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Niagara

(11,876 posts)
Fri Apr 3, 2026, 09:15 PM Friday

You have died from dysentery

The Oregon Trail was an educational and strategy computer game that I got the chance to play in junior high.


Players start in Missouri, a Midwestern state that marked the beginning of the American frontier in the early 19th Century. You select travel companions and choose supplies before facing obstacles on the trail, including broken wagon wheels, weather, snake bites and more. Activities along the way keep things interesting, including a hunting mini-game and managing the health of the party.


It wasn't an easy game to play either. I died from dysentery plenty of times. I believe that last time that I played as an adult and I drowned crossing a hardcore river in my covered wagon.







I think I'm going to play the game tomorrow morning after my house-keeping patrol duties are completed.


https://www.visitoregon.com/the-oregon-trail-game-online/

12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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You have died from dysentery (Original Post) Niagara Friday OP
Now you're bringing back memories! True Dough Friday #1
Nostalgic computer games Niagara Friday #4
Here's one more True Dough Friday #8
Thank you, True Niagara Friday #10
Designed in Minnesota IbogaProject Friday #2
I was so fortunate to have the experience to play this game, Iboga Niagara Friday #5
I discovered this with my kid IbogaProject Friday #7
It's not easy peasy either lol Niagara Friday #9
I loved it, was played in class as part of curriculum. JMCKUSICK Friday #3
I love it as well, John Niagara Friday #6
Was Alcove Spring in Kansas one of the locations in that game? highplainsdem Friday #11
At least they didn't call it the "bloody flux". eppur_se_muova Friday #12

True Dough

(26,729 posts)
1. Now you're bringing back memories!
Fri Apr 3, 2026, 09:22 PM
Friday

I had a buddy with a TRS-80 computer. He had a few word-based games where you make choices to decide your fate. I can't remember the names of all of them but one was The Oregon Trail and The King of Chicago was another one (that one was about the mafia).

IbogaProject

(5,923 posts)
2. Designed in Minnesota
Fri Apr 3, 2026, 09:27 PM
Friday

The game was loosely based on a statistical analysis from a large collection of diaries from folks who wagon trained out west in that period. It went through a few versions leading to the 1985 version some just slightly younger than my self encountered on the Apple IIe.

The Oregon Trail was created in 1971 by student teachers Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in Minneapolis to make history class engaging. Originally a text-based teletype game, it simulated a 19th-century westward journey, which Rawitsch later updated in 1974 for the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) to include more historical accuracy and Random events


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IbogaProject

(5,923 posts)
7. I discovered this with my kid
Fri Apr 3, 2026, 09:39 PM
Friday

We hacked through it one afternoon sometime in the last 10 years.

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