Great moments in PC gaming: Making it to Oregon in The Oregon Trail

(Image credit: MECC)

Great moments in PC gaming are bite-sized celebrations of some of our favorite gaming memories.

The Oregon Trail

(Image credit: MECC)

Developer: Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium
Publisher: Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium
Year: 1971

Almost everyone I went to school with played The Oregon Trail, but few finished it. Between running out of food, having your wagon break down so many times the spare parts you brought mean nothing, and the fabled dysentery, it's actually a pretty difficult game. Especially for elementary school kids. The point was to see how far you could get rather than making it to the end.

I'm sad to say I never ended up besting the original Apple II version, as those long-suffering machines were replaced by Windows 95 PCs in my second year of schooling. But with a new OS came a new version of The Oregon Trail with thousands of colors! I made it my mission to see the Willamette Valley come hell or high water. High water, as it turns out, ended way more of my runs than the forces of hell. Don't caulk the wagon, ever.

Any time someone in class would get close to Oregon, especially if they made it to a landmark we hadn't seen before, their plastic computer chair would be surrounded by spectators. Most of my classmates never even made it past the Rockies, so a bit of a competitive scene developed. We learned how many oxen to buy, which supplies to bring, when and where to hunt, and how to make the most out of trading with forts and native tribes.

One day after typing practice one of my classmates made it the furthest any of us ever had… and was greeted with an unpleasant surprise. To actually finish The Oregon Trail, you have to play a twitch-based rafting minigame to traverse the Columbia River and make it to the end. While everything up to that point is methodical, relying on planning, deliberate decision-making, and luck, this evil piece of educational software completely changes genre on you at the end and makes you avoid rocks at high speed. The Columbia would claim many a good run.

Finally, a spring day came when I had very good luck cutting my way across the Lower 48. I had food and wagon parts to spare. I lost only one member of my party (sorry, Tien from Dragonball). And so I arrived at the roaring Columbia for what must have been the fourth or fifth time. I knew the obstacles now. I was ready.

(Image credit: MECC)

Despite numerous close calls, I floated to safety and finally saw that glorious end screen for the first time. My classmates were calling people over to witness what many of us had dreamed of but none had seen over months and months of attempts. I felt like a minor celebrity for those few, brief moments. A week from then, no one would really care. Others would eventually make it to the end in my wake. But I'll never forget the end of that long journey.

And yeah, I did it as a banker from Boston. Shut up. Let's see you cross America in a wagon if you think you're so smart.

Contributor

Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.

Latest in Adventure
Max, protagonist of Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Double Exposure, stares with trepidation at something off-screen with her friend.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure reportedly a 'large loss' for Square Enix, says analyst, who adds: 'The company's IP fundamentally varies too much between good and bad'
Inside
Limbo and Inside studio demands compensation from co-founder Dino Patti for alleged 'unauthorized use of Playdead's trademarks and copyrighted works'
Two characters sitting on a bench talking
Wanderstop review
Zoe showing off in front of Mio
Split Fiction review
Rusty Rabbit chomping a carrot like a cigar
Rusty Rabbit turns Yakuza's Kazuma Kiryu into a fluffy bunny
Pathologic 3 screenshot
Get ready to get weird in Pathologic 3: Quarantine, a free 'prologue chapter' about a young doctor looking for immortality in the world's most miserable town
Latest in Features
midnight murder club
Five new Steam games you probably missed (March 17, 2025)
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Alligator skull with glowing eyes on human body and cords coming out sitting at piano with "The Norwood Etudes" ready to play
My new most anticipated RPG let me be a kleptomaniac gourmand set loose in a noir city on a quest to make 'the perfect sandwich'
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
Monster Hunter Wilds' new gyro controls are a fantastic option for disabled and able-bodied players alike
Manhunt 2
I played the notoriously ratings-board-ravaged Manhunt 2 and was quite glad for the censorship actually
Wyrdsong concept art
Wyrdsong, the RPG from ex-Bethesda talent, isn't dead—but it's no longer an open world: 'We're down to a skeleton crew'