Oregon Trail - Developing A Classic

Via Press the Buttons, an interview on the site Deadly Hippos with Philip Bouchard, designer for the original "Oregon Trail". The classic game of food, hunting, and cholera was a staple for many folks around my age growing up, and the piece makes for interesting reading. From the article: "Unfortunately, in real life it was all too easy to kill a buffalo with a rifle. In later decades hunters would kill vast numbers of buffalos and take only the tongues. So I wanted kids to feel a sense of shame for killing too much and then wasting the kill. That was one of the reasons for allowing the player to carry back no more than 200 pounds of meat. I wanted the kids to develop a sense of conservation while playing the game - to say "We should not shoot more meat than we can carry". Our field testing showed that this lesson was indeed effective."

Comments

Oh, is that what I was supposed to learn?

[oni]

I wanted the kids to develop a sense of conservation while playing the game - to say "We should not shoot more meat than we can carry". Our field testing showed that this lesson was indeed effective.

uh, I think the feild testing was in error. Because I killed the heck out those animals and never felt the slightest guilt about it. Hunting kicked ass. I don't think I ever even made it to Oregon. My purpose was just to spend all my money on bullets and go hunting.

Re:Oh, is that what I was supposed to learn?

[Dachannien]

You used 87 bullets and shot 4350 pounds of meat, but you could only carry 200 pounds back to the wagon.

Re:Oh, is that what I was supposed to learn?

[Dixie_Flatline]

Hah. Not only that, but I'd put everyone on starvation rations and kill them off until I was the only one left! Then I'd gorge myself on my vast stores of buffalo.

Re:Oh, is that what I was supposed to learn?

[Profcrab]

There was an Oregon? Whoa. I think the game needed to give you an option to just setup shop and sell meat and skins.

Relive a Memory!

[DavidLeeRoth]

Use AppleWin to emulate an Apple 2 Game. Download the Oregon Trail images from Here. After getting both pieces of software, load each disk image into a separate emulated drive in the emulator, then press run. Enjoy!

Takes me back...

[Shadow Wrought]

To fifth grade. I remember the hunting part involving hitting the button when the animal first appeared. The shot would then slowly work its way down range as the animal, equally slowly, would work its way towards the center. At the time I thought it was pretty dumb to have to shoot before the animal was in your targets. With a decade (or two) of hindsight, I guess they were trying to force you to lead the deer, but for a fifth grader, I thought it was just stupid.

I also, for the longest time, thought that "Miscellaneous" was just a fancy term for medicine, since that's primarily what I equated to the "miscellaneous" category of supplies.

While part of me is interested in playing Oregon Trail again, I think I'd much rather play Gato ; the first game to really hook me.

Helpful hint

[sirboxalot]

Caulk your wagon if the river is above 3ft. Also, heres the Apple II emulator: http://www.virtualapple.com/oregontraildisk.html if you'd like to try your hand at avoiding dysentery.

Re:Don't Read It

[MBCook]

1. The game commences with the player asked to choose among three choices: Banker from Boston, Carpenter from Ohio. and Farmer from Illinois. Was there ever any discussion of including a Slave Owner from Mississippi?

I wanted to have 3 difficulty levels representing different amounts of initial resources. We tied this into the real world by connecting these levels to 3 different professions. This was also an opportunity to get kids to think about the fact that the emigrants came from different places and had different backgrounds.

Although we did not choose to address slavery issues with this product, a decade later I worked on another historical simulation game called Pony Express Rider, published by McGraw-Hill Home Interactive. In this product we addressed the slavery issue quite directly.

After The Oregon Trail, but before Pony Express Rider, I designed and programmed two other historical simulation games (both published by MECC) that also dealt squarely with ethnic relations - Lewis & Clark Stayed Home, and Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? In Lewis & Clark you explore the American West, interacting with dozens of different Native American communities. In Dr. Livingstone you explore Africa, interacting with dozens of different African ethnic groups.

2. Were you ever informed that some religious schools in the south insisted their students select Carpenter from Ohio because Jesus was a carpenter? Was it your intent to cloak the Carpenter from Ohio in religious symbolism?

I had never heard this before, and any religious symbolism in the product is purely accidental. But I was born and raised in the Deep South, so I witnessed on many occasions the deep attachment that many southerners have to their religious beliefs.

3. [Stupid question about the general store owner's name being Matt]

I understand that Matt is short for Mathew, a name with a very long history. The son of the then-president of MECC was also named Matt, and our president was convinced that we named the store's proprietor after his son. Please don't let him know the real story - he would be so disappointed!

4. Matt's character has a pipe. If this game were designed today do you believe you would be required to remove the pipe from Matt's mouth? Did you feel any responsibility about the high rate of tobacco use among children of the 1980's?

If all those kids had taken up pipe smoking, then I would definitely feel guilty - but I think I'm in the clear! Honestly, if I were to design another Oregon Trail, I don't think we would see Matt using any form of tobacco.

Even back then, any references to tobacco could be controversial. We got away with the pipe for Matt (which was the visual designer's idea - not mine), but in Lewis & Clark I ran into a bigger controversy. The real Lewis & Clark took along tobacco as one of the items to trade with Native Americans. But I was told by the publisher to remove this trade item from the product.

5. How did your team settle on five as the requisite number of individuals attempting the trek on the Oregon Trail and were there any names that were disallowed from selection as choices? For instance are names like stinky, cooties, and gayey allowed?

I chose 5 as the number of individuals on your team strictly from the standpoint of game play, and not for any actual historical reasons. That's one of the rare exceptions, because I made of point of weaving real history or geography into almost all of my other design decisions.

We talked about building a filter to disallow certain terms as keyboard input. This was a concern not only for the name input, but even more so for the gravestone epitaph. However, as we were designing this product to fit on a 2-sided Apple II floppy disk, we didn't have the space to incorporate such a filter. This was just one of many features on our wish list that did not make it into the finished product.

The lack of a profanity filter came back to bite us. Some teachers began to complain that we had

Maybe the wrong effect?

[ValuJet]

"We should not shoot more meat than we can carry". Our field testing showed that this lesson was indeed effective."

Since they couldn't carry so much meat it probably taught the kids to eat everything they could while they could. Now our nation is wracked with startling rates of fatties.

Thanks for making our nation fat Oregon Trail!

Re:Agreed

[MBCook]

While there are some interesting questions, so many things weren't asked that I would have. What was the point of the "Jesus" question. Had any of you ever heard that before?

Why not ask some better questions. The interviewee even eludes to some interesting things that are never followed up on. Here are some suggestions:

• Was there anything you had to cut that you really wanted to put in?
• Were you told to add anything that you didn't want?
• Were there any parts of the game that worked much better than you thought they would?
• Did you help with any later versions?
• Which version did you think was best (Apple II, Mac, Dos, Atari, Amiga, Whatever)
• How many lines of code was it?
• What was it written in (I'm guessing Assembly)
• Were there any things you thought of after the game was published that you would have liked to add?
• Etc.

I would have liked to see questions that weren't about Oregon Trail also. The guy mentioned that he was the guy behind Number Munchers. I LOVED that game (especially on the Mac with the little cut-scenes). But they also had a spelling/logic one as I remember too. I'd like to know more about these and other games he made.

While it was an interesting read, it smacked of amateurish journalism, pathetic attempts at humor, and a wasted opportunity. I agree with you completely. It is EXACTLY like something from a "Remember the 80s" special or some vapid show on the Fashion network.

Oregon Trail UT Mod

[generic-man]

*space* BOOM! HEADSHOT!

Dachannien is on a killing spree! ... then later ...

Dachannien was looking good until he died of cholera!

Play it online!

[antdude]

Play it online if you have Internet Explorer (ActiveX required). Go to Virtual Apple and load the game up.

The history behind bison killings

[Allen Varney]

Unfortunately, in real life it was all too easy to kill a buffalo with a rifle. In later decades hunters would kill vast numbers of buffalos and take only the tongues. So I wanted kids to feel a sense of shame for killing too much and then wasting the kill.

I swear I'm not trolling here, but I think the designer could more instructively have discussed the actual historical reasons hunters killed bison:

Hunters were paid by large railroad concerns to destroy entire herds for several reasons:

• The herds formed the basis of the economies of local Plains tribes of Native Americans.
• Herds of these large animals on tracks could damage locomotives when the trains failed to stop in time.
• Herds often took shelter in the artificial cuts formed by the grade of the track winding though hills and mountains in harsh winter conditions. This could hold up a train for days.

Besides this, Bison skins were valuable for industry, clothing such as robes, and rugs. Old West Bison hunting was very often a big commercial enterprise, involving organized teams of one or two professional hunters, skinners, cartridge reloaders, cooks, wranglers, blacksmiths, security guards, teamsters and large numbers of horse and wagons. Some of these professional hunters such as "Buffalo Bill" Cody killed over a hundred animals at a single stand and many thousands in their career. A good hide could bring $3.00 in Dodge City, and a very good one $50.00 in an era when a laborer would be lucky to make a dollar a day.
Proposals to protect the Bison were discouraged, as it was recognized that the Plains Indians, often at war with the United States, depended on Bison for their way of life. General Phillip Sheridan spoke to the Texas Legislature against a proposal to outlaw commercial Bison hunting for that reason, and President Grant also "pocket vetoed" a similar Federal bill to protect the dwindling Bison herds. By 1884 the American Bison was close to extinction.

I suggest this kind of history is valid for inclusion in a historical game about the Oregon Trail.