The Oregon Trail Lives On
The Oregon Trail – quite possibly one of the greatest computer games ever created – had a profound effect on my childhood. In 3rd grade, the green glow of our classroom computer screen became the sole source of my obsession. The cutting-edge graphics and realistic hunting scenarios convinced me that I was destined to conquer the vast Oregon wilderness.
Unfortunately, as fate would have it, my 3rd grade teacher often revoked my God-given rights to play the Oregon Trail. My “lack of self control” was often cited as the source of the problem. Shed a tear for me when you have time.
Even though my 3rd grade teacher nearly destroyed my dreams to head west, I am happy to announce that the flame in my heart was never extinguished, and manifest destiny lives on.*
Click here to play the Oregon Trail online.
My advice: Watch out for snakes, shoot as many squirrels as you can carry and always ford the river.
*For better or worse, of course.
Mr. Waldron,
I played Oregon Trail for 30 minutes (and will probably play it again), only to lose John, have Adam drown at the first river, have G and Chris die at the second river, while I die of the measles. It was definitely unfortunate.
I did enjoy playing the game, but the hunting is so hard! I could hardly ever kill anything! I’m not sure how much I learned from playing this game, except for the fact that the Oregon Trail is really dangerous.
Thank you for putting up this link!
-Noah
[2976 points]
Hey Mr. Waldron!
I played the game for about 30 minutes. I found it to be a little boring and not very educational but it was a good experience :).
I played Oregon Trail for a brief period of time. I followed your instructions and Noah and G drowned from fording across a river, Adam got dysentry, and I could not hit any squirrels. I believe I got what was intended out of the game.
Hey Mr. Waldron!
I played The Oregon Trail for thirty minutes. I also realized that I used to play the same game all the time in elementary school, though I can’t remember why.
Mr. Waldron,
I played this game like three times and I am terrible at it. The rivers were the worst, even when I forded (?) the river I lost a lot of stuff. Oh and Jennifer you died from a snakebite, drowning, and some other disease 🙂
Okay, I have no life, so for the past hour I played Oregon Trail. I have a couple things to say about this game. First off, the graphics are poor; it takes me a good amount of time just to figure out what I’m reading because the text is blurry. Also, hunting is very hard and it’s even harder when i can’t navigate well.
Now on to the positives: I was the last to die and I made it considerable far without any food. Unfortunately this brings about another complaint; how am I am i supposed to cure my sick people? Maybe I didn’t investigate all 8 choices closely enough. (I digress) Another thing I enjoyed about the game was being able to write on my grave stone after dying; it was a great personal touch to the ending of a great game. All in all, I must admit I did enjoy myself and this has been an exciting Saturday night.
P.S. Adam would like me to inform you that he died of cholera.
I played this game for at least half an hour. I managed to get across the first few rivers fine but I ran out of food when winter hit in the Rocky Mountains and I died horribly. All the buffalo would come in the edge of the screen and then turn away before I could even shoot at them.
Hey i played this right after i got home from our gameday but i was too lazy to post about it. First time playing it for a while and i passed as a carpenter(yea sub par class) with like 2362 points. I then went into hard mode by going farmer and starting in July and made it to the river before last and ran out of food cause Noah was stupid and broke a leg and an arm, and then his other leg. but i did play my 30 mins.
Awesome game. Fording the rivers caused the demise of Buck and Maddie. No squirrels but I did bag 2 buffaloes, although, I was only permitted to carry a paltry 80 pounds out of 700+ back to the wagon. I think in real life Buck would have definitely found a way to haul all 700lbs.
Trip was going well until I busted a wagon tongue and got stranded through the entire month of May. I tried to trade almost everyday but to no avail.
I could have continued to persevere but had to run to a lunch appointment. Will definitely be playing again. Great memories!
Mr. Waldron,
I played the game for about 40 minutes, and all of my people died. I couldn’t shoot an animal to save my life. It was fun though 🙂
Mr Waldron,
I played this game for thirty minutes only to “get mad,” and leave. Chances are, I will play it again soon. Anyways, while I was playing, I bought some oxen, barely any food, extra wagon parts, and some bullets. I managed to have Billy break his arm within the first 20 miles of our trip, and I think Jean may have gotten sick, I can’t remember because after 50 miles of trailing it, Billy drowned in a river along with my oxen. That was when I realized that oxen were more valuable than children in this time period, because making your kids pull your wagon was cruel. Anyways, after this long and painful ordeal, I was set back one whole day thanks to severe storms, and right about then was when I lost it because I realized how poorly suited I was without a second oxen.
Now I’m going to start over and see if I can actually do this right.
Sincerely, Chad
So, I decided to play this during my study hall. It took me about 40 minutes or so to finish. I started off all right. Then a thief came and stole some of my bullets.. that seems sort of ironic because couldn’t i just shoot him or something? Hailey broke her leg, and then she got lost. She was really impeding our journey for a while, but then she died. Shortly after she died, Sallad got cholera. I’m not really sure what that is. About half a month after that she got dysentry and Emily got a fever. This was all at a steady pace of travel so I would hate to see how sick everyone would get were we actually moving at a significant pace. Two months or so after that i spent all my money on food that burned up after the wagon caught on fire. And it took me four months to figure out to hunt for food. Then I got to this river and my wagon tipped over and I lost all my food. Oh, and Lindsey drowned. About two months after that Emily died. Which left only me and Sallad alive I think. Then about a week after that Sallad died. I was really depressed so I ate a lot of food and switched to a grueling travelling pace. After all was said and done i mad it to Oregon with 780 points. Mhm.
Wow. This game is fun……. Not very educational, but fun 🙂
Wally, I won. I played for about 20 minutes, and only lost Tarken. I’m probably going to play several more times. I have an addiction.
So I just played the Oregon trail. I would like to inform you that sucessfully made it to Oregon. I had 3 people die out of 5 which was Bobby, Seth Wood, and Emma. But I finished the game with 794 points. I’m not sure how long I’ve been playing it but I had the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie playing in the background and I believe I’m half way through the movie when I finished the game. I really enjoyed this game! 😀
I played for about an hour. I lost all my people in the first river except for a guy named Tim who kept getting Typhoid, and I obsessively bought food anywhere I could, but I ultimately died randomly even though my heath was in fair condition. This game frustrated me.