Throwback Thursday: The Oregon Trail

By on Jul 8, 2010 at 1:45 PM
Gaming July 8, 2010

Oregon Trail

Ah yes, The Oregon Trail. Remember how pissed you used to get when your bloody oxen would drown after you decided to ford the river? Even though your classmate told you to add mileage to the trip and just go around the river!? Man, that was frustrating. Originally developed by three Minnesota teachers in 1971, The Oregon Trail’s intended purpose was to help grade school students understand the hardships of the early American settlers in the 19th century. After being bought out and further developed, the game really hit its stride in the mid-80′s and early-90′s when it was adapted to further leverage the technological breakthrough that was “the computer mouse.”

In order to successfully navigate The Trail you had to avoid: broken legs, drowning, measles, snakebites, dysentery, typhoid, cholera, exhaustion, and diarrhea, all while keeping your trail-mates fed and healthy. As we all know, a classic never dies, and updated versions of The Oregon Trail have been released as recently as 2009. Don’t be shy, let us know how good your hunting skills were (we know you were a good shot and never missed a speedy squirrel or mouse) or how much cash you managed to horde while battling The Trail.

BGR Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets — and in this case software — of yesterday and yesteryear.

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  • tommyboy

    Can you still buy or download this game anywhere?

    • OldNewOne

      It’s available for the iPhone.

    • Sean

      There’s an iOS version.

  • Peter

    I used to play this all the time in the 1st grade in our visits to the library’s computer room!

  • Beall
  • MonkeyCheese

    aahh yes 5th grade how I remember you….I don’t miss you at all. But this game was fun to play.

  • CatatonicBug

    I actually have a Tshirt I wore to the office yesterday that has a covered wagon, and the words, “You have died of dysentery”! I had a copy of the game (much better graphics than the original) for Windows until about 7 years ago. Not sure if it’s still available though.

  • izzle

    ahh 6th grade computer class how I’ve missed thee so.

  • PHug

    Well, I was with you on all the other throwbacks, but now you’ve gone too far.

  • nofan

    Wow…elementary library…fighting to get to computer to play this…will download tonight definitely.

  • Enlightened

    LOVED this game. Those were the days. I still remember waiting SO long for the noisy floppy disk drive to load the next part on my Apple II GS.

    Great throwback! Atari, Game Gear, now Oregon Trail- keep ‘em coming!

  • Joe Schmoe

    Definitely from my generation! Had both the Game Gear and Oregon Trail. I pulled Oregon Trail out and started playing it again just last year. It’s still fun even today!

  • FloppyDisk

    “You died of dysentery.”

  • Electrofreak

    Prettttty sure you couldn’t have anyone die from diarreah. Way to copy-paste from Wikipedia, BGR.

    • JohnnyCash

      diarreah would possibly dehydrate you to the point of death if you didn’t continue to drink fluids. just sayin.

  • Jomark

    I LOVED this game. Actually still have a complete working CD set at home. My wife stopped playing it when she spent like ALL day making it to CA only to die on the last curve of the river at the very end. :)

  • OopsieAL

    Traversing the river never seemed profitable…LOL. LOVED that game! We used to all sit and about DIE waiting for our turn on the computers in StarReach once a week! Wow…great throwback!

  • mikebur

    You could die from diarreah. Way to fact check, electro

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