As part of a research project on computer games produced prior to 1973 (the date of 101 BASIC Computer Games), I have been conducting research on The Oregon Trail, which originated at Carleton College in Minnesota in 1971 by Don Rawitsch, Paul Dillenberger, and Bill Heineman. The game was played in one of Rawitsch’s history classes and in programming and simulation classes taught by Dillenberger and Heineman, then put in storage until Rawitsch copied it onto the MECC computer system in 1974, with a revision in 1976 based on new research. It was alter copied and published in the July-August 1978 issue of Creative Computing. The 1978 version is thus fairly close to the 1971 original, only with more accurate data. The original version also contained more jokes to make the learning process more interesting, but the data was still fairly accurate. Rawitsch testifies to the value of a simulation for teaching:
Although students can find out about the Oregon Trail by reading books, visiting museums, watching movies, and similar activities, the simulation allows them to learn from actively participating in the simulated experiences of people from another era.
Data on the Oregon Trail was collected from books and diaries and provided accurate information regarding the cost of goods, types of supplies to buy, and the frequency of disasters (i.e. bad weather occurs 20% of the time and injuries 5% of the time in the diaries, so they occur at the same rate in the game). The code also detects where the player is on the trail and adjust random events accordingly (i.e. it snows in the mountains and river disasters occur on the plains).
Unlike the graphical version we are more familiar with, the original version was text-based. Each turn, players would type their choice (stop, hunt, or continue; eat well, moderate, or poorly) and the game would load an event subroutine to let you know what kind of disaster occurred this turn. After making a choice in the event sequence, the game tallies up the results and continues until the player either dies or reaches Oregon. Also unlike later versions of The Oregon Trail, the 1978 version does not keep statistics of whether a family member dies and you cannot name your family members or yourself. Finally, the popular hunting sequences involve typing a word such as “BANG” quickly into the computer, with accuracy based on speed.
One of the things I’ve noticed by looking at the code is that there are many disasters that can either deplete bullet stock or be overcome by using bullets. This means that success might rely on a large supply of ammunition. Rawitsch also suggests that players spend $200-$300 on oxen and at least $175 on food as a good initial supply.
Below is a text document containing the code for the program, originally called OREGON. It runs in 3.1 BASIC and was designed for a CDC Cyber 70/73-26 (of which there are apparently many still in operation, and one man is selling a rather expensive emulator of the system to this audience).
I haven’t figured out how to get the code running in a BASIC emulator (say in a presentable version such as Highnoon), but if anyone can help, please let me know! The code is approximately 700 lines long.
This code was found in David Ahl’s Creative Computing May-June 1978 issue.
December 3, 2010 at 6:19 am |
David Ahl updated the Oregon Trail Game and renamed it to Westward Ho! in his Basic Computer Adventures Book.
From David Ahl’s Basic Computer Adventures Book
“Westward Ho! is a substantial revision of the Oregon Trail program written by Dan Rawitsch and Bill Heinemann in 1972–73 on the Hewlett Packard 2000 timesharing system of the Minnesota Educational Computer Consortium. The original Oregon Trail program was subsequently converted to Microsoft BASIC and appeared in Creative Computing magazine in 1977. Play of the game is similar in this new version, but the program has been structured (to some extent), simplified, and shortened by more than 300 lines.”
You can now run the new Westward Ho! game in the Microsoft Small Basic Developement Environment for Kids. A sample of the The Westward Ho! Small Basic Source code and Westward Ho! narrative can be found at this website;
http://computerscienceforkids.com/DavidAhlsSmallBasicComputerAdventuresChapter2WestwardHo.aspx
January 31, 2011 at 5:49 am |
Ah, that’s probably where the 1973 date comes from. Oregon Trail’s introduction to the MECC library is sometimes cited as 1973, and that date probably comes from Ahl’s book. Rawitsch states in an interview with me that the game was copied to the MECC library in 1974. Note Ahl even gets the Creative Computing publication date wrong!
BTW, I updated the year of the revision from 1975 to 1976 after checking the interview again.
January 22, 2012 at 12:08 am |
[…] of Holocaust Games and “Suicide Bomber”: Training or Coping?. WordPress 7 Nov. 2010. <https://deserthat.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/oregon-trail-ver-3-basic-3-1-1978/> Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this […]
June 24, 2013 at 5:30 am |
[…] here: Devin Monnens, “Oregon Trail Ver. 3 (BASIC 3.1, 1978),” Desert Hat, November 7, 2010, https://deserthat.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/oregon-trail-ver-3-basic-3-1-1978/.)) Originally released by the Minnesota Educational Computer Consortium (MECC) for teletypes in the […]
July 7, 2016 at 2:33 pm |
Fantastic post!
Just a quick note: It seems that there are some small errors in the supplied source code – due to OCR I guess:
line 760 should be
760 INPUT D9
instead of
760 PRINT D9
line 770:
770 IF D9 > 5 THEN 790
instead of
770 IF D95 THEN 790
line 1830:
1830 IF F >= 13 THEN 1850
instead of
1830 IF F >= 13 THEN 1650
line 2890:
2890 IF RND(-1)*10>((M/100-4)**2+72)/((M/100-4)**2+12)-1 THEN 3550
instead of
2890 IF RND(-1)*10>((M/100-4)**27+72)/((M/100-4)**2+12)-1 THEN 3550
line 6200:
6200 PRINT “TYPE “; S$(S6)
instead of
6200 PRINT “TYPE “; S$(56)
line 6260:
6260 IF C$=S$(S6) THEN 6280
instead of
6260 IF C$=S$(56) THEN 6280
August 2, 2016 at 7:03 pm |
Find my conversion for iOS here:
http://lowres.inutilis.com/programs/?lccpost=V5dfVgPAr4
September 5, 2017 at 4:23 am |
Anyone know what units CLK(0) uses?
May 29, 2018 at 4:03 am |
[…] Unless you want to try to get a CDC Cyber 70/73-26 computer emulator going and entering all the code for The Oregon Trail as published back in […]
August 27, 2019 at 8:44 pm |
[…] Now let’s jump ahead to In 1977. MECC replaced its aging UNIVAC with a top-of-the-line CDC Cyber-73 system. And, sure enough, the The Oregon Trail was modified once again to run on that system. Now, importantly, this version was the version that appeared in the July-August 1978 issue of Creative Computing. You can read a little about that in the article Oregon Trail Ver. 3 (BASIC 3.1, 1978). […]
July 13, 2021 at 11:31 am |
[…] Sie möchten versuchen, eine CDC Cyber 70/73-26 Computeremulator gehen und alle eingeben Code für den Oregon Trail wie bereits 1978 […]