The Oregon Trail now available as a dedicated handheld

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eneuman96
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The Oregon Trail now available as a dedicated handheld

Postby eneuman96 » March 8th, 2018, 4:02 pm

https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/6/170866 ... ailability

(Please excuse the fact that this is from Polygon)

I've never actually played this legendarily famous edutainment game before (though I've played quite a bit of a fanmade remake involving zombies called The Organ Trail), but I decided to pick one of these up on Target's website anyway because it looks rather cool and seems to have a bit more thought put into it than the other miniaturized versions of classic games that have been popping up recently.

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Retro STrife
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Re: The Oregon Trail now available as a dedicated handheld

Postby Retro STrife » March 8th, 2018, 4:11 pm

Woah.. very cool! Looks well worth it. I played this a lot in computer class growing up, as the Apple IIe was still in my schools until around the mid-90s. A couple years ago, I decided I needed to relive the experience -- first, I tracked down an Apple IIe on Craigslist, and drove two hours for it. Then I spent forever trying to find this game on ebay- but it never appeared. Finally, I found someone on Atari Age who still knew how to burn Apple II games to a floppy disk, and (rather than me trying to learn) I bartered with him to make a copy for me. Worth it in the end, but it took forever and was a giant pain. Morale of the story: Skip all that hassle and just buy this awesome little handheld!

By the way, this game is still fun to play- not just a nostalgia trip. My wife never played Oregon Trail before, and she played it more than I did once I got it. She's a fan now.

Now we just need Number Munchers and Carmen Sandiego on handhelds...

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pacman000
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Re: The Oregon Trail now available as a dedicated handheld

Postby pacman000 » March 8th, 2018, 5:14 pm

Fun Fact: Oregon Trail was based on a post-nuclear disaster survival game, Atom-20: http://www.platypuscomix.net/applepalooza/atom.html

...Or not. There was an earlier version of Oregon Trail made on a minicomputer in 1971: http://www.virtualapple.org/docs/Atom20.pdf

Atom-20 might've inspired some details of the Apple Version tho. Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9419335

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scotland
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Re: The Oregon Trail now available as a dedicated handheld

Postby scotland » March 9th, 2018, 3:04 pm

eneuman96 wrote: I've never actually played this legendarily famous edutainment game before (though I've played quite a bit of a fanmade remake involving zombies called The Organ Trail), but I decided to pick one of these up on Target's website anyway because it looks rather cool and seems to have a bit more thought put into it than the other miniaturized versions of classic games that have been popping up recently.


Thanks for posting this. I went to Target and put in an order as well. The game came into widespread use after my days on the Apple II, so I too missed this famous edutainment game. I can't wait to also die of dysentery. Besides, our family has been discussing doing a pioneer trip / Mt Rushmore / Oregon Trail kind of summer vacation. What better way to video game and say "but its research!"

GTS
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Re: The Oregon Trail now available as a dedicated handheld

Postby GTS » March 9th, 2018, 4:56 pm

Here's a great unboxing and walkthrough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHQK9qeKavM

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scotland
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Re: The Oregon Trail now available as a dedicated handheld

Postby scotland » March 14th, 2018, 3:35 pm

https://hackaday.com/2018/03/14/teardown-the-oregon-trail-handheld/

Here is a tear down. Seems to be an NES on a Chip.

I got mine in the mail. The packaging is rather nice as well.


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