# Anyone remember the Oregon Trail?



## morphology (Aug 16, 2011)

I was reading the TvTropes entry for the Oregon Trail series, and it gave me a nostalgia trip back to playing it in elementary school.  It was such a fun game, teaching us important historical lessons like caulking and floating wagons is a death sentence and spreading dysentery awareness.

When I was a little kid I wasn't exactly the brightest of individuals in terms of medical care.  Any time someone got messed up in Oregon Trail II they got a heaping helping of Epsom salts and a run around the wagon.  I also didn't know that hunting rattlesnakes was a bad idea. The wagon party probably reached Oregon only 4 or 5 times out of the dozens of attempts.

What are your memories of the Oregon trail games?


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## Rouz (Aug 16, 2011)

Yes, reminds me of grade school.


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## Dr. Durr (Aug 16, 2011)

You Have Died Of Dysentery.

I bought it on my iPod and got it on MS-DOS from Abandonia.*


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## Dr. Durr (Aug 16, 2011)

You Have Died Of Dysentery.
EDIT: Could someone delete this double post?
I bought it on my iPod and got it on MS-DOS from Abandonia.


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## Xenke (Aug 16, 2011)

> Receive box
> Open box
"You have received dysentery."

What the fuck was _in_ that box!?

Best story I got, it didn't happen to me though, sadly. BUT I WAS THERE... TO LAUGH.

I always hated that game though. I had a version that came in a cereal box (oh I miss the days when PC games game in cereal boxes), and it was kinda nice, but I always failed miserably.


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## Dr. Durr (Aug 16, 2011)

Xenke said:


> > Receive box
> > Open box
> "You have received dysentery."
> 
> What the fuck was _in_ that box!?



I was once attacked by a bear.
In the desert.


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## Aeturnus (Aug 16, 2011)

I remember playing that game in high school. I had more fun letting my party die so I can write amusing messages on tombstones, and seeing how many animals I can kill.


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## iTails (Aug 16, 2011)

This game used to be my favorite. My first RPG. :')


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## Zenia (Aug 16, 2011)

I dunno anything about Oregon Trail 2, but I remember playing the first one a LOT in elementary school. That was back in the days of 5" floppy disks (the ones that were actually floppy). It was *the* game to play, along with Number Munchers. XD


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## ghilliefox (Aug 16, 2011)

i remember only playing it once or twice at school due to the face that we rarely went to the comp lab and i never figured out how to get out of the first town.


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## DarrylWolf (Aug 16, 2011)

Number Munchers was pretty cool too and you know what, so was Type To Learn!


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## Runefox (Aug 16, 2011)

My cousin had it; came with his old Pentium 75MHz Compaq computer. Come to think of it, a SHITTON of things came with that computer. Man, how times have changed...

What *I* remember from school that *I* thought was cool?

[video=youtube;RCVQFzBAu14]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCVQFzBAu14[/video]

Aww yeah.


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## Tycho (Aug 16, 2011)

OT *wistful nostalgic sigh*

>choose Banker
>spend bare minimum $ on most necessities
>dump the rest (a lot) into buying bullets
>turn Oregon Trail into a shooty bangbang game with my old CH joystick

YEAH YOU'RE NOT LAUGHING AT ME NOW, ARE YOU MR. RABBIT
I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AND EVERY LAST ONE OF YOUR WOODLAND FRIENDS

I owned the PC version and I played it on an 80286 12MHz clock speed IBM PC AT clone kickin' a CGA graphics card and 1 MB of ram FUCK YEAH I was so awesome

oh double awesome points: I named every member of my party after a notorious horrible person (e.g. Stalin or Berkowitz or what have you)


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## Irreverent (Aug 16, 2011)

To this day, I'll occasionally give my family name as "Donner" when asking for a table at a restaurant.


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## Tycho (Aug 16, 2011)

Irreverent said:


> To this day, I'll occasionally give my family name as "Donner" when asking for a table at a restaurant.



you realize we're talking about the computer game and not the actual Oregon Trail right old otter


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## Lobar (Aug 16, 2011)

mandatory


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## Irreverent (Aug 16, 2011)

Tycho said:


> you realize we're talking about the computer game and not the actual Oregon Trail right old otter



I do.   And while I may be old enough to have actually been there, I still get a chuckle out of hearing a hostess at a restaurant call, "Donner, party of 6" over the PA system in the Pub.


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## johnny (Aug 16, 2011)

I had that game when I was little, it was cool back then. =


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## Tycho (Aug 17, 2011)

johnny said:


> I had that game when I was little, it was cool back then. =



still is cool, man


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## morphology (Aug 17, 2011)

Irreverent said:


> To this day, I'll occasionally give my family name as "Donner" when asking for a table at a restaurant.



Fun fact, in Oregon Trail II if you pick Salt Lake City as your destination and start in 1846, you can run into the exact same snowstorm that the Donner Party ran into.  Ain't no party like a Donner Party!

Just played the original on an emulator this evening.  Tried about 6 times, still haven't gotten to Oregon.  I think I'm having some bad luck there at the rivers, or my main character has really bad luck.


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## Tycho (Aug 17, 2011)

morphology said:


> Just played the original on an emulator this evening.  Tried about 6 times, still haven't gotten to Oregon.  I think I'm having some bad luck there at the rivers, or my main character has really bad luck.



And of course you know the ferryman is doing his best trollface.jpg.  Pay attention to the river's characteristics (p sure it informs you of things like depth, current, etc.) before you go turning your wagon into the _Edmund Fitzgerald_.  Generally the first river (the Kansas River IIRC) is a pretty safe one.  IIRC you can even ford it if you know what the water levels are.  (Note: fording pretty much any other river is a Bad Idea(TM).


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## Tiger In A Tie (Aug 17, 2011)

Was that the one with the jackass that sold you the gophers or was that Yukon Trail? 

Either way I loved both of them and played them a lot. Awesome games.


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## Tycho (Aug 17, 2011)

Tiger In A Tie said:


> Was that the one with the jackass that sold you the gophers or was that Yukon Trail?
> 
> Either way I loved both of them and played them a lot. Awesome games.



That must have been the Yukon Trail.


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## morphology (Aug 17, 2011)

My brother just told me that the Green River and the Snake River are generally insta-kills if you try to ford.  Which makes sense as the 2 death by rivers were on the Green River.  Time to take the ferry I guess.


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## Aetius (Aug 17, 2011)

SO much....Nostalgia! I need to play it again ._.


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## MattsyKuntheKitsune (Aug 17, 2011)

Oh, man, I still love playing this game. I found an emulator for it online, and I occassionally play it on my desktop.

Best story? Voice Actor Vic Mignogna dying from a rifle shot while hunting because I was too lazy to buy a sheath for the gun.


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## morphology (Aug 17, 2011)

One of the Oregon Trail games (2 or 3 I think?), whenever something serious happened the sound would go DUN UN, startling me. And you had to get a sheath for the rifle?  Maybe that's why I kept getting accidental gunshot wounds.


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## Judge (Aug 17, 2011)

Hell yes! I loved that! We did that in 5th grade and I was the only survivor out of the whole class. Everybody else died. Since I had no family. Lol


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## TwilightV (Aug 17, 2011)

It's available on DSiWare and I think they're making a retail version for 3DS (hopefully with more features to justify the release).


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## Digitalpotato (Aug 17, 2011)

I wonder if I'm the only one who actually tried to get to Oregon and the other things without trying to kill them. Most of hte times I'd actually make it unless something bad happened like I shot myself while hunting. 

Although I would often have fun in the computer lab.  We'd try to do silly runs like "Who can make it the furthest with only..." Things we tried have been:

-Candy
-Bacon
-Butter
-Lard
-Celery
-Seleratus
-Guns&Bullets
-Fruits
-Veggies
-Meat
-Salt Pork
-Peppermint
-Duffy's Elixir. 
-Pepper
-Pemmican (Which we thought was liek candy.) 

Unsurprisingly, Meat went the furthest. 


I didn't actually realized that you needed meat. I thought "Oh, people can survive without meat in real life" so I would just not hunt later, especially since I'd often lose the guns when the wagon friggin tipped over or got swamped when I tried to ford a one-foot deep river. (how the hell does that happen unless the river's extra muddy) Eventually all my family would get Beriberi and die if I didn't make it to Oregon or Sacramento fast enough. 


And oh yeah, there are some funny LetsPlays of it. There was one by Tatsuhiko where someone goes through a real trauma conga line before dying. Bob gets bitten by a rattlesnake after catching a cold and spraining his ankle. 

Symptoms: Blurred vision, coughing, disorientation, dryness of the mouth, fever, Nausea and vomiting, pain, runny nose, slurred speech, sneezing, sore throat, swelling and internal bleeding, swollen painful joint."
Tatsuhiko: holy shit, look at all those af-afflictions! He's like the sickest person in the world right now! 

kuposan3 was also another good one.
Supuhstar: And that is a fluffy fox.
Kuposan3: Yes it is.
Supuhstar: I want to cuddle that fox.
Kuposan3: It's because it is-
Game: Extreme cold.
Both: AAAAAAAH!
game: Supuhstar has died.
Kuposan3: WHAT?! YOU JUST DIED RANDOMLY!!

"Let's buy all the bacon and wrap it ourselves!"
"Rub affected area with snow! Best idea ever!"
From the second feature:"We lost a banjo! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"




morphology said:


> One of the Oregon Trail games (2 or 3 I think?), whenever something serious happened the sound would go DUN UN, startling me. And you had to get a sheath for the rifle?  Maybe that's why I kept getting accidental gunshot wounds.



That woudl be #2. Although 5 is based off of 2 but it looks...awkward. (They bring modern-looking animation into an obviously 90s looking game.)


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## Stratto the Hawk (Aug 20, 2011)

I'm just going to leave this here.


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## morphology (Aug 20, 2011)

Stratto the Hawk said:


> I'm just going to leave this here.



That made my evening.


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