The Oregon Trail was designed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger in the dark days of 1971. The three of them were teachers at Carelton College in Northfield Minnesota. It was produced by MECC (Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium) in 1974 and was originally designed to teach school children American history. It was based on the real life Oregon Trail where the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding his group of settlers from Missouri to Willamette Valley in 1848.

The game proved so popular that it was released and sold on floppy disc in 1985. Several versions have been released since then. Here is a screen shot from the original Mac version:

Throughout the game you are given options which can effect the outcome and is designed to make you think through the situation, putting yourself in the shoes of a 19th century traveller!

MECC followed up on the success of The Oregon Trail by releasing similar titles such as The Yukon Trail and The Amazon Trail. The original is currently up to its fifth edition, and this is the edition I demonstrate on this site.

The game was extremely popular amongst American elementary school students in the later 1980s and early 90s as many students had access to the game at school. I don't remember having it at our school but my parents had it on their computer at home, which was where I became addicted!

The game has become iconic and holds a great deal of nostalgia for people who grew up playing it.

Games in the series

• The Oregon Trail — Apple II, Commodore 64 and DOS PC, 1985
• The Oregon Trail — Apple Macintosh, 1991
• The Oregon Trail Deluxe — DOS PC, 1992
• The Oregon Trail — Apple Macintosh, 1993 (MECC)
• The Amazon Trail — PC and Mac Floppy disk and CD-ROM, 1993
• The Yukon Trail — PC and Mac Floppy disk and CD-ROM, 1994
• The Oregon Trail II— PC and Mac CD-ROM, 1996 (collectors edition included earlier versions)
• The Amazon Trail II - PC and Mac CD-ROM, 1997
• Africa Trail — PC and Mac CD-ROM, 1997
• The Oregon Trail, 3rd Edition — PC and Mac CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, 1997
• The Oregon Trail, 4th Edition — PC and Mac CD-ROM, 1999
• The Amazon Trail, 3rd Edition - PC and Mac CD-ROM, 2000
• The Oregon Trail, 5th Edition — PC and Mac CD-ROM, 2001- essentially an update of the second edition, with the botany and fishing aspects of the third. Also added are animated shorts.

Thanks to Wikipedia for helping with this article! Check out Wiki for more info on Oregon and the spin off games by MECC.