Generation Trail
Among my most prized t-shirts, is the “You Have Died of Dysentery” shirt pictured in this post. Consequently, I was very glad to see that Oregon Trail came out number one in Educational Game Research’s list of the top ten most influential educational video games of the 1980s list (via Sara Mead).
This reminds me that I’ve been wanting a better name for my generation than the derivative “Generation Y” or the vacuous “millennials.” My propsal is that we’re Generation Trail. This is little appreciated among members of other cohorts, but as best I can tell everyone of a certain age was forced, at one time or another, to play Oregon Trail in school. I think it’s people born approximately 1976-86 who played the game, though I haven’t undertaken the scientific survey that’s necessary. Many younger kids played O-Trail sequels, but adoption seems to have been less widespread and the game itself less memorable.
165 Responses to “Generation Trail”
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October 20th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I like the suggestion, though I think you extend the back end too far. My younger brother was born in ‘85 and I doubt he ever played Oregon Trail.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
as best I can tell everyone of a certain age was forced, at one time or another, to play Oregon Trail in school.
Indeed. In fact the only other universally common cultural touchstone for our age group would be Saved by the Bell, and “Generation Screech” just doesn’t sound quite right.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I was born in 1986, and you’re analysis sounds about right to me. I was on the trailing edge of the original Oregon trail, so I played both the original and a couple of sequels when I was in elementary school, and most of my cohorts (who are about to graduate from college or have just done so) all played the game. Also, there’s an Oregon Trail Facebook application that I gather is pretty popular.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
right, we could also be Generation AIDS Talk, since I, at least, got at leas 97,382 of those between 5th and 11th grades.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
“And you will know us by the trail of dead deer” was my motto. Load up on ammo and blast my way across the West.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Born in 78. Played Oregon trail in school.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
‘76, died often. Spouse from ‘75 also died on the trail.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
My siblings and I all played it and we’re ‘79, ‘82, and ‘86.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Indeed, there’s nothing like shooting a 4000 pound buffalo and only being able to take back 100 pounds of meat to your wagon that more symbolizes the 80s.
Oh, and don’t be a cheapskate, hire the Indians for the Snake River. Learned that lesson when I was 7.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I was born in 85. Definitely blazed the trail in school, along with Odell lake and number munchers
October 20th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
TheF79: Absolutely, only suckers actually payed for food.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I would highly discourage anyone who played it as a kid from trying to play it again. It’s like going back and watching a He-Man episode. OMG how was I ever actually entertained by this crap?!
October 20th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Born in ‘79. Played the Hell out of Oregon Trail. Similarly used the “play as banker, load up on oxen and ammo and race across the county” play style.
Another ubiquitous aspect of the game, as played by 10 year olds, giving your dead spouse/children hilariously inappropriate names when they had died on the Trail and discovering other similar graves along the way. Good times.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Born ‘78. Playing the Trail was a treat. I remember plowing through vocabulary assignments for the chance reward of dibs on the Apple IIc with the Oregan Trail floppy.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
This is interesting, because my brothers and I have been calling us Generation Zelda for years.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Just looked at that full list, I got to play all of those but Reader Rabbit (was too old for that by far.)
Lemonade Stand was fantastic. My Social Science class in Elementary school used games like those listed quite often.
Remember we had a couple Oregon Trail clones. One was for traveling across a giant landscape looking for the right place to settle. The other I can remember was about climbing Everest, and like Oregon Trail was all about buying the right gear before leaving.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
‘84 here. I played it in a school computer lab during 2nd and 3rd grade.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
You know the thing that I noticed about He-Man as an adult that never bothered me as a kid, JH? He-Man’s annoying ass voice. Seriously, how Man-At-Arms didn’t say, “Why the hell is your voice all echo-y?” I’ll never know.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Born in 74 and yes I played it. Like everything else you people try to claim, Gen X did it first and did it better.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I guess I’m an outlier. Born in ‘74. Hit the trail many times. Maybe my school was an early adopter of computers.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
made in minnesota! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Educational_Computing_Consortium
October 20th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
The great gap in our generation is between those who got to use a mouse to hunt and those of us who had to do it the old fashioned way: using arrow keys to position the little stick figure.
Though all of us learned the most valuable lesson of all: never attempt to ford a river, no matter how shallow it appears.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Born in 78. Made it to Oregon many a time. I was particularly skilled at fording rivers and hunting for sustenance.
I was also straight ballin’ with my Lemonade Stand. I’m sure this software was useful in training our nation’s young drug dealers in the fine arts of pricing and supply vs. demand.
And don’t forget “Odell Lake.” Just watch out for the hawk, he’ll swoop down and getcha if you swim too close to the surface.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
What David said.
Making it successfully to Willamette Valley was one of the great accomplishments of my childhood, along with knocking out Mike Tyson in “Punch Out.”
October 20th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Born in 1986 and played the game in elementary school. Then once again in high school during my senior while in a “senioritis” History of the Frontier course. Actually graded on our performance as well.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I encourage this, because previously I thought that I, born in ‘76, was a late Generation X. Under this rubric I get to be part of a later cohort that includes my ‘82-born bf. This makes me feel young and spry. Accepted!
Alternatively, Generation Zelda is an excellent suggestion.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I was born in 1968. I’ve never even heard of the game. But then again, ‘Pong’ was the hot video game back then and we didn’t get a computer in my elementary school until 1978. And only the advanced students got to use it.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
‘82. Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego were the only games available on our school’s computers when I was in elementary school. I have forded many a river.
As to Trail sequels, I submit that if you played Oregon Trail in any color other than bright green and black, you did not really play Oregon Trail.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Born ‘85. Hit the trail in elementary school with both the old and new versions.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
I was born in ‘86 and played the game in middle school. As I recall, my school got rid of the game by the time I was in 7th grade in favor of some other nonsense.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Wow – that is a blast from the past! I too remember the older kids in my elementary school when they were showing us how to play, covering up the screen with their hands when first getting to a graveyard screen to check if any “acts of rebellion” had been written on the tombstones lest we rat them out to the teachers.
Having been born in 1981, I have always felt torn being in the grey zone between Gen X and Gen Y. Generation Trail works on a whole other level as well (which is perhaps what you intended!).
October 20th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I was born in 84, and let me assure you that most of my friends and played the original Oregon Trail. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was the only computer game in the damn school. As a side note, who thought giving those giant floppy disks to hyperactive second graders and expecting them to use them correctly was a good idea? Those things were fucking fragile, and our computer lab teacher would tear her fucking hair out trying to make sure we didn’t destroy expensive computer equipment. Ahh, the joyos of youth
October 20th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Hmmm. Sounds like Oregon Trail is less than precise at denoting generational groups. Still, I like it.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Born in ‘71, didn’t play it, so that should help narrow the window.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Ahhh, I used to play this on an Apple II in the basement of the library. I spent a lot of time on the Oregon Trail. I died a lot, and was so thrilled when I made it. My Mom made me stop naming the settlers after family members, because she couldn’t stand seeing the text “[Sibling name] died of dysentary.” I was born in ‘82.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Sorry to rain on your parade. I was born in ‘73 and played it in middle school; my son was born in 2000 and plays it now.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Born in ‘88, I believe I played the sequel in elementary school, must’ve been 5th grade in, um, 1997 or 1998.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I also support Generation Zelda. And Carmen Sandiego was a fox.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
“hire the Indians for the Snake River.”
Fuck that — I’m fording that bitch.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
My school had computers, but all we did with them was write Magic 8 Ball programs with DOS. However, my best friend’s mother was a teacher, and they had Oregon Trail at home! We played the hell out of it. I was born in 1978.
It would be nice to be part of *something,* anyway. Most sources say that Gen X stops before I’m born, but Milennials start after I’m born. Nice. 1978 is no-man’s land. And I can’t argue – I don’t feel like I’m part of either generation, really.
But dammit, I KNEW what that shirt meant the first time I saw it. I can live with uniting under Oregon Trail.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Born in ‘72 and played it in 5th grade.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
The first version was text. We played it at school on the teletypes connected to the MECC system via a modem.
I was playing it in 1978 or so.
Wiki says the Apple II version came out in 1985, but I remember playing it much earlier than that. Maybe around 1982 or so. I’m wondering if were here in Minnesota didn’t get this much sooner before it went commercial.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Born in ‘90 (I think that makes me the youngest here). I think I played the original, but I definitely had and played the shit out of OT 2 through most of my elementary school days. Ive also played all but 1 on that list. And amen to whoever said not to be a cheapskate… always pay the Indians or the bridge toll.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Didn’t the original version have a weird shotgun blast heading at a horizontally running deer as opposed to the “walk-and-shoot” later version?
October 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
1976. Check.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
I’m willing to bet you suckers outside of MN only played on the more user friendly versions of The Trail. When I first played it you had a fixed position gun that fired amazingly slow “shot” (as opposed to a single bullet) when the space bar was pressed. An “animal” would appear on one side and slowly cross to the other. You had to time your shot to hit the animal when it was in the middle. It was almost impossible to do. Hunting was not really an option in this version.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Back off, kid: Oregon Trail belongs to Generation _X_. We started playing the monochrome version on Apple II pluses in my town. That’s the one where you couln’t even move around when you were hunting. The real studs will remember the teletype versions (type “B-A-N-G” to shoot), but that was before the age of the PC.
And playing as a banker? Puh-lease. You don’t even have to stop to hunt to win with that bankroll. Hardcore pioneers play as a _farmer,_ get the whole family through, and finish the game with 2000 lbs. of meat (minus one day) in the wagon.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
‘88. Must disagree with Matt and several previous commenters. Played the original OT in early elementary school and several of the sequels up through middle school. I spent much of my formidable youth hunting 2000 pounds of bufallo.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
1978 is no-man’s land.
truer words have never been typed.
and somewhere, Mathblaster aficionados weep
October 20th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I was born in 1979 and played Oregon Trail from 1986-1988. That is one more data point for you.
People born in 1986 are a whole other group that I don’t think I should be included in. I graduated high school in 1997 and I doubt I used the internet once to help me write a paper or do anything school related. I used the internet for chatting, and porn but not for educational purposes. If you were lucky, maybe your CD-rom of Encarta had some useful information (not likely), but most usually it was off to the local library and the card catalogs to do research. Even in college I never had a dorm wired for internet (but this was partly bad luck as some newer dorms did have it, just never mine). Plus, internet citations were not acceptable whatsoever in the eyes of any of my professors in both High School and College.
I don’t think anyone born as late as 1986 could say the same thing.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Oh, I should point out I was born in 1968. This game was created in Minnesota and given to the Minnesota Educational Computer Consortium.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Born in ‘87 and I played it in early elementary school (kindergarten/first grade). I’m probably at the upper boundary though.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I love this. So much better than X or Y. I was born in 1978, and this is the first time I’ve seen a generation marker that didn’t seem to leave me slipping through the x/y crack.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I was never really that fond of Oregon Trail as a kid, but I will have to put in a vote for M.U.L.E. as one of the most influential early “educational” games.
(If they consider Zork I, Solitaire, and SimCity as educational, M.U.L.E. would have to be in there as well.)
October 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
having been born in 1985, i was most certainly exposed to the original version of oregon trail. first in 3rd grade computer class, and consistently after that.
a great anecdote: my 11th grade american history teacher lamented that “the only common experience with American History” that, coming into his class, all his students had, was intimate knowledge of the hardships of the oregon trail.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Nylund – Back in my day we wrote school papers by copying articles out of World Book Encyclopedia. No internet for us, not even an Encarta!
October 20th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
The key to success is spending all your money on oxen at the beginning of the game. Sure, just about everyone but the driver dies along the way, but you get to Oregon in like 10 minutes.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Born in 85. I was quite dominant at the OT in my time. I did notice that with younger kids, while they enjoyed shootin some bison and bear and setting their rations really high, did not quite have the enthusiasm for the game as the previous generation.
enraged badger: “As a side note, who thought giving those giant floppy disks to hyperactive second graders and expecting them to use them correctly was a good idea? Those things were fucking fragile, and our computer lab teacher would tear her fucking hair out trying to make sure we didn’t destroy expensive computer equipment. Ahh, the joyos of youth”
So true. We also enjoyed taking the balls out of the bottom of the mouse and throwing them at eachother. Good times.
It’s a some years later, but anyone else become obsessed with Chip’s Challenge in like 94/95? Sick game.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
More than anything, I think the defining quirk of my generation is blowing into malfunctioning devices a la the original Nintendo.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Born in 80. Never played it. How bout the “Voyage of the Mimi” generation?
October 20th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
People claiming to be born in the mid 80s and exposed to the first version are kidding themselves. Unless you’re school kept some 1983 versions of Appple IIes for kindergartners or something. The original was released in 1985.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Later, this would turn into flipping over malfunctioning Playstations to prevent disc read errors.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Born 1968, played in North Dakota in high school on Apple ][+’s in 1985 or so.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Matthew, that’s an awful picture of you wearing the T-shirt. Grow the beard back.
Anyway, I was born in ‘70 – and I never played the game.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Yep, it’s a “Generation X” game. I was born in ‘70 and played it in junior high, on the Apple II.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I think it’s people born approximately 1976-86 who played the game
I was born in ‘72 and played OT often in the school library…also in Minnesota. Maybe MN was an early adopter.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Has anyone here actually had dysentery? I have. It’s bloody nasty. Although I had a milder case than most.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Born in 69, spent countless hours playing oregon trail. What will probably make my use a little different than yours was that I was playing on an model 33 teletype terminals connected to a mainframe via acoustic coupler.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
… is yet another born in ‘78 Oregon Trail aficionado. How about “owned an Atari?” I don’t know anyone born outside of the 74-82 window who had one; those born later seem to have started with Nintendo.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Hard to beat Oregon Trail! On the generational front, Joshua Glenn who wrote the Boston Globe Brainiac column spent quite a while re-grouping generations based on shared experience instead of decade-based or other popular grouping methods. The regular old Gen X and Gen Y leave a bunch of people out (like me from ‘76). His groupings are interesting. Here’s the link to his take on the “Oregon Trail” Generation, even though he calls it the Net Generation.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/brainiac/2008/03/net_generation.html
October 20th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
1984, played oregon trail on Apple IIgs (!) machines like crazy. Also, Odell lake taught me that you might as well always be a really big fish (Mackinaw Trout, Michigan represent) and don’t trust insects. Good times.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Really, all generations should be divided up by consoles.
Gen X = Atari 2600
Gen Y = NES aka “the No-friendos”
The Xbox/SPS generation is an abomination. Let’s not speak of them.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Born in 1972. Played Oregon Trail and Odell Lake from fifth grade on. Man, I’d forgotten about Odell Lake.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Rob: People claiming to be born in the mid 80s and exposed to the first version are kidding themselves. Unless you’re school kept some 1983 versions of Appple IIes for kindergartners or something. The original was released in 1985.
Unfortunately, my elementary school did keep those computers for a very long time, one of the perks of going to an underfunded school district in 91-92. Or any elementary school really, it might be the schools could purchase those computers because they were obsolete by then. I remember thinking they were pretty new.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Craig, but…why would I choose to be the poor farmer when I can choose to be the banker with all his loot? As also mentioned, this lets you roll up with ten yolks of oxen and blaze that trail fast!
October 20th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Plenty of folks born before 1974 owned Atari 2600s. It was released in 1977, and lots of older kids and teens played games.
Also, why would kids born in 1982 choose an Atari 2600 over an NES or Sega Master System? By the time these kids were old enough for video games, both were available.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Actually, in Generational Theory circles, Xers are divided into an early Atari Wave (ca 61-70) and a later Nintendo Wave (ca 71-81).
October 20th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Personally, I like the moniker “Millenial.” It allows we curmudgeonly Xers to call you kids “millies.”
October 20th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
“More than anything, I think the defining quirk of my generation is blowing into malfunctioning devices a la the original Nintendo.”
OMG, I do this. And, uh, we didn’t even own a Nintendo. I managed to pick up this habit playing Nintendo at other kids’ houses.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Heh. I’m from the HAMURABI generation…
October 20th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
The fact that MY would try to lay claim to this Gen X classic is more evidence that Generation Y really has no significant culture of its own. Born in 1970, played the crap out of Oregon Trail beginning in 6th grade. Can I get some love for Kingdom?
Maybe we could call Gen Y the hey-check-out-this-cool-thing-I-just-discovered-that-nobody-else-has ever-seen-it’s-called-Star-Wars Generation.
Also, I have dysentery right now and I like it.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Born in 88 and I played the balls off of Oregon Trail sequels, but probably not the original. Every time I tried to ford the river, the friggin oxen died.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
It makes me wonder why Macintosh machines didn’t take off given that every kid had to go to the computer lab and play the trail on one of these. ‘80 here. I played in 4th and 5th grade and can remember the computer room and everything.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
My younger brother was born in ‘85 and I doubt he ever played Oregon Trail.
Me neither.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
87. Loved Oregon Trail, even found Amazon Trail entertaining.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Born in 1975, played what presumably was the original version (fixed position gun that fired spread of pellets) in middle school. I’ll second the “Voyage of the Mimi” shout-out above. (Who sabotaged the ship’s electrical system anyway? I don’t think they ever explained that.)
October 20th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
My husband and I both born in 1979 and both played Oregon Trails in school. Also I agree about the Generation Y or millenials thing I don’t like either.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Born in ‘75, definitely NOT part of Gen Y, and I played Oregon Trail in 4th grade on my school’s bitchin’ Apple II.
I’ve never found the Gen X-Gen Y terminology to be useful. If you’re old enough to remember the Cold War, you played an Atari 2600 when it was still the gold standard, and you died of dysentery in a school computer lab, then you are my people.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
1988, and I played it. Also loved Dino Park Tycoon.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
My great grandchildren’s generation will be named after a game simulating what my generation did. Then they’ll find this blog comment on some archeological dig and know that they are pathetic.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
MosBen,
The Farmer gets a crazy 3x multiple on the finishing score, so, if you’re playing for points, it’s the only option. Although I gotta try that ten yokes of oxen thing someday.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Maybe we could call Gen Y the hey-check-out-this-cool-thing-I-just-discovered-that-nobody-else-has ever-seen-it’s-called-Star-Wars Generation.
Wins the thread. Close it down.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Wikipedia’s article on our generation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y
October 20th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Born in ‘70, played Oregon Trail in middle school in Indiana. So that’s a negative data point.
I do think the Atari 2600/NES division might be worth exploring, though. I was born just at the proposed dividing line, and had both of them growing up — but I was born on the Atari 2600 side of the line, and that’s the one I still own.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I was born in 1983, and started playing the original Trail on an Apple II, but I remember Oregon Trail II more which came out in 5th or 6th grade.
Funny that people mention the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, because after looking at their wiki page my school must have just gone to them and said, “we’ll take everything.”
October 20th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
‘78. CAULK the wagon, people.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
1975, and my school was a very early adopter for computer labs (we were a very small school, with K-12 all on one campus, a fairly decent tax base, and some excellent grant writers on staff).
I’ve not only played OT since its general release, but I got my first copy directly from MECC during a statewide computer conference held at my school. I was invited to participate as a runner for the conference, as my best friend’s mom was the local organizer, so I was in nerd heaven. I had a fairly large portion of MECC’s library on my own personal 5.25″ floppies.
The sick part of me kind of wishes they’d followed up with a “California Trail” sequel, complete with the risk of choosing wrong on the Hastings Cutoff and getting stranded in the Sierra Nevadas. “Tom has died of starvation. +10 food.”
October 20th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
For what it’s worth, although I know my kids (b. 1983 & 1985) played Oregon Trail in school, they never talk about it now. But both of them will rant at great length about how much they hated The Voyage of the Mimi.
Any reference to Ben Affleck will set them off.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
I think we’ve found the true Gen X/Y divider in that Atari or Nintendo question. As usual, being born in 78, I don’t fall cleanly into either camp. I had an Atari when I was little and I loved it, but it didn’t really change my life the way the original NES did, when I was 8 or 9. Zelda, Mike Tyson’s Punchout, RBI Baseball, Tecmo Bowl and the various Mario Bros games were truly the transformative texts of my childhood. Sure, I loved my Sega Genesis, but it wasn’t the same obsession. You can tell because I got rid of the Genesis years ago, but I still have the Nintendo in a closet somewhere. Every couple of years I get it out and hook it up again and see if I can beat Mike Tyson, like I somehow did when I was 10. It never happens.
Speaking of Punch Out, here’s your Wikipedia fact of the day:
October 20th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
‘81–
OH, YEAH I PLAYED THE TRAIL.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Never heard of it. Born in 1960. Calculators were known in high school as “adding machines.” Took my first computer class (COBOL!) in college.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Another data point — I was born in 1973 and first had a computer in the classroom in 5th and 6th grade (Fall 1983 – Spring 1985), I think an Apple ][+. Never played Oregon Trail. Instead, we played some game where we were on an archaeological dig trying to uncover stuff that early settlers left. We also played that typing game, similar to Math Blaster, where you zapped words coming across the screen by typing them. Lemonade Stand, too, I think, though I think we spent more time working on a non-computer thing based on the same concept where the kids in the class set up businesses that mostly involved making stickers to sell to the rest of the class.
I actually never owned a video game system until my wife and I got a Wii last year. My dad was an early adopter with computers, getting a TRS-80 Color Computer in ~1982… I got a Commodore 64 for my own use in 1986 that lasted me until I graduated from high school in 1991.
But I definitely played a lot of Atari when I was a kid at other peoples’ houses. NES came around in junior high, but most of my friends were more into computer games than that.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
How about the Dingleberry Generation? (or Generation Pendejo) They think they’re the shit but they are really only a small part of what’s passed before. There’s no such thing as Gen Y.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/107583
This is a good article by Jonathan Alter on the difference between Early Boomers (Hillary) and Late Boomers (Obama). Does anyone use the phrase Generation Jones anymore? Gen Jones is the equivalent of Gen Y.
If you want to define society in terms of shared cultural experience, you should begin by using a different term than “generation.”
October 20th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
It’s a some years later, but anyone else become obsessed with Chip’s Challenge in like 94/95? Sick game.
Hell yeah, that game was the shit. Played the fuck out of it when I got my first PC. BTW I was born in ‘85.
Every couple of years I get it out and hook it up again and see if I can beat Mike Tyson, like I somehow did when I was 10. It never happens.
I remember going to a friend’s house when I was young and watching his older brother’s friend beat the game from start to finish. That guy was my fucking idol for a while. Still is, really.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
You can relive your youth at Virtual Apple: Oregon Trail
Personally, I’ve moved on to Imperium Galactum.
October 20th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I was born in 73 and played it. For a long time I thought all the gen Y folk with those t-shirts were “ironic hipsters” since I couldn’t imagine that the game was still being played more than a decade later. As it turns out …
October 20th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Born in 1971 and never played it. I know what it is, in the same sense that I know who Benny Goodman was or what Tickle Me Elmo is but Oregon Trail is most certainly not a part of my generation.
My youth: The Bad News Bears, Good Times, Firefox, Red Dawn, Miracle on Ice, alternatively hating and being scared shitless of the Soviet Union and nuclear holocaust.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Matt, words cannot express how much I love your ’80s baby zeitgeist posts (I’m exactly four days older than you, h/t when you mentioned you were 11 months old in April ‘82). I was actually referencing your Ultimate ’90s Playlist post yesterday as I was putting together an “8th Grade Music” playlist (alt rock from summer ‘95 and earlier). I also totally rocked Oregon Trail on an Apple IIC and several versions of Carmen. 8 (16?) bit graphics rule.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
“Born in 74 and yes I played it. Like everything else you people try to claim, Gen X did it first and did it better.”
Amen, brother.
Born in ‘70 and rocked it in the school computer labs (on Apple IIEs I think) in the mid ’80s, while you GenY punks were still gnawing on fake rawhide.
I happily joined the Princeton Facebook group “I just tried to cross the river and my f&*%#!@g oxen died”, however.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Just realized that you philistines think Firefox is nothing more than a web browser. Alas, I give you Clint Eastwood, 1982:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_(film)
P.S. I really was scared of the Russians. Still am, actually.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Here’s one ‘86er who played it at the library.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
All I know is, I gots to play me some Trail, NOW. Where’s that Apple II emulator?
October 20th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Alas, I give you Clint Eastwood, 1982
Dude, I didn’t see that movie, but I remember when I was about 9 years old catching a little bit of the visuals off of one of the other screens at a multiplex drive-in theater. Don’t remember which movie I was actually watching… maybe Star Trek II.
The same year I also remember seeing a bit of Fast Times at Ridgemont High while watching E.T. from the top of my parents’ Chevy Malibu station wagon.
I’ll betcha people Yglesias’s age never went to the drive-ins as kids.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Craig — Link in 105.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Born in 82, played it a lot in elementary school, of the style where you had to use the arrow keys to shoot the buffalo. My gf though, is born in 83 and hadn’t even heard of it until recently — she’s from the Bronx though. I suppose I’m Generation Y but I’ve never found that label to fit much of anything. I figure that I am part of the interstitial cohort between Gen X and these so-called millenials.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Whilst Generation Trail is probably accurate for Americans, sadly, the game didn’t hold the same place in the lives of young people internationally.
Born in ‘84, I loved playing Oregon Trail; however, I only discovered the game when I moved to the US for a couple of years. My Australian peers have no idea what I’m talking about when I start rabbiting on about it. So Generation Trail wouldn’t have the same universal appeal that Gen Y has, sadly.
That being said, I’m pretty sure there was a rumour that Midlake’s “The Trials of Van Occupanther” was actually about the game… A concept album about the game? That’s got to cement its spot in our collective memory.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Born in ‘71 here, I did play it, but not until I was in 9th grade (fairly poor school district… we didn’t have classes with computers until high school).
October 20th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I remember playing this game on paper (like the original D&D) in school (around 1980-1), as it was a very small school and we didn’t yet have computers.
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books were also trendy for middle school kids at this time.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Movies I remember seeing at a drive-in:
Escape From Alcatraz (Clint Eastwood)
Heaven Can Wait (Warren Beatty)
Candleshoe (Jodie Foster)
Drive-ins were great for parents because they didn’t have to worry that their kids would disturb everyone in the theater. Also, the movie never started until it was dark and the kids usually fell right to sleep, especially during boring ass movies like Escape From Alcatraz.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
‘81, played it. In my version there were basically no graphics… in order to shoot you had to type a word really fast, like P-O-W.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
If everyone else in America called your cohort Generation Dbag you would want a new name as well.
Oregon Trail
Taipan
Dr. J Bird One on One
The real divide is did you go to the arcade, bowling alley or tavern to play videogames on a regular basis.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Born in ‘87, played it in school.
October 20th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Born in 1981 and I never once forded a river successfully. My inferiority in video games continued throughout life.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
I vote for “Generation Morons” – or maybe “Last Generation”.
Born in 1949. never heard of “Oregon Trail”, never played it and don’t give a shit. Not to mention that I dislike almost all Western movies except for a small handful like Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name” works.
Back in 1978, I played one of the first video games on a Processor Tech microcomputer in one of the first three retail computer stores in the country. I wasted two hours on this stupid “shoot the airplane” down with ASCII graphics. I swore then never to play any more computer games.
I held to that until I owned an Atari 520ST in 1987, whereupon I played an updated version of shooting down meteors and also a game based on William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” story.
Then I swore off games again.
I held to that until “Hit Man: Agent 47″ came out. I wasted many days playing that game until it frustrated me when I couldn’t figure out how to blow up the Colombian drug lab. So I pitched the game and swore off games again.
Recently I upgraded my older machine to 1GB of RAM and a 256MB video card, so I have played a couple demos of a couple first person shooters on Linux. Maybe when I get my new machine shortly, I’ll finally have the oomph to play some full up first person shooters.
My only interest in video games is the ones where you run around acting either as a terrorist or a counter-terrorist or an assassin. I recently noticed a couple jihadist games on the Net where you get to run around US military bases shooting US soldiers. That’s MY kind of game!
This is great stuff! Watch the two videos of the “Quest for Bush” game, wherein you invade a US military post, shoot all the US troops, then find Bush in a bunker and whack him! Hilarious! Especially where the author manages to take out two guys with one boot kick!
Osama bin Fragged: a review of terrorist propaganda games
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/games/terrorist-propaganda-games-roundup.ars
As long as all I’m doing is running around shooting people and not having to figure out how to beat some devilish game designer, I might not waste that many hours on this stuff.
October 20th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Born in ‘74, played the original Oregon Trail sometime around 1985 (elementary school gifted program). We also used to play a game called Logo.
My best friend classifies the break between Gen X and the following Gen Y as occurring at the end of the first running of the original Star Wars (1977).
October 20th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
1968 games console
You gave a box of punched cards to the operator in the mini-skirt and came back the next day for the line-printer output.
Soixante-huitard
October 20th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Born in 69 and remember playing a game that sounds a lot like Oregon Trail back in 3rd grade (that would be, what, 1978?). Back then we typed to shoot. And I died every single time.
Except I remember playing it on a commodore PET computer. Is that possible?
Oh, and like the other generation Xers who played the game, I grew up in Minnesota. Minnesota is a great place to be from, I always say (written from NYC).
October 20th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Born in ‘68, and never even _heard_ of Oregon Trail before. What the hell is it?
October 20th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Hoo-ah! 8,043 points–any game that breaks 8,000 is one to be proud of. Farmer, leaving in March, with 50 lbs food and a whole lot of bullets. Arrived in November with 5 people in good health and 1970 pounds of the vanishing wildlife of North America: deer, bison, bear, you name it. Lost one ox en route, but that was OK as I was able to trade for a replacement (an ox for 130 lbs of food? no problem–I haven’t killed _nearly_ enough game animals). More annoying was the record four wagon breakdowns, and I wasn’t able to repair the broken part a single time–so I had to do more trading for a wagon tongue, just to make sure I had a spare.
Oh, man, does that take me back. What’s that, Honey? Yeah, I’m working on our estimated taxes, like you asked.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Looks like the disk images at
http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html
persist, at least for a little while. Who’s going to knock me out of first place on the scoreboard?
October 20th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
My best friend classifies the break between Gen X and the following Gen Y as occurring at the end of the first running of the original Star Wars (1977).
Nah. Gen X means you have a memory of seeing any of the original trilogy in the theaters. Gen Y means you knew them only on video.
I barely qualify as Gen X (born in 78). I have a clear memory of seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater. Princess Leia in the metal bikini gave me a funny feeling I couldn’t quite identify yet. But I was so immature that I actually liked the Ewoks. Ugh.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Born in ‘87, and I definitely played this circa 3rd grade. I also upgraded to OT II when we got our cousin’s old PC, complete with Windows 3.11
October 20th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Man, my k-6 sucked! I played like twice through my entire duration in school. At my elem. the only ones that got to play with computers and therefor play Oregon Trail, were the Sped Ed students. I think I need to take up a civil suit against the district for cheating me out of my generations signature game.
October 20th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Born in ‘88. Very end of the Reagan babies. We played OT in elementary school along with Sim Ant and some other gems.
You have my vote for Generation Trail.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Great Great and Great Grand Parents (mom’s side) played the game in real time (1850). They took a bit longer to get to Oregon.
October 20th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
@9, @47: Yes! I remember playing it on the old Apple ][s at school. We’d buy as many boxes of ammo as we could, make a beeline for the great plains, and try to set the Meat Record. And yeah, maybe Marcie would die of dysentery along the way but… meh. More meat for the rest of us!
October 21st, 2008 at 2:26 am
another ‘73 that remembers it as 47. Craig & 136. sean do.
October 21st, 2008 at 2:57 am
I see the gen Xers here really live up to their reputation of being whiny and insecure.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:28 am
born in 1972 and I played the hell out of Oregon Trail…
October 21st, 2008 at 8:33 am
Born in 1971. Played Oregon Trail on TRS-80, in elementary school talented and gifted class. We also played some kind of medieval castle building game, the name of which I cannot remember. Of course, the graphics rocked.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:39 am
Born in ‘79 and played it starting 3rd grade, at least as I can remember. As for Gen Trail, may I assert that you had to have played it in elementary school? Playing in elementary and middle school are different. By 7th grade, we’d moved on to some boating game, I think where you follow whales or something. Didn’t grab my attention as much.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:59 am
if the one pictured is matthew then i must say he is a hottie
October 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am
Born in ‘73. I was too busy playing Ultima to bother with Oregon Trail.
also I went to a Waldorf School so the closest thing we had to computers on campus were solar powered calculators.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:26 am
I have to say, I find the whole American obsession with Generations™ and age and demographic slicing and dicing and which sub-category should listen to this or not watch that or not be aware of X, Y and Z and kids and grups and the youth vs the olds, very bizarre. It seems like in America, a 24 year old liberal and 24 year old conservative feel more affinity for each other than a 24 yo liberal will feel for a 35yo liberal. Its like age and childhood experience takes primacy over political/cultural/social beliefs. Maybe its the draconian drinking laws which force everyone into balkanized social experiences when they’re young, and these extend into later years, but you just dont find these kind of fundamentalist attitudes in Europe.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:44 am
everyone of a certain age was forced, at one time or another, to play Oregon Trail in school.
Forced!? Man, that was the prize if you did well on the weekly spelling test.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:58 am
born in ‘83 and have beaten OT and learned early that being a banker made life a lot easier than being a farmer. I also hunted with arrow keys–not a mouse.
Someone should take all the information in this thread and plot it. It would make a great follow up post.
And as much as I like this idea, I like generation Zelda better.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:48 am
Born in 1971. Haven’t had a chance to read through every comment, but a few have alluded to playing Oregon Trail in Minnesota before the official ‘85 release. That goes for me too; I played an Apple II version probably circa ‘81-’82. From what I can discern, it was WAY cruder than the one most of the people here played. For example, there was no way to angle the shotgun when “hunting” — you just had to hit the spacebar at just the right time, and the little pixels of buckshot would drift slowly up toward the deer.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Chilly, I really wish I could find a binary image of that earlier version of Oregon Trail. It’s the first one I played, as well, and it would run on my Apple II emulator.
The ancient teletype-and-modem version(s) would also be fascinating, but it might take a major engineering effort to get such a thing running again.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Born in ‘68, and played in ‘79-’80, in MN, on some computer that took up an entire supply closet (or that’s how it plays in my memory). And I think Oregon Trail was the only thing it did. I was unimpressed with computers for LONG time after that…
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
dr, thanks for the link. I will now waste hours at work on these games.
Born in ‘79 and Oregon Trail on the IIe was HUGE in my elementary school.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Nope. We never played it at my school, and I was born in 1982. We had Carmen Sandiego instead.
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