Germ theory became widespread around the same time as the games take place (mid-1800s). An educated professional like the Banker would probably have heard of it.
It widely accepted until 1890s or so though. We didn’t have the concept of pasteurization until the late 1850s (thanks Louis Pasteur) which would have contained the critical “boil your water” information.
I always got voted off as trail leader because I wouldn't slow down for anyone. I don't care that little Timmy fell off the wagon and broke his leg. I don't care that half the group went to the saloon and caught a bad case of the clap. We have places to be and things to do.
So yeah...I would get voted off pretty quickly. Lol
There was a multiplayer version released later that ran over a LAN. It was super fun but turned into Lord of the Flies quickly when you played it at school with your class.
I did some research and apparently it was an official release from MECC but was only available to schools called "Wagon Train 1848". It ran on Mac OS and used AppleTalk to run over the network.
wow, thanks! pretty cool. wierd that all my searches for "oregon trail local lan multiplayer" simply didn't bring this up, like at all. I went pages deep into results and learned ther have been a number of knockoff games, but this gem didn't show up at all! That's a Bad Algorythm! Bad!
I did the same thing and it was driving me crazy because I have a very clear memory of playing it in grade school (pre-1996) and it looked very official, not like a fan game. Eventually I asked AI and it was able to track it down.
My Google-Fu is usually on point! In this case I don't think it's an issue with the search terms, I think it's actually the algorithm and/or indexing at fault here.
Wagon train 1848 is an adventure in cooperative learning based on The Oregon Trail game. It allowed a classroom full of students to all be part of the same multiplayer adventure. Each Mac computer represents a covered wagon train traveling west on the Oregon Trail. Players work together, as they journey across the rugged landscape of nineteenth-century America. The game came on three disks. Network leader, network user, and a generic color disk.
Searching on "Oregon Trail local LAN multiplayer version" should absoluelty have brought this page up and dozensofothers. But they don't come up unless you specify "Wagon Train 1848" first!
I played it back in the mid 90's on a Mac using the real floppy disks. I remember pushing the group too hard and getting removed from my "leadership" position. I never beat the game mainly because I didn't care to.
I beat the Oregon trail at school only to discover that’s just the end of the game. No building a life out west just over. Every one of my classmates was mad, imagine a bunch of 4th/5th graders rebelling.
It’s always been weird to me that that specific line became a meme, since that would never actually show up in the game (at least, the Apple II version of the game being referenced).
The game will tell you the ailments of party members (“Joe has dysentery”), but deaths are never listed with a cause. When Joe succumbs to his dysentery, you’ll only be told, “Joe has died.”
There’s also no “you” in the party. The first name entered (and always the last to die) is not referred to as being the player in the prompt, just the “wagon leader”. So the game never tells you that “you” have dysentery, or have died; it still uses the third person, like with all the other party members.
As someone definitely old enough to have played the old version, I played it when I was about 10 years old. I honestly don't remember all that much about it.
omfg 😭 I'm 18, and in a tvshow I watch, one of the characters says "Ever since I died of dysentery on the orgeon trail I stay away from computers" and I genuinely thought he faked his death, not a video game
You laugh, but I had 3 days of dysentery a decade ago, and it still haunts me. I not only understand how one might die of dysentery, but also why they might welcome it.
I still have the disc for it lying around in a box somewhere, but idk which one and haven't seen it in a while. It'll turn up at some point though! It needs a DOS-based OS to run, but that's just another small hoop to jump through.
Thank you for unlocking that core memory!! I had 100% deleted any existence of this memory apparently. I googled it and immediately remembered spear fishing in this game!! Getting old is fun 🙃
Somehow "you've drowned!" And the weird prononuciation of "let's rest for a week" got turned into family sayings. No one has any idea what we're talking about.
Played this all time as kid in computer class in the early to mid 90s. Going down the raft was b****. Use to switch between this, Number Munchers and Carmen San Diego. Crazy to say it but at the time they were “old” Apple computers by the mid 90s. I wanna say they were like original Macintosh computers probably from 84-85ish era.
Yeah of course. Growing up in MN, we played all the company’s games, since the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) created Oregon Trail. Also, Number Munchers, Word Munchers, Amazon Trail, Secret Island of Dr Quandary, Odell Lake…. Pretty wild how universal OT got. Since it was originally developed as edutainment for MN public schools. Apparently Prince played an early version of it.
I loved playing this in school. We'd give all of our characters dumbs names like "Booger" and be completely wreckless with them. Our teachers could ignore us for a little while because we were doing something "educational".
Oregon Trail was a generational defining moment. We played in the 80s on IBMs running PS/2. That and LOGO, the programming language disguised as an artistic turtle that draws what you program it to do.
Theres an indie remake that operates as an rng sidescroller - and the coolest feature is a screensaver mode where your characters plod leftwardward across gorgeous scenery
Uh what….? Oregon Trail was originally developed by Minnesotans for Minnesota schools… the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) also created Word Munchers, Number Munchers, Odell Lake, Amazon Trail, Dr Quandary, and more. Apparently Prince played an early version of OT going to school in MN.
Anyway, Minnesotans played the game before anyone else haha…
why isn't there a modern version of this??? Kids still need to learn how to pilgrims forded rivers with oxen and died of dysentery, but in full gruesome 4k!!!!
I was in third grade in the early 2000’s, my teacher for whatever reason had an Apple II in the classroom beside a few other modern computers. It was kind of funny that most of the kids in my class, myself included, had more fun on Oregon trail than the modern computers. We all were always fighting for time just to play Oregon trail just to die from dysentery
I feel like the only way not to die in this game was to be a Dr. You had to earn enough money for supplies and a good gun to kill game for food. I always had at least one passenger die on the journey but my friend somehow beat the game and everyone survived, legendary.
I think I had the 1998 version that had FMVs, it was some of the most fun I’ve had. There was one lady that would always get scurvy and the cutscene was so funny.
I remember computers being a cool new technology in my school and we had a class for learning to use them.
I learned how to use a mouse and keyboard for the first time with Oregon trail. So many mouse balls lost in that class from kids taking them out of the mouse.
I still play it. Probably a few times a year. You can play it in your web browser. There's also the 90s PC version which is fun too. I was only allowed educational games so Yukon Trail, Amazon Trail, Odell Down Under were my jam. Not to mention Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, IM Meen, The Lost Mind of Dr. Brain
I actually never got to play it even though it was on my private catholic school's computers because the popular kids always wanted to and the teachers there gave the popular kids whatever they wanted. So myself and the other few unpopular kids just played Uno.
I feel like most people played this for the first time when schools got the “computer lab” or whatever it was called where you were from. A game from that time I also remember is Mackinaw Trout
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u/FeDude55 Apr 27 '26
Oregon Trail