DOS Cover art for IBM/Tandy(1985-1995)/ (Classic Edition)R. Philip BouchardSeries,Release1985 (Apple II)1990 (DOS)1996 (Classic Edition)Historical simulation game, resource managementThe Oregon Trail is a computer game developed by the (MECC) and first released in 1985 for the. It was designed to teach students about the realities of 19th-century life on the. In the game, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from, to 's via a in 1848.The game was designed and created by a team at MECC, led by R. Philip Bouchard, who also served as the principal designer.

It was loosely based on an also named ‘The Oregon Trail, originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and released on the MECC timeshare system in 1975, followed by similar versions for Apple, Atari, Commodore, and Radio Shack computers (from 1978 to 1984).The 1985 The Oregon Trail is the first graphical entry and the most well known entry in the, and was released in multiple editions between 1985 and 1993 for several platforms, including Apple II, and Macintosh computers. Games in the series have since been released in many editions by various developers and publishers, many titled The Oregon Trail. The multiple games in the series are often considered to be iterations on the same title, and have collectively sold over 65 million copies and have been inducted into the. The series has also inspired a number of spinoffs such as. Screenshot from the Apple II versionThe player can choose to be a banker from Boston, a carpenter from Ohio, or a farmer from Illinois. Each profile starts with a specified amount of money to spend at the supply store (the banker has the most, the farmer the least), before beginning their journey. After the player sets off from, there are several landmarks along the trail where players can make decisions, shop for supplies or rest.

Michael plays the classic DOS educational game: The Oregon Trail, Part 3 of 3. In this part, many people get sick, Indians unsuccessfully lead us across a river and Michael tests his theory that. Playing Oregon Trail at school was a right of passage for Generation X kids. It’s time to hit the Oregon Trail. The classic floppy disk game for Apple II is back in its original form and available to play on desktop and mobile. Here’s how to play the original Oregon Trail game online. What Makes The Oregon Trail Game Educational?

Players can purchase supplies such as oxen to pull the wagon, food to feed their party, clothing to keep their party warm, ammunition for hunting, and spare parts for the wagon. These landmarks include:, in the,.

When approaching Oregon's, travelers can either float a raft through the or take the. Hunting An important aspect of the game was the ability to hunt. Using guns and bullets bought over the course of play, players select the hunt option (#8) and hunt wild animals to add to their food reserves.

In the original version, players controlled the wagon leader who could aim a rifle in one of eight directions and fire single shots at animals. In later versions, players hunted with a cross-hair controlled by the mouse or touchscreen.

While the player can shoot as many wild games as they have bullets, only 100 pounds of meat can be carried back to the wagon at once 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. Also in later versions, players could hunt in different environments (hunting during winter showing snow-covered grass, for example), and the over-hunting of animals would result in 'scarcity' that reduced the number of animals appearing later in the game. Some versions also allow the player to go fishing.Death Throughout the course of the game, members of the player's party can fall ill and not rest, which causes further harm to the victim. The party can die from various causes and diseases, such as, and, as well as from drowning or accidental gunshot wounds.

The player's oxen are also subject to injury and death.Scoring At the conclusion of the journey, a player's score is determined in two stages. In the first stage, the program awards a for each remaining family member (weighted by party health), each remaining possession (weighted by type), and remaining cash on hand (one point per dollar). In the second stage, the program multiplies this raw score depending on the party's initial level of resources determined by the profession of the party's leader; for example, in the Apple II game, a banker starting with $1600 receives no bonus, the score of a carpenter starting with $800 is doubled, and the score of a farmer starting with $400 is tripled. The player's score is added to a high-score list. Development Original version. Main article:In 1971, Don Rawitsch, a history major and senior at in, taught an 8th grade history class at Bryant Junior High as a student teacher. His supervising teacher assigned him to prepare a unit on the westward movement of people in the United States, and Rawitch, along with his roommates and fellow Carleton students Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger decided to create a game for the school's computer instead.

They implemented the basics of the game in two weeks, and after they presented the game students would line up outside the door for their turn and stay after school for another chance. When the school year ended, Rawitsch deleted the program from the computer, after printing out a copy of the.In 1974, Rawitch was hired by the (MECC), a state-funded organization that developed for the classroom, and he began to rebuild the game, still using text-based output, for the organization. He decided to research the events of the Oregon Trail that he had not had time for with the original game, and changed the random events, such as bad weather or wagons breaking down, to be based on the actual historical probabilities for what happened to travelers on the trail at each location in the game. Rawitsch calculated the probabilities himself, basing them on historical diaries and narratives of people on the trail that he read. Rawitsch 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.After Rawitsch published the BASIC language program code for the game in Creative Computing magazine in 1978, volunteers adapted the source code to run on various timeshare computers and newly invented personal computers.

In 1980, MECC included one of the Apple II versions of Oregon in a product called Elementary Volume 6, a collection of five social studies simulation games. Although the game structure and random events in Oregon were identical to the timeshare version, the text-based hunting feature was replaced with a graphical version of the activity. In 1983 and 1984, this early Apple II version was ported to the Atari, Commodore, and Radio Shack computers, published by MECC in a product called Expeditions, a collection of three of the activities from Elementary Volume 6.

Graphical version The Oregon Trail continued to be a popular title, and in October 1984, MECC commissioned programmer R. Philip Bouchard and a small team to make a graphical version for the Apple II computer. The new version was to be released as a standalone game and appealed to the home market instead of the school market. The team consisted of lead designer Philip Bouchard, lead programmer John Krenz, lead artist Charolyn Kapplinger, Shirley Kieran on research, and Bob Granvin for additional programming.

Bouchard was told the new version had to be an expansion on the original game, not only an update to the graphics. The new version was designed to be more accurate to the real Oregon Trail and for the game to have better 'replayability'.Over the course of the development, 21 innovations were made from the original:. More detailed and accurate geographic locations to real life. A landmark-based travel cycle, where players can visit famous landmarks. Continuous daily cycles, so that players can encounter a new event every in-game day and keep track of their supplies every day. The addition of branches in the path.

Garnjobst, Nicole (October 19, 2017). Minnesota Historical Society. Retrieved August 15, 2019. Pp. 41, 63, 69, 72. Retrieved August 15, 2019. Bouchard, R. Retrieved August 18, 2019.

^. Retrieved September 19, 2018. Hider, Anna (May 9, 2013). Retrieved August 9, 2018.

^ Bouchard, R. Philip (August 16, 2016). The Philipendium. Retrieved September 19, 2018. Retrieved 2020-01-27.

^ Bouchard, R. Philip (June 29, 2017). Retrieved September 19, 2018. Lipinski, Jed (July 29, 2013). Mental Floss. Archived from on July 31, 2013.

Shea, Jeremy (February 24, 2014). Yester: Then For Now. Retrieved August 29, 2015. ^ Walker-Emig, Paul. 'The Making of the Oregon Trail'.

Pp. 32–37. ^ Lussenhop, Jessica (January 19, 2011). Archived from on January 23, 2011. Grosvenor, Emily (September 25, 2014). Retrieved September 25, 2014.

Rawitsch, Don (May 1978). Creative Computing. Retrieved August 15, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2019. Retrieved August 18, 2019. Hunt, Drew (n.d.). Archived from on December 10, 2014.

Retrieved May 18, 2017. ^ Campbell, Colin (July 31, 2013). Retrieved October 27, 2014. Rosenberg, Eli (January 21, 2011). Retrieved August 29, 2015. News sources (October 27, 2017). KTVZ.

Cortez, Meghan Bogardus (September 27, 2017). Ed Tech. Garvey, Anna (April 21, 2015). Social Media Week. Retrieved April 9, 2018. Jancer, Matt (July 22, 2016).

Smithsonian. Zimmerman, Danielle (July 14, 2014). Hypable. Buchanan, Levi (March 5, 2009). Retrieved October 27, 2014. Campuzano, Eder (May 5, 2016). The Oregonian.

Blanchett, Aimee (May 10, 2016). Star Tribune. February 15, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2018.

Aamoth, Doug (November 15, 2012). Archived from on November 18, 2012. Fitzpatrick, Alex; Pullen, John Patrick; Raab, Josh; Grossman, Lev; Eadicicco, Lisa; Peckham, Matt; Vella, Matt (August 23, 2016). From the original on August 26, 2016. Mott, Tony (2010). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.

Universe Publishing. Echo world. P. 22.External links.