How The Oregon Trail Took Over Computer Labs

The Oregon Trail is perhaps the most successful educational computer game of all time, but its humble origins include a stint in a converted janitor's closet and the casual deletion of every line of its initial code. In this episode of Throwback, Erin traces the history of your favorite computer lab activity.

The surprising history of the Oregon Trail changed computing, helped Apple achieve classroom dominance, and gave countless young people digital dysentery.

[theretrowizard]

4th grader problems: you have 30 min of computer time what do you play? The Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Those where the simple days

[artkincell]

I bought my children that game in the 90s and it became a family game time huddled around not a television, but a Wndows 95 based system.

Thanks to those three for many family laughs.

[tequilyps]

I remember when my teacher asked which game we'd like to get for our 15 min of computer time. The response? : ORGERON TRAIL!!!
I had no ideas what it wasd was, but believe u, me, it wasd most definitely awesome!
Coolest kid in class was the one who made it to Oregon.... within 15 min, or teacher bitching .
Never, ever knew that it was from MN! THANKS!!!

[LeoORyan]

I grew up in MN & didn't know about Oregon Trail's connection to MN and MECC. This is dope

[kevinw]

Literally the only thing we ever did in computer class, along with Logo. and a game called Lemonade Stand.

[connecticutaggie]

I started Highschool in 1971 and found that there was a teletype in the storage closet in the back of the Math Lab. The school district had provided it to the high school but with no clear plan on what to use it for. The Math Teacher showed one of the older students how to use then we learned from him. I rode the Elementary School bus to get to school early and my friends and I played on the computer before and after school. We were the first High School Computer Nerds. I bough a book of 100 Basic games and we tried a few; but, mostly, we had fun playing with the system commands and seeing what we could find. It was a fun time and I learned a lot. I even got a job writing computer programs when I started college in 1979. At College I got a Masters in Electrical Engineering and still do lots of programming. That teletype changed my life.

[rageguy]

How about "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" since kids were so bad at geography? (and some world leaders...) Many people would love to see a collab w/ Geography Now channel

[TwoGerbils]

The first Oregon Trial game to be played was when Prince was a student at Bryant Junior High in Minneapolis. I wonder if he played the first version of the Oregon Trial

[wolvenar]

I remember playing that game when I was in 3rd grade. I am a retro system collector now and have the game for many many systems. I remember in school being so happy to be able to type text whenever possible in the game. I was even able to meet one of the programmers working for MECC when I was in 8th grade.

[AndrewPonti]

Remember playing Oregon Trail the very first time in Kindergarten on those old pale tan box Macintosh computers in like 1994, and on several updated versions in grade school after that. Math blaster too... Reader Rabbit? Carmen Sandiego? Amazing.

[CharlieLiuPhotography]

Oregon Trail is one of the very few games that I've never actually completed. Sucks dying to frigging exposure.

[WeChallenge]

OregonTrail first seen in a school on a computer screen in 1971? My local school, in SE Missouri, afforded a computer for the administration office, it was shared by School Superintendent, Principal, Nurse, and Secretary, that would have been around 1980.
Access to computers by student occurred during the 1985-86 school year, where a small storage room became the computer lab, it housed 2 Apple IIc, and 2 Texas Instruments ti-99 4/A's. Oh, how far we have come in this world.

[mccabber]

Here in Canada, we had that too, but more importantly, we had Cross Country Canada.
Same text based ideas, but taught Geography more than history.

[elmikeomysterio]

Part of the 1990s? I was in 5th grade class of 1999. We played Oregon trail every other day in the computer lab, alongside Number Munchers and Math Blaster.

[whyCHANNELwhy]

It was this, "Number Munchers", and "Where in x is Carmen San Diego?" that were extremely popular educational games. Those were semi-fun ways to pass time at school. I doubt anyone played these games at home, because most households with kids had a Nintendo console.

[kilgirlietrout]

I spent way too much of my childhood playing Oregon Trail

[SusanBAgony]

Because my parents were teachers, we were one of the first families on the block to get a computer. I'm pretty sure this game was the majority of what that computer was used for.

[leumas]

In 1986, I was the leader for a group in my G/T class. All of the other groups dies off, but we made it (with only a single death during the journey) all the way to the final pass that lead into Willamette Valley... where we were all triumphantly killed in a freak blizzard. Damn you, OT.

[ms_scribbles]

Ah, man. Oregon Trail was my childhood as an 80's kid.

[nealskrenes]

As a teacher of technology in that era I want to correct you.

Students WEREN’T PLAYING a GAME they were “ENGAGED IN AN EDUCATIONAL SIMULATION ”.

I explained this to every class when I introduced it I reminded them when you go home tonight and your parents ask “What did you do in the computer lab today?” you’re not going to tell your parents you played a game but that you were engaged in an educational simulation.