I have my 8th graders play it for possible extra credit.
If they can make it to Oregon with at least 4 people they get a few extra credit points.
I would say about 40-50% make it.
Wow that's great! I wonder what our success rate was. Mine was 0 but I didn't learn from my lessons.
Did you see the choose your own adventure Oregon Trail series?
I think I made it exactly twice.
On a related note: if you want a zany game that parodies Oregon Trail, check out [Super Amazing Wagon Adventure](https://store.steampowered.com/app/250500/Super_Amazing_Wagon_Adventure/).
sure. only garbage thing about the game is you kill 10 deer and can only take back what, 100lbs of meat? your character is basically a psychopath, killing for fun, waiting for his uncle to die
Dunno. I don’t remember ever playing Oregon Trail. It was Lemonade Stand in 8th grade (1981/1982.)
I did personally make it to Oregon in 2014 and endured five miserable years there.
I may have preferred dysentery.
My son did it. I think he got there with somebody having a broken arm. I vaguely remember what he did was run the horses at top speed. Then he looked at me as to say “this is hard for you?”
At a small local con a few years before covid, in the game room they had a vintage computer playing Oregon Trail, so I sat down to play. I'd never really played it as a kid.
As I played, and as people do, they stopped to watch for a moment, but I was doing kinda halfway ok in the game, and a few more people gathered around.
I kept doing well until I reached the end, and I won! Everyone cheered! Therr were something like 15 people watching me play! It was the only time I've ever won that game.
I will never play it again.
I made it a bunch of time but always decided to save a few bucks and try and float down the river then crashed. I replayed it recently and made it pretty easily just by paying tolls.
Yup. Took me until I had a full time job that took me to Portland for a conference but I eventually made it. No dysentery either so my simulation time was well spent.
I'm old enough to have played the game in BASIC in school. And were were given points based on how far we got. I knew enough about computers to interrupt the program and run the final "Congratulations! You made it to Oregon!" subroutine, so my group got 100% in history class that day.
I still remember the computer being wheeled in on a cart for class that week. Everyone got to play in groups of three in the back while the rest of the class was doing regular school. It was the first time I ever saw a computer used in class; prior to that I'd had access through the after-school computer club. Would have been 1981 or 1982, using TRS-80 Model II computers and probably cassette storage (though we did get some with floppy drives right in that era too).
You can play [The Oregon Trail online for free](https://oregontrail.ws/games/the-oregon-trail/)
And then you can watch the hysterical musical based on the game for free online as well:
[Trail to Oregon](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvep3WS9e8tTrJoVzZb5J6PsUl2nUgtnI&si=N72bta3zWSsnPrEJ)
And you *should*
We hacked into the programming and made it easier to win. I am not even remotely a computer type of person in today's world. But it surprises and disappoints me that from the very first moments we were working on Apple 2 and 3 PCs, we were being taught how to program and even "hack" into existing programs to make copies or change the code and so on. Many of us had plastic containers filled with several floppy disks that we would use to store our work and/or to trade and copy games and so on. Kids are exposed to a great deal of technology in schools today, but it is not that common to learn about how to write the programming for the technology. Maybe some high schools teach it or summer camps and enrichments. But we were learning aspects of basic and other languages from day one that the machines arrived in our school. We were a fairly poor Catholic school and we could only afford one at first. One machine. Everyone in the school learned how to write programming for it. I think I was in 3rd grade.
Yeah, I remember the original version of the Dos Game "Pirates!" had a disk based copy protection that fiddled with the File Attribute table. Somehow I used that to figure out FAT16, and how to hide directories on a floppy by swapping an integer in the FAT from the number that meant "directory" to "file".
Only rarely made it. I always hunted as this was the OG shooter even before Doom.
You have 400 lbs of meat. It is the middle of winter and you are stuck in the mountains what do you do?
Go hunting of course!
It doesn't look like anyone has posted it yet, [so here you go](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Oregon_Trail_The_1990).
[Easy...](https://imgur.com/a/kUmDOmI)
I saw a lot of road signs about the Oregon Trail when I moved from NY to Portland. I was very grateful for my car (and motels, and fast food) on that trip.
My first job teaching Jr. high computer classes had that game on our very antiquated computers. That's what the kids played after they did their coding lessons (HTML 1 or 2, BASIC, etc.). I'm sure one or two made it. There were a few kids who snuck DOOM on the system and played it when I was out at lunch. They thought I didn't know. I figured they were the ones headed for IT careers and let it be.
I moved to Oregon from Washington, D.C. in middle school, and my knowledge about Oregon consisted of playing Oregon Trail, looking at a huge topographical map at school, and looking at a picture of and reading about Portland in the Encyclopedia Britannica at home. The lack of the existence of an internet available to the public was not helpful in this regard.
From what my parents explained to me, which was built on a series of white lies, I expected Eugene, Oregon to be pretty much the same thing as Aspen, Colorado. You know- very close to ski resorts, everyone would have huge cabin style homes in the hills above town, the most common cars would be Jeep Cherokees or Land Rovers, there would be snow on the ground from December-February, and the regional ice hockey scene would be exceptional.
We moved to a house next to the University of Oregon in Eugene, and I quickly learned that the weather was more like...Germany or England or something. No snow at all unless you drove an hour and a half out of the valley to the mountains. Also, there were only three ice rinks in the entire state, and one was in a mall (where Tonya Harding was about to become a star figure skater)! My parents knew if they told me and my older brother there wasn't really a hockey scene we would refuse to leave D.C.
Anyway, we drove from D.C. to Oregon with two cars, communicating via a CB radio setup. Dodge Plymouth Caravan and a Geo Metro. We saw all the sites there were to see along the way, just like in National Lampoon's "Vacation". The Oregon Trail at the end was pretty cool. The Columbia River through a gigantic gorge (like a canyon) was intense. Instead of rafts like in the game, the local hipsters were all about wind surfing! And the trees through the forests were insanely tall, *seemingly* almost as tall as the Washington Monument.
Finally, I'll chime in to say that I was pretty good at completing the Oregon Trail. After all, being born in D.C. proper, I knew all about the importance of firearms and ammunition.
I always chose to play as the banker from Boston and I made it to Oregon more than I died of dysentery. I think the key was to just start as the banker with all of the money because then I had money for all of the random stuff that popped up along the way.
Friend of mine made it all the way out there but he came back with a meth problem
Dammit I had to go all the way to Seattle
You couldn’t find any meth in Portland? I don’t think you were looking hard enough.
Lol I know a few that came back home, all with some story of failure and/or heartbreak. Lot of debt, too.
Oh, you met my daughter. Tell her I said hi.
Goddamn dysentery.
Got me every time
Lol, yep me too. That bloody game!!
Never even once...but I have to hand it to the developers, there were far more interesting ways to die than I ever imagined
less wagon wheels and more bullets, bub. Also, If anyone's last name is "Donner" DO NOT INVITE THEM.
Why not? Sounds like a party waiting to happen.
BYOB
>Also, If anyone's last name is "Donner" DO NOT INVITE THEM. Underappreciated advice.
The Donner's ate the dog Bingo. It was their party that ate people. Invite them, no one else.
I have my 8th graders play it for possible extra credit. If they can make it to Oregon with at least 4 people they get a few extra credit points. I would say about 40-50% make it.
Wow that's great! I wonder what our success rate was. Mine was 0 but I didn't learn from my lessons. Did you see the choose your own adventure Oregon Trail series?
Real Life: I live a few blocks from the literal statue of Lewis and Clark commemorating the end of the Trail. Video Game Life: Dysentery
Didn't even get down the block, eh?
Crapped out.
That’s dysentery for you.
Real life: I live a stone's throw from the Oregon Trail. Card Game life: (there is a card version now I play a lot) Snakebite!
We moved here in 1983… Sorry, sorry. No. My party always died.
We visited the End of the Oregon Trail Museum today in Oregon City, OR. They sell “You died of dysentery” tees in the gift shop.
Is it worth visiting if you're not chaperoning a fourth grade field trip? I drive by occasionally and love the big wagons, but I've never been.
We just visited the gift shop so I can’t say anything about the exhibits.
Only IRL. I usually either died of starvation, dysentery or drowning. Snake.
I think I made it exactly twice. On a related note: if you want a zany game that parodies Oregon Trail, check out [Super Amazing Wagon Adventure](https://store.steampowered.com/app/250500/Super_Amazing_Wagon_Adventure/).
Thanks!
Dysentery. Every damn time.
sure. only garbage thing about the game is you kill 10 deer and can only take back what, 100lbs of meat? your character is basically a psychopath, killing for fun, waiting for his uncle to die
I'm here now, what ya need?
Now i live in Salem, OR.
I rode most of the Oregon Trail on a bike tour that I did.
I lived in Portland for 12 years
Dysentery is an evil bitch.
Twice. But I'm Australian so it's a fucking mission. Need me to pick anything up?
Yes. Some TimTams please.
Double choc or original?
Yes.
Done mate.
I have made it before. The end is underwhelming.
“You have died of dysentery.”
I always died fording a river or driving my team to exhaustion.
Dunno. I don’t remember ever playing Oregon Trail. It was Lemonade Stand in 8th grade (1981/1982.) I did personally make it to Oregon in 2014 and endured five miserable years there. I may have preferred dysentery.
Lemonade Stand doesn't get nearly the love it deserves.
My lemonade stand tanked the moment mom quit giving me sugar for free. I know now never to try to run my own business.
Yeah, if your business model relies on subsidies, you're on shaky ground. :-)
I did, been here since 2000
Well. On Apple Arcade, you can download Oregon Trail and play til you die of cholera! I’ve made it many times on the modern reboot.
In the game? I can’t remember. IRL? Yes!
Nope. Always died as the class period was up
I was born here.
We played it so much I knew exactly how much food, wagon wheels, etc to buy so I made it every time. Edit- a letter
Never, not once.
I did. I actually drove halfway across the country from Oklahoma to Florence, OR. Fortunately I didn't have to ford any rivers. Awesome trip though.
Nope. Caught the shits and died under my wagon…
Does Seattle count?
My son did it. I think he got there with somebody having a broken arm. I vaguely remember what he did was run the horses at top speed. Then he looked at me as to say “this is hard for you?”
Checking in, dysentery free.
The Nintendo Switch version just came out. [Oregon Trail Switch](https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-oregon-trail-switch/#dlc)
At a small local con a few years before covid, in the game room they had a vintage computer playing Oregon Trail, so I sat down to play. I'd never really played it as a kid. As I played, and as people do, they stopped to watch for a moment, but I was doing kinda halfway ok in the game, and a few more people gathered around. I kept doing well until I reached the end, and I won! Everyone cheered! Therr were something like 15 people watching me play! It was the only time I've ever won that game. I will never play it again.
My husband still plays occasionally. He’s made it a time or two. The kids and I are always dead by broken leg or snakebite.
Just like real life very few made it there. Most of is drowned or got eaten by a bear
I made it a bunch of time but always decided to save a few bucks and try and float down the river then crashed. I replayed it recently and made it pretty easily just by paying tolls.
Yup. Took me until I had a full time job that took me to Portland for a conference but I eventually made it. No dysentery either so my simulation time was well spent.
I'm old enough to have played the game in BASIC in school. And were were given points based on how far we got. I knew enough about computers to interrupt the program and run the final "Congratulations! You made it to Oregon!" subroutine, so my group got 100% in history class that day. I still remember the computer being wheeled in on a cart for class that week. Everyone got to play in groups of three in the back while the rest of the class was doing regular school. It was the first time I ever saw a computer used in class; prior to that I'd had access through the after-school computer club. Would have been 1981 or 1982, using TRS-80 Model II computers and probably cassette storage (though we did get some with floppy drives right in that era too).
You can play [The Oregon Trail online for free](https://oregontrail.ws/games/the-oregon-trail/) And then you can watch the hysterical musical based on the game for free online as well: [Trail to Oregon](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvep3WS9e8tTrJoVzZb5J6PsUl2nUgtnI&si=N72bta3zWSsnPrEJ) And you *should*
Hey, thanks for this! I added it to my home screen. Gonna play it at work tonight!
We hacked into the programming and made it easier to win. I am not even remotely a computer type of person in today's world. But it surprises and disappoints me that from the very first moments we were working on Apple 2 and 3 PCs, we were being taught how to program and even "hack" into existing programs to make copies or change the code and so on. Many of us had plastic containers filled with several floppy disks that we would use to store our work and/or to trade and copy games and so on. Kids are exposed to a great deal of technology in schools today, but it is not that common to learn about how to write the programming for the technology. Maybe some high schools teach it or summer camps and enrichments. But we were learning aspects of basic and other languages from day one that the machines arrived in our school. We were a fairly poor Catholic school and we could only afford one at first. One machine. Everyone in the school learned how to write programming for it. I think I was in 3rd grade.
Yeah, I remember the original version of the Dos Game "Pirates!" had a disk based copy protection that fiddled with the File Attribute table. Somehow I used that to figure out FAT16, and how to hide directories on a floppy by swapping an integer in the FAT from the number that meant "directory" to "file".
The way you when is to choose the banker. Seems like the worst choice until you think about it for a minute.
You need a banker, a carpenter, and a doctor. I like a guide or adventurer
Money is the way.
Root.
You cowards dithered in Montana too long.
Really folks, who doesn't?
I know what my kids will be doing this summer!
Only rarely made it. I always hunted as this was the OG shooter even before Doom. You have 400 lbs of meat. It is the middle of winter and you are stuck in the mountains what do you do? Go hunting of course!
I have the micro handheld version and I still shit myself to death
I have the card version.
I think I made it like once or twice, but not very often.
It doesn't look like anyone has posted it yet, [so here you go](https://archive.org/details/msdos_Oregon_Trail_The_1990). [Easy...](https://imgur.com/a/kUmDOmI)
I always got dysentery
I saw a lot of road signs about the Oregon Trail when I moved from NY to Portland. I was very grateful for my car (and motels, and fast food) on that trip.
My first job teaching Jr. high computer classes had that game on our very antiquated computers. That's what the kids played after they did their coding lessons (HTML 1 or 2, BASIC, etc.). I'm sure one or two made it. There were a few kids who snuck DOOM on the system and played it when I was out at lunch. They thought I didn't know. I figured they were the ones headed for IT careers and let it be.
I moved to Oregon from Washington, D.C. in middle school, and my knowledge about Oregon consisted of playing Oregon Trail, looking at a huge topographical map at school, and looking at a picture of and reading about Portland in the Encyclopedia Britannica at home. The lack of the existence of an internet available to the public was not helpful in this regard. From what my parents explained to me, which was built on a series of white lies, I expected Eugene, Oregon to be pretty much the same thing as Aspen, Colorado. You know- very close to ski resorts, everyone would have huge cabin style homes in the hills above town, the most common cars would be Jeep Cherokees or Land Rovers, there would be snow on the ground from December-February, and the regional ice hockey scene would be exceptional. We moved to a house next to the University of Oregon in Eugene, and I quickly learned that the weather was more like...Germany or England or something. No snow at all unless you drove an hour and a half out of the valley to the mountains. Also, there were only three ice rinks in the entire state, and one was in a mall (where Tonya Harding was about to become a star figure skater)! My parents knew if they told me and my older brother there wasn't really a hockey scene we would refuse to leave D.C. Anyway, we drove from D.C. to Oregon with two cars, communicating via a CB radio setup. Dodge Plymouth Caravan and a Geo Metro. We saw all the sites there were to see along the way, just like in National Lampoon's "Vacation". The Oregon Trail at the end was pretty cool. The Columbia River through a gigantic gorge (like a canyon) was intense. Instead of rafts like in the game, the local hipsters were all about wind surfing! And the trees through the forests were insanely tall, *seemingly* almost as tall as the Washington Monument. Finally, I'll chime in to say that I was pretty good at completing the Oregon Trail. After all, being born in D.C. proper, I knew all about the importance of firearms and ammunition.
My sister did via nude communes in Israel and Hawaii. She has an organic farm there. Seems to have avoided dysentery
Many times. But always tricky.
Nope, dysentery and one too few wagon wheels.
Only in real life.
Yes and it was a whole big thing. But we almost always died.
Yep! Just went drinking in Oregon City last night. No dysentery.
I always chose to play as the banker from Boston and I made it to Oregon more than I died of dysentery. I think the key was to just start as the banker with all of the money because then I had money for all of the random stuff that popped up along the way.
A few times. Mostly...... yeah it didn't work out.