The Story of The Oregon Trail

In 1971, three student teachers in Minneapolis, MN created a little computer game about westward expansion in the United States. Over 50 years later, The Oregon Trail series has sold more than 65 million copies and has been inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. But the original creators never made a penny off the game. Learn the story behind one of the most successful edutainment games of all time.

00:00 - Introduction
03:02 - OREGON
29:15 - MECC
42:39 - The Apple II
48:16 - A New OREGON
1:11:57 - Learning Could Be Fun
1:24:45 - End Credits

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[GamingHistorian]

Thanks for your patience with this one! I hope it brings back lots of great memories.

[RobotacularRoBob]

This could almost be a Ken Burns documentary. Gaming Historian’s quality never disappoints and is always improving.

[informativem]

3 dudes wrote a program within 2 weeks in 1971. 53 years later we're still getting dysentery.

[BatmanBoss]

Massive respect to these educators for creating a game that reached so many lives!

[elfman]

There are History Channel docs that don't even come close to the quality that you bring to us. Simply amazing.

[bredenis]

"When you're an educator, you're encouraged to write and publish. Paul and Bill and I, when you get right down to it, we were teachers. We have the teacher mentality. And so to get rich off of this would have been nice, but not as important as having donated something to the world of education" -Don Rawitsch

This really warmed my heart. My God, if this quote doesn't embody the true altruistic nature and spirit of an educator, I don't know what would. No one would blame these guys if they were bitter or restful for having their original game modified and sold for profit to the extent of making OTHERS rich, but these gentleman are not only magnanimous about that fact but they are just happy that their inspiration was able to teach millions across the world. Isn't that just truly beautiful? THAT, my friends, is a teacher.

[andresbravo]

This should be Aired on PBS, but I loved this! Pretty much that Fans knew that the Game was a Labor of Love.

[cgimovieman]

As someone with degrees in broadcasting who worked in television for 18 years, and I truly do mean this as a compliment, I can’t believe how well made your videos are. They must take you a very long time to produce, and sometimes I don’t know where you come up with the images, video, or most importantly the detailed information. But your images are always very clear, your audio levels solid, and your interviews well done. As a person who grew up throughout the 80’s and 90’s, and grew up with Apple computers at home and school in the 80’s, Oregon Trail is something that’s engrained in my memory. I think some people who weren’t alive in the 80’s or even 90’s, have things with the “You have died of dysentery.” meme, but never even experienced the game in its heyday. That game, along with the Carmen Sandiego games, I swear comprised about 75% of any of the educational games I played growing up. It’s wild looking back today how simplistic they were in their look and design, but they really did serve a useful educational purpose. It’s too bad some more local wholesome companies like MECC were gobbled up by much bigger corporations. But I’m glad some of their games either still exist today, or even if they don’t, we still remember them so fondly.

[taylordunekacke]

I teach 5th grade social studies, and a few weeks ago, I showed my kids the game. I played it for them, and the kids cheered loudly when I shot a buffalo. The kids got hooked on the game. It's amazing a game so old can still get kids in 2024 excited about learning.

[garapueto]

There was never enough time in class to finish the game. One day, my friend and I shut off the monitor, but not the computer. Later that day, we both snuck out of class, went to the computer lab, and finished the game. We could finally say we beat Oregon Trail!

[olezaku]

I have only the utmost respect for these men. As a kid in the 90s, we played the 1985 version of the game in our dinky little computer lab that once was a storage closet at my school. Naturally, my classmates and I adored it. And nowadays, I'm a Social Studies teacher who teaches 18th and 19th Century U.S. History, and I get to share the '85 game with my students each year. And most are still just as charmed by the game as I was, and it has always been a hit as a part of that unit's lessons. And, of course, I face constant requests to play it again the rest of the school year... and honestly, we do usually return to it since it's a great way to spend the last day or so of school as things are winding down and everyone's burnt out, haha. A fantastic documentary, can't wait to share it with the other teachers in our history department.

[matthuckabey]

These guys, Paul Dillenberger, and Bill Heinemann are a true American heroes releasing the code for public consumption. They deserves more recognition for sure. Gaming Historian deserves kudos as well for bringing people like this to light.

[billkendrick]

Creator of Tux Paint here. I was in 5th & 6th grade between late 1985 and early 1987. My elementary school had a lab full of Apple IIe's, and we played a lot of Oregon Trail, Carmen San Diego, and other edutainment games (plus Logo), and I enjoyed attempting (and failing) to recreate those kind of games in BASIC in my Atari computer (which I still have and use to this day 👍).

Excellent documentary video. Keep up the good work!!!

[JoJoTheOtter]

I’m about 20 minutes into this, and it’s giving real “teacher comes rolling into class with the TV and VCR” vibes. And I love it.

[ArchaeologyTube]

As a teacher it’s just so completely heartwarming to see these guys talk about their genuine love of the practice. Teachers do that everyday - they just do stuff because they know it will help their students learn and it’s the most beautiful thing to help them do just that.

[PawlH]

When my school got Apple II’s they’d give each class a chunk of time on Fridays to do whatever we wanted on them. There was 25-30 of them in the “computer room” and you’d see Oregon trail on every single one. Thanks for introducing us to the people who made it happen. It’s so cool to learn that the game we loved as kids was created by caring teachers and not soulless software mills.

[pass_]

fun fact: there are currently 349 games on the "list of video games considered the best" on Wikipedia and Oregon trail is the earliest

[CoOzEbOy]

The addition of the names was brilliant. Makes it a way more personal experience.

[ultimateman]

Only 7 minutes into this and already the production values and interviews are off the charts! Absolutely top tier stuff. So glad we have Gaming Historian!

[JohnRiggs]

Can I just note that every other documentarian would do this on Kickstarter, release the DVD and blu-ray, tour it at video game conventions... Gaming Historian does all the work and posts it on YouTube for free. Norm rules.