The Oregon Trail bit on the latest Bombcast got me thinking about which version(s) of the game we played when we were kids. The one I remember playing was The Oregon Trail Deluxe that came out for DOS and Mac in 1992.
What about y'all?
Whatever was on elementary school computers in the early to mid 90's.
It was probably Deluxe, since it had better graphics than some versions I've seen. I remember my grandma had "Oregon Trail 2" at some point. I barely played it, since it seemed way more complicated than it needed to be and not fun.
Apple II. When you went out hunting and shot an animal, the sprite just flipped upside down to indicate it was dead, which I found hilarious.
Also Apple II. We had to play it in grade school all the time. The last time we played it, I named my main character "Eat Me" and got in trouble (it was a very Catholic school).
My family had the 3rd edition (which features some pretty "good" FMV acting) and an old floppy disk of the original version. I don't think I ever quite understood how to play it "correctly" but I sincerely doubt most of the kids in the computer labs of the 90s and early 2000s had any idea either.
I honestly don't remember. I recall playing some version in a computer class, don't know which. Definitely not the really old one Jeff mentioned.
Apple II, I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade. Hunting was my favorite. I never had enough time to do a complete game so I never could finish it. Ejecting that floppy disk was super satisfying though.
HA, this is funny, I played the version Jeff and Will remember. I was confused by all the videos that involved graphics based actions scenes, and I just figured I didn't get far enough in the game. It is great to learn that my entirely text based memory isn't a fabrication.
I always bought oxen because they were cheaper, and I always died trying to cross a swollen river. fuck that game.
The Yukon Trail was what we had in my Canadian Elementary School's Mac lab.
Black & green Apple II.
Our grade school had mandatory computer literacy each week, and at least half the time was spent playing Oregon Trail or Number Munchers.
These are screenshots from the version I remember. I think it was the DOS version that my family's computer had (I know we didn't have any Apple products) and I played it endlessly, mainly to see people I knew die of cholera and to play the hunting game. I had the one where you walked around and shot pixels at animals too big to carry back to the wagon.
I'm about the same age as Jeff I think (turned 40 a little over a month ago) and I didn't play the version he did on stream. That was way too fancy, what with its color graphics actual aiming during the hunting parts. We played on Apple II's. The problem was they only gave you one hour, but half of that was eaten up by wrangling all the kids into the computer lab and setting them up with a game, so I never had time to finish a playthrough.
@arbitrarywater: i also played the 3rd edition, i still can't believe i played through that without ever thinking the FMV was weird. Looking back it looks bananas.
FMV duck hunting was pretty cool too.
I think we played Deluxe for the Mac at school. I remember the hunting was mouse-based, and I think you could group in a party over a network, so that everyone in our class had their own wagon, and we had to vote on things like the route or pace.
My school growing up had it for Apple II. I think it was in green and white, but that may have just been due to the monitors not having color. It was the version where you moved around your little dude for hunting. Later, when my family got a PC in the late 90s, we got Oregon Trail 2, which I remember having FMV, but I think my memory is wrong on that count: the game had real people, but I think they were mostly just static images. Funny how my mind filled in the blanks on that.
DOS version, 1990 version if i recall. Actually never finished it back then. Kind of want to go back to it. Had a ton of fun with the zombie version Organ Trailer, finished that one a bunch of times.
Oregon Trail 2000, maybe? I’m not certain that’s what it was called, but it was definitely one of the later versions.
The 1985 Apple II version which I believe is the first with limited graphics, we didn't have color screens at school though so I never knew it wasn't always green on green. I didn't know there was a text only version that was even older until Jeff brought it up.
@rapid: This is the one. I just hunted, I didn't even play the game. On the Apple IIs I'd just switch them on and off until it gave me the the command prompt and then write loop code to cover the screen with curse words.
@rapid: I definitely played this one the most, I remember stocking up on bullets and hunting constantly and always killing more animals than I could carry in my wagon. I think I made it to the end only once or twice, that mouse controlled ride down the river at the end was terrible.
We had/have the third as well it came with a bundle of various software we got with our first computer.
Loved that game aside from the times in the summer where the people kept complaining about the heat. Like what the hell am I supposed to do about? Install an A/C on the side of the wagon?
I think it was the Macintosh version. I might have played the Apple II version as well but I can't remember (I was 6 ok). Each class had a Apple II and the library had Macintoshes. I probably played a lot more Apple II games than I remember. I definitely remember playing the Macintosh version of Oregon Trail in the library though.
@rapid: That's the one that I played at school. I also had the 3rd edition at home.
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