Over the past week, I had the opportunity to spend several hours playing Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego (whose henchmen never seemed to get snakebites or measles, unlike my avatar traveling to Oregon). Even with late ’80s and early ’90s graphics and functions, I was completely drawn in and engaged.
Carmen Sandiego provided a healthy geography lesson, as we tracked criminals around the world, guessing their next location based on a series of hints. These hints also worked a level of information analyses, as the player was required to determine the characteristics of the criminal to get a warrant. Even if you caught up in time, no warrant and you failed — a little bit if legal training in there as well.
And then I hit the Trail and learned how to die…
My first run was most successful, dying of dysentary at The Dalles. I’ve had dysentary and even with modern medicine it was pretty miserable, I have the greatest sympathy for the sufferers without antibiotics. My next run ended before FT Laramie courtesy of a snake, followed by an attempt ending in measles. If there ever was a great game to advocate for vaccination, this is it. Historically, I believe the ways to die and probability of doing so before arriving in the Willamette Valley seem to be accurate. the only one I was surprised not to see was scurvy, unless the periodic discovery of wild fruit was assumed to have staved it off.
Oregon Trail as a learning tool, even in its roughest form, has value, as in my short lives as a pioneer I received a geography lesson, lessons in budgeting and supply management, risk management, disease, and history. I particularly found it interesting when the Native American said we should not shoot the bison as they were vital to his people — I found myself hunting deer for some time after that. The “Talk” button provided background on the places; short clues to the challenges of the pioneers, their successes and failures; and a Laura Ingalls Wilder Easter egg.
Oregon Trail 2020 is a game I would play, converted to a first person perspective and with better graphics. Some of the options could include more in depth explorations of the places, such as climbing Chimney Rock or walking around a frontier fort and meeting the people. This would be a great opportunity to introduce Native American stories or those with more diverse backgrounds, such as the Buffalo Soldiers. The map the Trail itself and your progress should have updated graphics. One change I would not make is the tracker tells you have far you have gone, and how far to the next landmark but not to the end. At first, this was frustrating not to know, but then the pioneers would not have have a good idea either, and the unknowing grew on me as a part of the experience.
I also want to name my oxen. This sounds small, silly and superficial. I went through 16 oxen in three tries, of which I died before only two of them. The oxen were a critical part of the journey (play and see what happens when you have none). I was thinking of this as reading about the Donner Party, different trail and lots of bad choices, the author of the book commented that when they reached the point the oxen had to be slaughtered it was hard on them as they had been through so many hardships together at that point, the party was emotionally attached to the animals (Michael Wallis, The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny).
Update: Played The Oregon Trail Deluxe, 1992.
