Game 15: August 29, 2014the Initials Game

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The Oregon Trail is a series of educational computer games. The first game was originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974. The original game was designed to teach 8th grade school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon in 1848.

History[edit]

In 1971, Don Rawitsch, a senior at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, taught an 8th grade history class as a student teacher.^[1][2] He used HP Time-Shared BASIC running on a HP 2100 minicomputer to write a computer program to help teach the subject.^[3] Rawitsch recruited two friends and fellow student teachers, Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann, to help.^[4]

These are the original core gameplay concepts which have endured in every subsequent version: initial supply purchase; occasional food hunting; occasional supply purchase at forts; inventory management of supplies; variable travel speed depending upon conditions; frequent misfortunes; and game over upon death or successfully reaching Oregon.^[5]

The game that would be later named The Oregon Trail debuted to Rawitsch's class on December 3, 1971. Although the minicomputer's teletype and paper tape terminals that predate display screens were awkward to children, the game was immediately popular, and he made it available to users of the minicomputer time-sharing network owned by Minneapolis Public Schools. When the next semester ended, Rawitsch printed out a copy of the source code and deleted it from the minicomputer.^[5][4]

MECC[edit]

In 1974, the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC), a state-funded organization that developed educational software for the classroom, hired Rawitsch. He uploaded the Oregon Trail game into the organization's time-sharing network by retyping it, copied from a printout of the 1971 BASIC code. Then he modified the frequency and details of the random events that occurred in the game, to more accurately reflect the accounts he had read in the historical diaries of people who had traveled the trail. In 1975, when his updates were finished, he made the game titled OREGON available to all the schools on the timeshare network. The game became one of the network's most popular programs, with thousands of players monthly.^[5][4][6]

Rawitsch published the source code of The Oregon Trail, written in BASIC 3.1 for the CDC Cyber 70/73-26, in Creative Computing's May–June 1978 issue.^[7] That year MECC began encouraging schools to adopt the Apple II microcomputer.^[4] John Cook adapted the game for the Apple II, and it appeared on A.P.P.L.E.'s PDS Disk series No. 108. A further version called Oregon Trail 2 was adapted in June 1978 by J.P. O'Malley. The game was further released as part of MECC's Elementary series, on Elementary Volume 6 in 1980. The game was titled simply Oregon, and featured minimal graphics. It proved so popular that it was re-released as a standalone game, with substantially improved graphics, in 1985. The new version was also updated to more accurately reflect the real Oregon Trail, incorporating notable geographic landmarks as well as human characters with whom the player can interact.^[8]

By 1995, The Oregon Trail comprised about one-third of MECC's $30 million in annual revenue.^[9] An updated version, Oregon Trail Deluxe, was released for DOS and Macintosh in 1992, as well as Windows in 1993 (under the title of simply The Oregon Trail Version 1.2)^[10] followed by Oregon Trail II in 1995,^[4]The Oregon Trail 3rd Edition in 1997,^[11] and 4th^[12] and 5th editions.^[13] As of 2011, more than 65 million copies of The Oregon Trail have been sold.^[4]

Editions[edit]

Various games in the series were released with inconsistent titles.

Legacy[edit]

The game was popular among elementary school students worldwide from the mid-1980s to mid-2000s, as many computers came bundled with the game.^{[citation needed]} MECC followed up on the success of The Oregon Trail with similar titles such as The Yukon Trail and The Amazon Trail.^[17]David H. Ahl published Westward Ho!, set on the Oregon Trail in 1848, as a type-in game in 1986.^[18]

The phrase 'You have died of dysentery' has been popularized on T-shirts^[4] and other promotional merchandise. Another popular phrase from the game is 'Here lies andy; peperony and chease,' which is a player-generated epitaph featured on an in-game tombstone saved to a frequently bootlegged copy of the game disk,^[19] and likely a direct reference to a popular Tombstone pizza television commercial from the 1990s.

The game resurfaced in 2008 when Gameloft created an updated version for cell phones.^[20][21][4] A new release for the iPhone and iPod Touch is also available from Gameloft.^[22] The game went live in the iTunes App Store on March 11, 2009.^[23] On January 7, 2010, the Palm webOS version was released to the Palm App Catalog. On November 11, 2010, an Xbox Live version was released on Windows Phone 7.

The cell phone version of the game is similar to the original, but varies in that the player can choose one of three different wagons: A basic wagon, a prairie schooner or a Conestoga wagon. The player can also choose to become a banker, a carpenter, or a farmer, each of which has unique benefits. Unlike the computer version of the game, players in the iPhone and iPod Touch version do not need to buy guns and bullets. The game has received a major update, which had the player using trading and crafting to upgrade their wagon, buy food, and cure ailments.

In 2011 the 1975 and 1978 BASICsource code versions of the game were reconstructed.^[24]

On February 2, 2011, a new version of the game was released on the social networking site Facebook.^[25] This version was removed from Facebook when Blue Fang Games closed.^[26] A new version of the game was also released for the Wii and 3DS that year, and received a negative critical response.^[27]

In 2012, a parody called Organ Trail was released by the Men Who Wear Many Hats for browsers, iOS, and Android, with the setting changed to human survivors fleeing a zombie apocalypse.^[28]

In 2012, the Willamette Heritage Center (WHC) and the Statesman Journal newspaper in Salem, Oregon created Oregon Trail Live as a live-action event.^[29] Teams competed through ten challenges on the grounds of the WHC. Challenges were based loosely on the game: hunting for game was done by shooting Nerf guns at college students wearing wigs and cloth antlers, while carrying 200 pounds of meat became pulling a 200-pound man up a hill in a child's red wagon while he recited historical meat facts and pointed out choice cuts. Independence, Missouri was at one end of the grounds, and the Willamette Valley was at the other end. The WHC received the 2014 Outstanding Educator Award from the Oregon-California Trails Association for this event.

In 2013, a dark comedy entitled Oregon Trail: The Play! received its first professional production by New Orleans-based theatre company The NOLA Project, and was subsequently published in 2016 by Alligator Pear Publishing, LLC. The play closely parodies the game, following a westward-headed family as they stock up on provisions for their oxen-led wagons and do their best to survive river crossings, illnesses, hunting, highway robbery, and a host of other mid-nineteenth century dilemmas. Audience members are asked to help provide food for the family in a mid-play Nerf shooting gallery.

In 2014, a parody musical called The Trail to Oregon! was made by the musical theater company StarKid Productions, with several references being made towards the game.^[30]

In 2015, a 5k fun run held in Oregon City (the end of the route of the Oregon Trail) was modeled after the game with choice points along the route.^[31]

In 2016, the game was parodied in an episode of Teen Titans Go! entitled 'Oregon Trail' (Season 3, Episode 48).^{[citation needed]}

Also in 2016, Pressman Toy Corporation released The Oregon Trailcard game based on the video game.^[32]

The game was referenced on the May 15, 2020 edition of WWE Smackdown. On that episode Otis told both John Morrison and The Miz that his usual tag team partner Tucker couldn't make it to the tag team match that night, 'because he got dysentery on The Oregon Trail.'^[33][34]

References[edit]

1. ^Lipinski, Jed (July 29, 2013). 'The Legend of The Oregon Trail'. mental_floss. Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
2. ^Shea, Jeremy (February 24, 2014). 'An Interview With the Teacher-Turned-Developer Behind 'Oregon Trail''. Yester: Then For Now. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
3. ^Veeneman, Dan. 'Hewlett-Packard HP 2000 Time Shared BASIC'. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
4. ^ ^abcdefghLussenhop, Jessica (January 19, 2011). 'Oregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its path'. City Pages. Archived from the original on January 23, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
5. ^ ^abcBouchard, R. Philip (June 29, 2017). 'How I Managed to Design the Most Successful Educational Computer Game of All Time'. The Philipendium. Medium. Retrieved August 5, 2019.
6. ^Grosvenor, Emily (September 25, 2014). 'Going West: The World of Live Action, Competitive Oregon Trail'. The Atlantic. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
7. ^Rawitsch, Dan (May–June 1978). 'Oregon Trail'. Creative Computing. pp. 132–139. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
8. ^'You Have Died of Dysentery: Exploring The Oregon Trail's Design History'. format.com. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
9. ^Interview with Dale Lafrenz. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (accessed July 1, 2012)
10. ^Oregon Trail GameArchived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
11. ^The Oregon Trail: 3rd Edition for Windows (1997) – MobyGames
12. ^Amazon.com: Oregon Trail 4th Edition: Software
13. ^Amazon.com: The Oregon Trail, 5th Edition: Software
14. ^'Gameloft primes five HD games for Windows Phone 7 US launch'. pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
15. ^'The Oregon Trail Card Game'. pressmantoy.com. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
16. ^'The Oregon Trail: Journey to Willamette Valley'. pressmantoy.com. Retrieved November 7, 2019.
17. ^Coventry, Joshua. 'Educational computing for the masses'. SiliconUser. Archived from the original on June 28, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
18. ^Ahl, David H. (1986). 'Westward Ho!'. David H. Ahl's BASIC Computer Adventures. Microsoft Press. ISBN0-914845-92-6.
19. ^Stacy Conradt (May 11, 2009). 'The Quick 10: The Oregon Trail Computer Game'. Mental floss. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
20. ^Ericson, Tracy. 'The Oregon Trail: Contracting dysentery has never been so much fun'. PocketGamer. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved October 10, 2008.
21. ^Beidler, Aurae (January 31, 2008), Facebook Oregon Trail Application: Social Networking Website's Version of the Original Educational Game, Suite 101
22. ^Buchanan, Levi (February 25, 2009). 'Oregon Trail iPhone Hands-On'. IGN. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2009.
23. ^Alaburda, Bob (March 11, 2009). 'The Oregon Trail Out Now-On'. ThePortableGamer. Archived from the original on March 14, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
24. ^On the Trail of the Oregon Trail by Jimmy Maher on filfre.net (source code: oregon1975.bas and oregon1978.bas, March 27, 2011)
25. ^Jackson, A. Diallo (January 28, 2011). 'Classic games coming to Facebook'. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
26. ^Osborne, Joe (December 19, 2011). 'Carmen Sandiego, Oregon Trail on Facebook will be no more next year'. games.com news. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
27. ^'Oregon Trail Review'. GameSpot. Retrieved January 31, 2020.
28. ^'Organ Trail'. hasproductions. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved November 2, 2014.
29. ^'Oregon Trail Live'. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
30. ^'The Trail To Oregon!'.
31. ^'The Oregon Trail Game 5K'. Archived from the original on July 16, 2015.
32. ^Krol, Jacob (July 29, 2016). 'The Oregon Trail is back, but this time it's a card game'. CNET. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
33. ^https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0857332/movieconnections?ref_=tt_ql_trv_6
34. ^https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12126764/movieconnections?ref_=tt_ql_trv_6

External links[edit]

• The Oregon Trail series at MobyGames
• The Oregon Trail 1990 DOS edition at the Internet Archive

Game 15: August 29 2014 The Initials Game On Netflix

The 2013 NFL season proved the importance of defense. No longer were linebackers and defensive backs ignored in favor of the high flying stunts of the offense. Players like Patrick Peterson, Joe Haden and Darrelle Revis lit up the highlight reels while Seattle’s “Legion of Boom” became arguably the most recognizable unit in current professional sports. EA Sports has taken notice of this and not only has plastered the outspoken Richard Sherman on the cover, but also emphasized the defensive end of the game.

In fact, Madden NFL 15 doesn’t waste anytime showing this. When booted up for the first time, players are put into a fictional 2015 NFC Championship Game between the Carolina Panthers and the Seattle Seahawks. With just minutes left to play, players take control of the Panthers for a march down the field against the legion of boom. Not only does this emphasize the power of a good defense, but also allows the game to download and install on the background of the PS4 and Xbox One. New players can than launch directly into the Skills Trainer, while veteran players can forge the tutorials and check out what’s new this year.

Unsurprisingly, the lion’s share of tweaks this year lie in the defense. A cone now appears in front of defenders whenever a ball-carrier can be tackled, helping display when a play can be made. Making playing as a defender more entertaining, blocks can now be shed instead of simply being caught up with a blocker as was common in previous installments. Much of this is thanks to a prompt that now appears over the players’ heads when power or finesse moves are available.

Adding more intrigue, snaps can now be jumped by pressing R2, increasing the defender’s chance of executing a successful rush move. Mistiming the jump can cause the defender to become unbalanced, however, so care needs to be taken to time these correctly. Zone coverage has been enhanced this year to involve the defensive secondary more. When playing on offense, it’s apparent that top cornerbacks will read coverage and react before the ball is even thrown.

On the offensive side of things, pass variety (and catch animations) has been increased so that mobile quarterbacks like Cam Newtown don’t steamroll over defenses. One of the most useful new features is the ability to rotate the defensive camera before the snap of the ball, allowing players to play defense with an over-the-shoulder perspective. Although it takes some adjustment, playing with the new viewpoint proves advantageous in many situations.

The play call screen has been retooled this year to better allow the most useful plays to be selected before a snap. Calls are separated into three categories: strategy, community and favorites. Community picks are the most interesting category of the three, as they’re culled from online Madden games to provide suggested plays based on what’s been proven to work. Although veterans might prefer to dig deep into playbooks, this new interface allows novices and intermediates more choices for plays that might actually work.

On the visual side of things, Madden NFL 15 is a marked improvement over last year’s long in the tooth port. This is most noticeable in the players, who’s faces look more realistic. Uniforms also look great with some nice fabric dimensionality. It’s not the jaw-dropping experience we’re hoping to see from the series on current-gen, but it’s satisfying enough to bring the series into 2015.

Madden Ultimate Team — a mode harder to learn than perhaps football itself — has been improved to make it easier to figure out where to start thanks to a instant list of objectives to get players on their way. Players can also now be easier sorted thanks to the addition of “The Binder,” a central hub for management.

And now onto the part of the review where a dead horse is beat. Again this year, no licensed soundtrack appears, instead replaced by orchestrations which seem to get more boring by the year. Not only does it make leaving the game on in the background or sorting through menus grating, but it makes the entire experience seem less immediate. EA Sports are doing themselves a great disservice by continuing to exclude interesting music in the franchise.

Closing Comments:

Game 15: August 29 2014 The Initials Game On Sunday

Madden NFL 15 marks a noticeable improvement for the long-standing franchise. This is a solid game of football, both on a technical and visual level. Much-needed resources have been allocated into improving the defensive side of things, while it visually looks more like a current-gen game than last year’s ports. Commentary and music remains stagnant, the product placement is inexcusable and anomalies creep up here and there, but Madden NFL 15 remains a step forward for the series that even the most staunch Richard Sherman detractors will find difficult keeping this off their shelves.
Version Reviewed: PlayStation 4