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 In 1995, the sequel to the original The Oregon Trail was released. The Oregon Trail II added features, photographs instead of primitive pixel graphics, and the best soundtrack an edutainment company in the 90s could offer. While it lacked the memetic popularity and classroom prevalence of the original, the sequel was enough of a hit that they just kept remaking it! What we have here is The Oregon Trail 5th Edition, which is simply an updated re-release from 2001. This added a few features, removed a few, improved the interface graphics, and continuously interrupted your journey to show the terrifyingly animated adventures of the Montgomery children and their black guide on the way to join their father in Oregon. This game was a staple of my middle school years to the point where the music loop still runs continuously in my head at all hours of the day. Ceaselessly. Forever. Most Oregon Trail LPs have been narrative, especially after the phenomenal creation by Chewbot over a decade ago (also that was over a decade ago holy poo poo). But I've become fond of taking my time on the forum to educate myself and others, such as with my ongoing Let's Read of the original James Bond books. I think we can turn our adventure into a learning experience! We'll be playing this in the typical way for an Oregon Trail LP with goon votes and suggestions, as well as the first 6 goons becoming our family. But to fill in the gaps between posts that may only be a few in-game days apart, we'll be learning all about life on the Oregon Trail. I'll be making posts covering topics like food and drink on the trail, wagons and draft animals, guns, relations with Native Americans, and more. Every place we visit will get a blurb describing its history and fun facts about it. This is also an open forum for historical information that you know of and discussion on it! This is all in the spirit of fun and learning. And, you know, typical poo poo like memes and mocking the awful voice acting and animation. The Oregon Trail often features repeat problems and decisions. To streamline things, I won't make a repeat vote for any identical situation if you've already come up with a working plan before. For instance, if someone suffers a broken bone and you chose the correct option to heal it from a vote, I won't make you vote again on how to deal with another broken bone and will just deal with it myself. The only exception will be if something changes, such as if we're lacking a resource we once had (like medicine or spare wagon parts) and have to try and pick the next best option. If we end up forced to trade because of a lack of food or vital parts, I'll likely make the decision myself because of the sheer number of random possibilities. And just for fun, you guys get to help with foraging and wound healing....without a guide. Normally when foraging for fresh fruits and vegetables you can look them up to immediately be told what they are and whether or not they're poisonous. But where's the fun in that? Instead, you guys get to pick what's edible and what's not purely from the pictures! You'll be told the identity of the item after it's been picked and added to our food stores, so unless you're familiar with the appearance of these plants you might not know that you picked something poisonous until you eat it yourself! I have no idea how long this journey will last, and it might be viable to keep going for multiple runs depending on interest. There's a ton of variation based on the time, destination, and occupation you pick. Hopefully this lovely ISO doesn't break! To start things off, we need to pick a year and month to begin. We can journey any year from 1840 until 1860 and set off in any month. The year we pick determines not only what towns and forts exist as we travel, but also our possible starting points and destinations; in general, the later the year the easier the game. May (followed by April) is the most common month for leaving, as it has the lowest chance of running into massive snowstorms in the west and makes sure that sufficient grass is available for your draft animals on the way. But you guys get to pick the difficulty because what's the fun in just setting off on the easiest setting? Once we know when we're leaving, it's time to pick our character and hit the trail! Historical Interludes The Oregon Trail and Prairie Schooners Life on the Trail Food on the Trail The Donner Party 19th Century Medicine Native American Relations Firearms on the Trail The California Gold Rush 
chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Jun 19, 2019 |
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May 10, 2019 21:02
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| # ? Apr 28, 2024 23:36 |
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We should be '49ers, starting out in April of 1849, headed to Oregon to pan for gold in the Rocky Mountain foothills.
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May 10, 2019 21:07
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Let's set out in April of 1850 because it's more amusing to me if we're late to the Gold Rush.
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May 10, 2019 21:12
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1850, really nifty. December seems like the best, to get that christmas convoy rolling. Also fording should be easier if all the rivers are frozen. I hope you'll cover the importance settlers placed on bringing multiple grandfather clocks. 
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May 10, 2019 21:12
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CirclMastr posted:Let's set out in April of 1850 because it's more amusing to me if we're late to the Gold Rush. I agree with CirclMastr. I want to be late and have to actually make a business instead of playing the rocks lottery.
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May 10, 2019 21:17
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Commander Keene posted:We should be '49ers, starting out in April of 1849, headed to Oregon to pan for gold in the Rocky Mountain foothills. I also vote for this.
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May 10, 2019 21:17
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If we start in the winter we won't have any foraging for fruit, will we? What's the season for the most pants-shittingly terrible plants and the farthest route from all the gold?
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May 10, 2019 21:19
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Commander Keene posted:We should be '49ers, starting out in April of 1849, headed to Oregon to pan for gold in the Rocky Mountain foothills. Being a 49'er sounds really cool, let's do this!
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May 10, 2019 21:31
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The Oregon Trail Before you set off on the trail, the most basic question that should be answered is "What the hell is the Oregon Trail?"  The roots of the trail begin with the Lewis & Clark expedition. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriweather Lewis and William Clark to undertake the journey of a lifetime: traveling all the way across North America and back. For over two years, several dozen people traveled to the Pacific Coast and back. Remarkably, only one person died of appendicitis on the entire trip (though Lewis was accidentally shot close to the end of their return trip). Mountain men quickly began taking advantage of the trail blazed by the expedition to travel out west, often to set up fur trapping companies in the unspoiled land. By the 1820s early settlers had begun trickling into Oregon Country, mostly missionaries and fur trappers or former trappers, but it really ramped up by 1840 as word spread of the massive bounty of land, forests, game, and ocean access in the Pacific Northwest. Treaties signed with Britain established American ownership of a large parcel of land, renamed Oregon Territory in 1848. The gold rush that year made westward migration absolutely insane and further contributed to the Oregon economy building as trade was established with the suddenly wealthy California. Eventually a 2170-mile trail from Independence, MO to Oregon City, OR was mapped and became one of the biggest routes to the west. Over the course of its famous history from the 1830s through the 1860s, over 400,000 people traveled west via the Oregon Trail. It started to decline in 1855 when the Panama Railroad was completed, providing another link between the Pacific Northwest and the east coast by bridging the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the isthmus. While the trail was still heavily used, the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 finally provided a better way. Some migrants continued using the trail into the 1890s and many vehicular roads and highways were built roughly along its length, but by the turn of the 20th century the days of wagon trains were over. Despite this, many modern tourists "travel the Oregon Trail" by driving along its length, stopping in the numerous museums and towns along the way. There are even regular reenactments as people travel portions of the trail with wagons and oxen. The Prairie Schooner   The covered wagon (nicknamed the "Prairie Schooner" after its sail-like white covering) is possibly the single most iconic image of the Oregon Trail that isn't being told that you died of dysentery. They have their roots in the massive Conestoga wagons in use since colonial times, which carried a massive amount of cargo and had a white canvas covering stretched over the top to protect the goods inside from the weather. The average wagon was a beast of 18 feet long, 11 feet tall, and 4 feet wide. Because of the practicality of the Conestoga design, many migrants setting out on the trail made similar wagons by simply adding iron bows to whatever wagon they could get their hands on and stretching a covering over it. Many of the wagons were made by Studebaker, which would become the famous car company of the first half of the 20th century. Despite some depictions, most pioneers simply used the wagons for goods and walked the trail; even if there was a sufficient weight allowance for the animals to pull, the ride was painfully rough and dusty. The only people who would ride in the wagon were usually very young, very old, very sick/injured, or very pregnant. The most common draft animal was the ox. Oxen were plentiful (i.e. cheap), strong, decently tempered, and provided a lot of meat if you had to slaughter one or two to survive. Mules were sometimes used as they were similarly durable (especially in the heat) and could survive on grazing, but are notoriously assholes and cost as much as 3 times that of an ox. Horses were rarely used because of their expense, "thought of ants and died" disposition, and inability to be used without expensive equipment and feed.
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May 10, 2019 21:42
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Poil posted:1850, really nifty. December seems like the best, to get that christmas convoy rolling. Also fording should be easier if all the rivers are frozen.
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May 10, 2019 22:52
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NGDBSS posted:Sure, I'll second this. Seeing this in something other than 256-color graphics on an Apple II is going to be a trip. Somehow my edutainment experience largely skipped over this and instead dealt with Amazon Trail and African Trail, which were less about punishing realism and more about exploration. And this game is loving punishing. I’m running a test game to make sure it’s all stable and I can do screenshots fine, so I set it to a teacher in 1840. Probably the hardest year and profession. I’m currently about halfway through and have no food except what plants I can scavenge. I have no gun, no wagon parts, and only 4 oxen left. I ended up with the wagon swamped or tipping in rivers about half a dozen times.
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May 10, 2019 22:56
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Do you start out in Illinois in May, 1846? I'm asking for... reasons.
Regalingualius fucked around with this message at 23:12 on May 10, 2019 |
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May 10, 2019 23:08
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CirclMastr posted:Let's set out in April of 1850 because it's more amusing to me if we're late to the Gold Rush. Voting for this. That or we're hoping to get rich off the 49ers instead of being Rushers ourselves.
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May 10, 2019 23:10
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Regalingualius posted:Do you start out in Illinois in May, 1846? I'm asking for... reasons. I’m pretty sure the game actually creates the historic snowstorm if you take the same route at the same time.
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May 10, 2019 23:36
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ooo, this looks good. we taking bets on who drowns first and who catches dysentry?
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May 11, 2019 00:47
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I am, as I type this sentence, looking at my wife's CD of this very game. I've only ever played the original, but I might play along for the experience.
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May 11, 2019 00:48
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NGDBSS posted:Seeing this in something other than 256-color graphics on an Apple II is going to be a trip.
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May 11, 2019 00:57
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Meaty Ore posted:I am, as I type this sentence, looking at my wife's CD of this very game. I've only ever played the original, but I might play along for the experience. I recommend playing in admin mode. Compatibility mode may or may not break the cutscenes for some odd reason.
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May 11, 2019 01:01
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Commander Keene posted:Yeah, same here. I remember being excited whenever my teacher would break out the Apple IIs, because it meant that we got a break from listening to history lectures and got to play a computer game. *This, plus a game where you delivered pizza to like aliens using pulleys and stuff.
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May 11, 2019 01:07
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Commander Keene posted:Yeah, same here. I remember being excited whenever my teacher would break out the Apple IIs, because it meant that we got a break from listening to history lectures and got to play a computer game. My nostalgia is for the first Organ Trail 2 version. The "sudden random event" noise is burned into my brain as a Pavlovian trigger to this day.
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May 11, 2019 01:08
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CirclMastr posted:Let's set out in April of 1850 because it's more amusing to me if we're late to the Gold Rush. Also voting for this.
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May 11, 2019 01:18
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CirclMastr posted:Let's set out in April of 1850 because it's more amusing to me if we're late to the Gold Rush. Agreed
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May 11, 2019 01:19
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chitoryu12 posted:I’m pretty sure the game actually creates the historic snowstorm if you take the same route at the same time.  You know what they say: There's no party like a Donner Party! May, 1846.
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May 11, 2019 01:26
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Preemptive voting to buy as much Laudanum as possible and to use it as your primary tradegood throughout your journey.
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May 11, 2019 01:31
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MagusofStars posted:Same. Our elementary school only had two games total*, but it was always a delight in second grade to get to play some computer games rather than yet another lecture on state history or another quiz on addition/multiplication tables (do kids even learn these any more?).
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May 11, 2019 01:32
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if this cart is packed with anything but bullets im gonna be pissed
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May 11, 2019 01:35
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Sandwich Anarchist posted:if this cart is packed with anything but
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May 11, 2019 01:42
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Sandwich Anarchist posted:if this cart is packed with anything but
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May 11, 2019 02:26
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Voting this for the journey's soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDl4OhRN3bQ
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May 11, 2019 02:31
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CirclMastr posted:Let's set out in April of 1850 because it's more amusing to me if we're late to the Gold Rush. I like the concept of being late, but if we're going to do that, I'd choose June of 1843. May 22nd, 1843 was the first time a wagon train of at least 1000 people was assembled to walk the Trail; to be a part of a group that missed that boat would also get a chuckle out of me. To actually beat them to Oregon would be even better.
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May 11, 2019 03:32
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Oh gently caress yeah, this was the version I grew up on. Never made it to California though, only Oregon. I'd always die of thirst.
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May 11, 2019 03:33
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Is this the one with that terrifying *dun DUN!!!!* whenever ANYTHING happens? Also voting for April 1850
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May 11, 2019 03:56
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Can we set out on December 1860, with as many guns and ammo as we can carry so we can hunt rebels for food and warmth.
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May 11, 2019 04:35
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Oh God, I used to stream this game on Twitch (to an audience of like 3 people), those videos are so painfully bad. Still, I call for hard mode. Start in March of 1848, and spend all your starting money on useless poo poo like furniture.
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May 11, 2019 04:58
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James Peach posted:I like the concept of being late, but if we're going to do that, I'd choose June of 1843. May 22nd, 1843 was the first time a wagon train of at least 1000 people was assembled to walk the Trail; to be a part of a group that missed that boat would also get a chuckle out of me. I second this notion.
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May 11, 2019 05:18
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No one ever learned anything from the Oregon Trail
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May 11, 2019 05:44
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RBA Starblade posted:No one ever learned anything from the Oregon Trail booooo!
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May 11, 2019 05:53
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RBA Starblade posted:No one ever learned anything from the Oregon Trail Hey, I learned that Fort Laramie existed! And that there's a place called Chimney Rock.  God, I get nostalgia just seeing the name of this game! I played the original in elementary school, and those graphics are burned into my memory. Voting for missing the Gold Rush boat, April 1850. (There was another game I played just as much right alongside Oregon Trail, but I can't for the life of me remember the name--I just remember that you played a fish in a pond, and you had to be careful of the other fish since they tried to eat you, and also avoid getting too close to the surface because an osprey would get you. I think you could play as different species of fish?)
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May 11, 2019 06:19
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So, would you say that Oregon was basically the most expensive DLC available in the 19th century for the popular game "let's build a living in America"?
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May 11, 2019 06:42
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Rosemont posted:(There was another game I played just as much right alongside Oregon Trail, but I can't for the life of me remember the name--I just remember that you played a fish in a pond, and you had to be careful of the other fish since they tried to eat you, and also avoid getting too close to the surface because an osprey would get you. I think you could play as different species of fish?)
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May 11, 2019 07:32
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