The Oregon Trail

Puzzle 1997 Dos Dosbox MECC Word or trivia Education

Fun slice of historical adventuring

For anyone with a thirst for adventure and exploration, The Oregon Trail is a neat little combination of strategy and education that provides some solid old-school thrills. The game places players in the shoes of a party of Old West pioneers as they strike out from Missouri and head along the Oregon Trail to find adventure and a new life. You're in charge of the whole caravan and must make decisions on every aspect of your journey, from provisions, to the route, how much time to spend resting and everything in between. You will face disease, wild animals and raging rivers and at every step there will be tough choices to make, as you consider the needs of your people, but there are also a few lighter moments along the way, like taking a few minutes to enjoy some mini-games where you can just float down the river for the sheer enjoyment of it. Considering its age, The Oregon Trail stands up pretty well as a nicely detailed strategy sim and which does a good job of recreating a lost age and the troubles that came with it. It's an easy game to pick up, thanks to its accessible and straightforward interface but which provides a decent level of challenge thanks to the variety of options available along the trail and which offer some intriguing options and decisions to make. The graphics are somewhat simple, but again considering the game's age, they are actually quite nice, with some colourful sprites and environments which help to create a good recreation of the period. The game isn't the most complex ever made but it is certainly enjoyable so if you fancy a trip into the past, this is well worth a visit. Check out The Amazon Trail for a similarly themed experience.

Educational simulation with a good theme

This puzzle and adventure flick basically has an educational theme where the goal is to educate the gamers about the Oregan trail or how people of that age led their life in tough situations with a limited amount of resources. You will basically travel from one region to another and from one place to another on the trail and will have to use your instinctive and rational decision making for surviving the journey. Moving to your desired destination will be the main focus but you will need to address the various hurdles on the way and will have to keep an eye on the factors such as food etc. The diversity ion the gameplay is in terms of the scenarios and the decisions making for every scenario. When short on food, you can hunt animals and for crossing hurdles, you will be exposed to some good and bad options in which the good one will make you move on and the bad one will cause your death. So always make the decisions considering all the factors. The level designs, the characters and the scenarios have been designed with a good amount of creativity. Its successor The Oregon Trail deluxe has even more to offer in terms of variety, gameplay and graphics.

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