The Oregon Trail is a developmental game, which was once included in the US school curriculum for teaching children in schools the reality of hard life in the 19th century. This version of the game was created in 1990 by MMC. The game became popular and spread beyond schools.
Play this old 1992 classics game, an upgrade from the 1990 version. Relieve old memories of survival and despair! As a covered wagon party of pioneers, you head out west from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette River and valley in Oregon.
The Oregon Trail is a computer game originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by MECC in 1974. The original game was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail.
The Oregon Trail is back, and you can now play it through Apple Arcade, a game subscription service with over 100 groundbreaking new games. The Oregon Trail™ by Gameloft—Experience The Oregon Trail™ like never before.

The Oregon Trail

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The Oregon Trail

DOS - 1990

Also available on: Mac - Windows 3.x - Apple II

4.35 / 5 - 235 votes

Description of The Oregon Trail

There are few video games more fondly remembered than the Oregon Trail. It has inspired countless gamers and spawned countless memes. Still, it is hard to say how much of the fondness gamers feel towards this storied title is due to the fact that Oregon Trail was literally the first (and in some cases, the only) video game many children played. Much of its exposure came in classrooms, due to its educational nature.

By the standards of the time in which the 1990 “Classic Edition” was released, much less those of today, there's very little actual substance to Oregon Trail, and many will find it either tiresomely repetitive or only good for a brief jaunt down nostalgia lane.

Gameplay in the older versions of Oregon Trail consists mostly of hunting every day to make the most of your food supply (a minigame where you shoot at a variety of game) and waiting for your party to reach the next landmark.

Later versions, including the 1992 Oregon Trail Deluxe and the 1995 Oregon Trail II offer vast improvements on both graphics and gameplay. In fact, many adults in their 30s today are far more likely to have grown up on either of those than the variants of the Ur Oregon Trail.

Still, this remains an artifact for the curious. While this is a step up from the days of having to type “Bang” and “Pow” to shoot game in the earliest versions, a quick play of Oregon Trail: Classic Edition will show kids (and many adults) how lucky they've had it compared to Generation X, who had to walk to school through snow, uphill both ways, to get to their vidya.

Review By P. Alexander

Captures and Snapshots

Screenshots from MobyGames.com / Platform: Apple II

Screenshots from MobyGames.com

Comments and reviews

Drumlion05872021-05-180 point DOS version

Well this certainly brings back memories of elementary school

Dysentery1012021-03-240 point DOS version

This colored one definitely came later... I remember a version with only green pixel dots. The 'squirrels' were hilarious!

Ray2021-02-080 point

What? No screenshot of 'You have died from dysentery'?

HELLO2021-01-071 point DOS version

Oregon Trail Game Free Online Play

Responding to gerald.
Unzip the file and open OREGON.EXE with DOSBox

gerald2020-12-030 point

how tf do i run this on dos box idk how computers work

idontknowsomenerdiguess2020-09-17-1 point DOS version

i play it in school i play in house i play it in bathroom i play it in shower i play it in coffin

Kevin B2020-06-080 point DOS version

If your trying to run this game on a Windows 10 PC, you will need DOSbox to run it as it won't run normally in this version of Windows.

Morbid_Decay2020-05-140 point DOS version

This is my first time playing it. it's sooooooooo good!

vicsar2020-05-093 points DOS version

I had never played the original, only the deluxe version. This is fun :-)

moonbug2019-03-143 points

Bear Vs. Salmon, you can convert one of the mainframe versions, they're pretty small and entirely in BASIC. Otherwise this is almost identical: http://www.atariarchives.org/bca/Chapter02_WestwardHo.php

the only one still using win xp2019-02-23-2 points DOS version

why does it skip when on the trail unless something happens i'm playing on windows xp

Belreyne2019-02-041 point

I remember playing the Classic Oregon Trail on IBM Networking computers as a kid.... That and Primary Editor Plus, Where in the World/USA is Carmen Sandiego, and other 'Educational' classics... Talk about Nostalgia....

OTV12019-01-03-3 points Apple II version

I am looking for a copy of the original version of Oregon trail on 51/4 floppy disk for apple ll

Off topic2018-04-173 points

It's a shame. 'Pg' is using an online platform (likely with a decent device) to ban a generation about their access to technology.
I am a millennial. I remember playing in school. That's why I am on this page in the first place. Just kind of food for thought to those predisposed do decide others morals based on age. At least last millennials are discriminatory by a LARGE margin. But that's numbers not opinion.
I'm glad to see this on here so I can reminisce the days when nothing could go wrong.

Moon2018-03-310 point

this game is awesome even though i just finished it yesterday lol

dfortae2018-01-12-3 points DOS version

I review The Oregon Trail here: http://youtu.be/KHXThZGUWrw

Ted2017-10-271 point Mac version

It works under SheepShaver running 9.04.

Retro Never Goes Out Of Style2017-07-230 point

Works just fine in M.E.S.S. on Ubuntu.

PG2017-06-27-11 points Apple II version

I remember playing this game back in 1990 while I was in the sixth grade. I used to love going to the computer lab with my class each week, just so we could play The Oregon Trail on those Old School Apple computers. Each of us were so enthralled by the game, it was the only time that an instructor didn't have to tell us to be quiet. Kids today (Millenials) will never understand how fun and educational The Oregon Trail was for our generation. Sadly, the main reasons they use computers is to connect on Social Media (which has led to Cyber Bullying),
Hacking/Stealing personal information, and other nonsense. Only Xennials can comprehend how Awesome this game is, was and always will be! We grew up during a time when life was simple, and technology had not overstepped it's boundaries by consuming the entire world, and turning everyone into illiterate zombies that can't function without an Iphone in their hand.

Bear Vs. Salmon2017-04-219 points Apple II version

It won't run