A Video Game
Interlude: The Oregon Trail
I decided to take what I hope will be an interesting turn
for this week's post. The Oregon Trail
is a huge part of not just my childhood but for millions in my generation. You
can't tell me that you didn't look forward to when your class went to the
computer lab, because you knew that Oregon
Trail was waiting for you. You'd grab either a CD or, lord have mercy, a
floppy disk and then the fun started.
And what fun it was…and still is. Starting out on the trail,
trying to ford a river and failing; little Jimmy got typhoid fever; I got an
accidental gunshot wound hunting; ma got a concussion and died after I gave her
laudanum; and little Nell got bitten by a snake and died instantly. That's the
theme of Oregon Trail, kids---the
trail is hard and YOU. WILL. DIE.
Ahem.
Okay, so the real fun is shooting a ton of animals until they
become scarce and seeing if you'll actually make it to the Willamette Valley…or
if it's later versions, Sacramento or Salt Lake City.
I should note that that I played a 1992 version online,
because my copy of Oregon Trail 2 was
too old to run on my laptop.
Plot in a Nutshell:
I filled my party with queens from RuPaul's
Drag Race. Just go with it. All you need to know is that I started in
Independence, Missouri and only I ended up in the Willamette Valley. I think
Kim Chi died of dysentery. Adore got typhoid. Katya got bitten by a snake too
many times. I have no idea what happened to Bianca. She just keeled over. I
also shot way too many buffalo and could only carry 200 pounds back to my
wagon. Ho hum.
WTF: Seriously,
did everyone on the actual Oregon Trail just spontaneously die all the time?
Fun Facts are Fun:
There are spinoffs to this game, including The
Yukon Trail (where the player goes up to Alaska during the Gold Rush I
think) and The Amazon Trail. I owned
the latter. It was such an odd game and extremely hard, so I never finished it.
The Verdict: Please
this game will never get old and never ever die, even though you and party
always will.
Back to normal next week!
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