985, ''The Oregon Trail'' was [[porting|ported]] by MECC to several other platforms. A [[DOS]] version for [[IBM PC compatible]] computers was released in 1990, with slightly modified graphics. It was followed by a version published for the Macintosh [[System 6|Mac OS 6]] in 1991 and DOS in 1992; both releases had altered the game's interface changed to be controlled with a mouse instead of a keyboard and added simple sound effects and eight different profession options. The graphics of the game were also overhauled, though the Macintosh version was monochrome black and white and the new DOS version had support for 256-color VGA. To differentiate the new DOS version from the 1990 version, it was titled ''The Oregon Trail Deluxe''.<ref name="Bouchardports"/><ref name="PCGports"/><ref name="DOSVGAreview"/> A final port for [[Microsoft Windows]] under the original title was released in 1993.<ref name="Bouchardversions"/> In 2018, a variant of the DOS version of ''The Oregon Trail'' was released as a physical handheld game by Basic Fun, initially as a [[Target Corporation|Target]] exclusive.<ref name="PolygonHandheld"/><ref name="PCGHandheld"/>

''The Oregon Trail'' was extremely successful, and, along with successive iterations of the game, which are often considered different versions of the game instead of different games, it sold over 65 million copies by 2011.<ref name="polygon"/><ref name="wiregreatest"/> In 1994, when MECC became a publicly traded company, the game was still the company's flagship product, with its sales comprising a third of MECC's {{US$|30 million}} in annual revenue.<ref name="LaFrenzOralHistory"/>

The multiple versions of ''The Oregon Trail'' are often described as different iterations of the same gamecombined when discussing the game's legacy, though the 1985 versionrelease is considered the main version; Colin Campbell of ''[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]]'', for example, has described it collectively as one of the most successful games of all time and a cultural icon, but said that the 1985 version "is the one most people recall".<ref name="polygon"/> Matt Smith of [[Kotaku]] called it "one of the most iconic and grueling games to hit the classroom computer", and said that the 1985 version was the one "that rose to stardom and eventually spawned countless memes" and "etched its legacy in the memory of a generation".<ref name="KotakuLegacy"/> Kevin Wong of ''[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]]'' claimed that the collective game was "synonymous with [[educational entertainment|edutainment]]".<ref name="MBretro"/> ''The Oregon Trail'' has been described in ''Serious Games and Edutainment Applications'' as "one of the most famous ancestors" of the [[serious game]] subgenre.<ref name="SGEA"/> ''The Oregon Trail'' was a hallmark in American elementary schools in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref name="time50"/><ref name="minecrafttrail"/> [[Smithsonian (magazine)|''Smithsonian'' magazine]] observed in 2016 that "''The Oregon Trail'' is still a cultural landmark for any school kid who came of age in the 1980s or after. Even now, there remains a constant pressure to revive the series, so that nostalgic Generation Xers and Millennials can amble westward with a [[dysentery]]-riddled party once again."<ref name="Smithsonian"/>

In 2016, ''The Oregon Trail'', viewed collectively as multiple versions of the same game formfrom 1971 on, was inducted into the [[World Video Game Hall of Fame]] by [[The Strong]] and the [[International Center for the History of Electronic Games]], the first educational game and the only one until ''[[Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1985 video game)|Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?]]'' in 2021.<ref name="HoF"/> [[Time (magazine)|Time]] named the game as one of the 100 greatest video games in 2012, and placed it 9th on its list of the 50 best games in 2016, claiming that it "helped introduce an entire generation (several, in fact) to video games".<ref name="time50"/><ref name="time100"/>

<ref name="mediumdevretro">{{cite web |url=https://medium.com/the-philipendium/how-i-managed-to-design-the-most-successful-educational-computer-game-of-all-time-4626ea09e184 |title=How I Managed to Design the Most Successful Educational Computer Game of All Time |last=Bouchard |first=R. Philip |date=2017-06-June 29, 2017 |website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |access-date=2018-08-August 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831002447/https://medium.com/the-philipendium/how-i-managed-to-design-the-most-successful-educational-computer-game-of-all-time-4626ea09e184 |archive-date=2018-08-August 31, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="mediumdevtravel">{{cite web |url=https://medium.com/the-philipendium/designing-the-travel-screen-for-the-oregon-trail-535491bc2cfc |title=Designing the Travel Screen for "The Oregon Trail" |last=Bouchard |first=R. Philip |date=2016-09-September 13, 2016 |website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |access-date=September 4, 2018-09-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180727070113/https://medium.com/the-philipendium/designing-the-travel-screen-for-the-oregon-trail-535491bc2cfc |archive-date=2018-07-July 27, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="mediumdevhunting">{{cite web |url=https://medium.com/the-philipendium/designing-the-hunting-game-for-the-oregon-trail-257924bdc6ae |title=Designing the Hunting Game for "The Oregon Trail" |last=Bouchard |first=R. Philip |date=2016-08-August 16, 2016 |website=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] |access-date=January 20, 2022 |archive-01-date=January 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120235650/https://medium.com/the-philipendium/designing-the-hunting-game-for-the-oregon-trail-257924bdc6ae |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="BouchardIntro">{{cite web |url=https://www.philipbouchard.com/OT-book/OT-chapter14.html |title=Introduction |website=You Have Died of Dysentery: The Making of the Oregon Trail |last=Bouchard |first=R. Philip |access-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-01date=February 1, 2020 |archive-21url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201220124/https://www.philipbouchard.com/OT-book/OT-chapter14.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name="BouchardMisc">{{cite web |url=https://www.philipbouchard.com/OT-book/OT-introduction.html |title=Chapter 14: Tombstones & Miscellaneous Details |website=You Have Died of Dysentery: The Making of the Oregon Trail |last=Bouchard |first=R. Philip |access-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-01-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121165742/https://www.philipbouchard.com/OT-book/OT-introduction.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="MBretro">{{cite web |url=https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkx8vw/the-forgotten-history-of-the-oregon-trail-as-told-by-its-creators |title=The Forgotten History of 'The Oregon Trail,' As Told By Its Creators |last=Wong |first=Kevin |date=2017-02-February 15, 2017 |website=Motherboard |publisher=[[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] |access-date=2018-08-August 31, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180901003743/https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkx8vw/the-forgotten-history-of-the-oregon-trail-as-told-by-its-creators |archive-date=September 1, 2018-09-01 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="PCG">{{cite web |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/for-three-years-the-only-copy-of-the-oregon-trail-source-code-was-printed-on-a-stack-of-paper/ |title=For three years, the only copy of the Oregon Trail source code was printed on a stack of paper |last=Fenlon |first=Wes |date=March 8, 2017-03-08 |website=[[PC Gamer]] |publisher=[[Future plc|Future]] |access-date=2018-08-August 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830174431/https://www.pcgamer.com/for-three-years-the-only-copy-of-the-oregon-trail-source-code-was-printed-on-a-stack-of-paper/ |archive-date=2018-08-August 30, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Floss">{{cite web |last=Lipinski |first=Jed |title=The Legend of The Oregon Trail |url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/51930/legend-oregon-trail |website=[[Mental Floss]] |publisher=Dennis Publishing |access-date=2013-07-July 31, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731090300/http://mentalfloss.com/article/51930/legend-oregon-trail |date=2013-07-July 29, 2013 |archive-date=2013-07-July 31, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Yester">{{cite web |url=http://yesterthenfornow.kinja.com/an-interview-with-the-teacher-turned-developer-behind-o-1529659314 |title=An Interview With the Teacher-Turned-Developer Behind 'Oregon Trail' |date=2014-02-February 24, 2014 |access-date=2018-08-August 30, 2018 |website=Yester: Then For Now |publisher=[[Gizmodo Media Group]] |last=Shea |first=Jeremy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830073852/https://yesterthenfornow.kinja.com/an-interview-with-the-teacher-turned-developer-behind-o-1529659314 |archive-date=2018-08-August 30, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="lussenhop20110119">{{cite news |last=Lussenhop |first=Jessica |title=Oregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its path |url=http://www.citypages.com/content/printVersion/1740595/ |access-date=2011-01-January 20, 2011 |newspaper=[[City Pages]] |publisher=[[Star Tribune|The Star Tribune Company]] |date=2011-01-January 19, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123012937/http://www.citypages.com/content/printVersion/1740595/ |archive-date=2011-01-January 23, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="rawitsch19780506">{{cite magazine |url=https://archive.org/stream/creativecomputing-1978-05/Creative_Computing_v04_n03_1978_May-June#page/n139/mode/2up |title=Oregon Trail |magazine=[[Creative Computing (magazine)|Creative Computing]] |publisher=[[Ziff Davis]] |date=May–June 1978 |access-date=2015-01-January 22, 2015 |last=Rawitsch |first=Don |pages=132–139 |issn=0097-8140}}</ref>

<ref name="USGretro">{{cite web |url=https://www.usgamer.net/articles/the-oral-history-of-oregon-trail |title=A Pioneering Game's Journey: The History of Oregon Trail |last=Rignall |first=Jaz |date=2017-04-April 19, 2017 |website=[[USGamer]] |publisher=Gamer Network |access-date=2018-08-August 31, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180901044418/https://www.usgamer.net/articles/the-oral-history-of-oregon-trail |archive-date=September 1, 2018-09-01 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="bouchardrafting">{{cite web |url=https://www.died-of-dysentery.com/stories/rafting-columbia.html |title=Rafting Down the Columbia River |last=Bouchard |first=R. Philip |website=You Have Died of Dysentery: The Oregon Trail Game |access-date=January 20, 2022 |archive-01date=January 21, 2022 |archive-20url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121024330/https://www.died-of-dysentery.com/stories/rafting-columbia.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Bouchardports">{{cite web |url=https://www.died-of-dysentery.com/resources.html |title=Play the Game |last=Bouchard |first=R. Philip |website=You Have Died of Dysentery: The Oregon Trail Game |access-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-01date=December 22, 2021 |archive-21url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222203644/https://www.died-of-dysentery.com/resources.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="PCGports">{{cite web |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/every-version-of-the-oregon-trail-ranked/ |title=Every version of The Oregon Trail, ranked |last=Henley |first=Stacey |date=2020-10-October 12, 2020 |website=[[PC Gamer]] |publisher=[[Future plc|Future]] |access-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-01-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121213525/https://www.pcgamer.com/every-version-of-the-oregon-trail-ranked/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Bouchardversions">{{cite web |url=https://www.died-of-dysentery.com/stories/brief-history.html |title=A Brief History of the Oregon Trail Game |last=Bouchard |first=R. Philip |website=You Have Died of Dysentery: The Oregon Trail Game |access-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-01-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121213524/https://www.died-of-dysentery.com/stories/brief-history.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="PolygonHandheld">{{cite web |url=https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/6/17086674/oregon-trail-handheld-game-target-exclusive-price-availability |title=Here's the portable version of The Oregon Trail you didn't know you wanted |last=Hall |first=Charlie |date=March 6, 2018-03-06 |website=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]] |publisher=[[Vox Media]] |accessdate=February 25, 2021 |archive-02date=November 9, 2020 |archive-25url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109041247/https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/6/17086674/oregon-trail-handheld-game-target-exclusive-price-availability |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="PCGHandheld">{{cite web |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/get-the-oregon-trail-handheld-game-for-just-dollar850-right-now/ |title=Get the Oregon Trail handheld game for just $8.50 right now |last=Davenport |first=Corbin |date=2019-12-December 16, 2019 |website=[[PC Gamer]] |publisher=[[Future plc|Future]] |access-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-01-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121213526/https://www.pcgamer.com/get-the-oregon-trail-handheld-game-for-just-dollar850-right-now/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="polygon">{{cite web |url=http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/31/4575810/the-oregon-trail-was-made-in-just-two-weeks |title=The Oregon Trail was made in just two weeks |date=2013-07-July 31, 2013 |last=Campbell |first=Colin |publisher=[[Vox Media]] |website=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]] |access-date=September 4, 2018-09-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612162826/https://www.polygon.com/2013/7/31/4575810/the-oregon-trail-was-made-in-just-two-weeks |archive-date=2018-06-June 12, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="wiregreatest">{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/01/sally-has-diphtheria-is-oregon-trail-the-greatest-video-game-of-all-time/342556/ |title=Sally Has Diphtheria: Is Oregon Trail the Greatest Video Game of All Time? |date=2011-01-January 21, 2011 |access-date=August 31, 2018-08-31 |website=The Wire |via=[[The Atlantic]] |publisher=[[Emerson Collective]] |last=Rosenberg |first=Eli |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824220927/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/01/sally-has-diphtheria-is-oregon-trail-the-greatest-video-game-of-all-time/342556/ |archive-date=2017-08-August 24, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="LaFrenzOralHistory">{{cite webjournal |url=http://purl.umn.edu/107423 |title=Oral history interview with Dale Eugene LaFrenz |website=[[Charles Babbage Institute]] |publisher=[[University of Minnesota]] |last1=LaFrenz |first1=Dale Eugene |last2=O'Neill |first2=Judy E. |page=38 |date=1995-04-April 13, 1995 |access-date=2022-01-January 21, 2022}}</ref>

<ref name="KotakuLegacy">{{cite web |url=https://kotaku.com/you-died-of-dysentery-50-years-of-traveling-the-oregon-1848267543 |title=You Died of Dysentery: 50 Years of Traveling The Oregon Trail |last=Smith |first=Matt |date=2021-12-December 24, 2021 |website=[[Kotaku]] |publisher=[[G/O Media]] |access-date=January 29, 2022 |archive-01date=January 30, 2022 |archive-29url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130040142/https://kotaku.com/you-died-of-dysentery-50-years-of-traveling-the-oregon-1848267543 |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="SGEA">{{cite book |title=Serious Games and Edutainment Applications |last1=Djaouti |first1=Damien |last2=Alvarez |first2=Julian |last3=Jessel |first3=Jean-Pierre |last4=Rampnoux |first4=Olivier |chapter=Origins of Serious Games |pages=31–32 |editor-last1=Ma |editor-first1=Minhua |editor-last2=Oikonomou |editor-first2=Andreas |editor-last3=Jain |editor-first3=Lakhmi C |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]] |date=December 9, 2011-12-09 |isbn=978-1-4471-2161-9|doi=10.1007/978-1-4471-2161-9_3}}</ref>

<ref name="HoF">{{cite web |url=https://www.museumofplay.org/games/the-oregon-trail/ |title=The Oregon Trail |website=The Strong National Museum of Play |publisher=[[The Strong]] |access-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-01date=May 14, 2023 |archive-22url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230514185336/https://www.museumofplay.org/games/the-oregon-trail/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="time100">{{cite webmagazine |last1=Aamoth |first1=Doug |title=All-TIME 100 Video Games |url=http://techland.time.com/2012/11/15/all-time-100-video-games/slide/the-oregon-trail |workmagazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=2012-11-November 15, 2012 |access-date=September 20, 2016-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118055039/http://techland.time.com/2012/11/15/all-time-100-video-games/slide/the-oregon-trail |archive-date=November 18, 2012-11-18}}</ref>

<ref name="time50">{{cite webmagazine |title=The 50 Best Video Games of All Time |url=http://time.com/4458554/best-video-games-all-time/ |workmagazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=2016-08-August 26, 2016 |access-date=2016-08-August 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826010703/http://time.com/4458554/best-video-games-all-time/ |archive-date=2016-08-August 26, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="minecrafttrail">{{cite web |url=https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/09/minecraft-education-edition-brings-21st-century-students-back-oregon-trail |title='Minecraft: Education Edition' Brings 21st-Century Students Back to the Oregon Trail |date=2017-09-September 27, 2017 |website=Ed Tech |publisher=[[CDW]] |first=Meghan Bogardus |last=Cortez |access-date=January 29, 2022 |archive-01date=December 31, 2021 |archive-29url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231060850/https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/09/minecraft-education-edition-brings-21st-century-students-back-oregon-trail |url-status=live }}</ref>

<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-you-wound-playing-em-oregon-trailem-computer-class-180959851/ |title=How You Wound Up Playing The Oregon Trail in Computer Class |website=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |date=2016-07-July 22, 2016 |first=Matt |last=Jancer |access-date=January 29, 2022 |archive-01date=January 18, 2022 |archive-29url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118113845/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-you-wound-playing-em-oregon-trailem-computer-class-180959851/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Trail 1, The}}

[[Category:CommercialSurvival video games with freely available source code]]

[[Category:Video games set in the 19th century1840s]]

[[Category:Video games set in the UnitedAmerican Statesfrontier]]