Oregon (1980 video game)

Oregon

Screenshot - Apple II - Introduction.

Developer MECC Publisher MECC Published 1980-??-?? Platforms Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, TRS-80 Genres Educational, Management simulator, Simulation Themes Adventure, Historic, Western, Wilderness Series Trail Distribution Commercial

Oregon, also known as The Oregon Trail, is an educational strategy video game developed and published by MECC for the Apple II and first released in 1980 in a compilation program called Elementary-Volume 6. It was then ported to a few other platforms and released in Expeditions. The game is a teaching aide for students and meant to educate them on the difficulties pioneers would have faced traveling in a covered wagon along the actual Oregon Trail in the 1840s from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon.

This game is an updated version of the 1971 original. The updates include, better text formatting, a graphical map to show the player's position on the trail, and a new shooting minigame which replaces the original quick-typing game with graphical action shooting.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	Yes. Apple II and Commodore 64 ports.
Finished	Commodore 64: 2021-04-28 / Apple II: 2024-02-19.

My elementary school had the Commodore 64 version of Expeditions in our class which includes this version of Oregon. I remember watching several kids play this game, and even getting a few chances to play the game myself. I was a little unimpressed by the shooting mechanic as, even as a young child, I was interested in critiquing game mechanics. Three decades later, I was trying to find all the old software I played as a child. I had a hard time finding this title, not just because there are so many more sites dedicated to the 1985 Apple II release, but also because this version was only ever published in compilations that are now poorly-documented.

Review

2	2	2	1	3

Best Version: Commodore 64

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• This game helped popularize the historical event and probably caused some players to become more interested in history because of it.
• The manual that MECC produced helped teachers add educational value of the game.

Bad

• I found it trivial to beat, and there are no difficulty settings to make it harder or easier.
• Although the new shooting minigame is more interesting than they typing game from the original, it's still quite dull.

Ugly

• The game is short and dull.
• For an educational game, it's quite uninformative.
• The frequent random events are entirely outside of your control, and, for the few things you do have control of, don't matter all that much. As long as you buy items sensibly and are decent at shooting, the game pretty much plays itself.
• The graphics are quite primitive. The Apple II port is the worst, but the others aren't much better.

Media

Documentation

• 

  Manual - Atari 8-bit.

• 

  Manual - Commodore 64 - Revised.

Screenshots

• 

  Apple II - Introduction.

• 

  Apple II - Hunting.

• 

  Apple II - Map.

• 

  Apple II - Bad news.

• 

  Apple II - Victory.

• 

  Commodore 64 - Hunting.

• 

  Commodore 64 - Map.

• 

  Commodore 64 - Riders.

• 

  Commodore 64 - Bandits.

• 

  Commodore 64 - Illness.

• 

  Commodore 64 - Victory.

Videos

Longplay - Apple II.

Longplay - Commodore 64.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	Women are only mentioned, they don't play an active role.
Bechdel test?	Fail	Women never speak.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Indians are mentioned, but don't play an important role.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Links

• archive.org/details/MECC-A725_Elementary_Vol._6_v1.2 - Play Apple II port online.
• archive.org/details/mecc_expeditions - Play Commodore 64 port online.