Nostalgic Gaming, a.k.a. Zach Morris died of Cholera

So my last post was six months ago! Whoops. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize my life hasn’t been bloggable during that time. There have been plenty of things go down, but some events are better left unwritten.

But I’ve decided to break my dry spell with this awesomeness. I was reading my favorite blog, Gizmodo, yesterday, when I stumbled across this: Oregon Trail iPhone Game Hands On.

For the young-ins reading this blog (or those who did not grow up playing on Apple II’s during computer class at the school library): The Oregon Trail was an educational game developed back in 1971 by student teachers using a mainframe computer. Honestly, the fact that student teachers even knew how to use a mainframe computer is somewhat impressive – they’re hard to use now! Anywho, the game became so popular that it was sold on floppy disk in 1985 with another updated release in 1991 and again in 2001 (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

The premise of the game was to take you and the family (which you had the opportunity to name) along the Oregon Trail with limited supplies, money and food – which you then collected along the way to get to the final destination. Of course, random people would die off of various diseases or unfortunate accidents, and most likely if you ever played the game, you got to write on your own tombstone final words of wisdom that could be read by others. (Which most immature people would take that as an opportunity to show-off their newly learned vulgar vocabulary from an older sibling. Clearly, I went to a public school.)

It turns out that I shared a common theme with my husband (who went to the elementary school a few blocks down from mine) – we would name our Oregon Trail posse after Saved by the Bell characters. We would also kill too much buffalo – because let’s face it – we enjoyed shooting. Ironically, as much as the settlers did, since they almost wiped them out back in the mid-1800s. And history repeats itself in a school library. Fascinating.

And after reading the review of the Oregon Trail app for my iPhone, I knew it must be mine. My only hesitation was this – it was freakin’ $6. Up to this point, I had never paid for a single app on my iPhone. Maze Finger, Word Warp, Trace, iGolf, iBowl, Air Hockey, Whoppie Cushion (I will never forget eighth grade algebra and putting the whoppie cushion on the teacher’s seat, and it not working… LOL) – and my awesome metronome and tuner app for when I play violin – I grabbed them all for free.

But after discussing the potential purchase with my husband (which was most likely similar to talking with two seven-year-olds – we had reverted back 20 years), I bought it. And I couldn’t be more delighted. Both of us spent the next hour and a half choosing names for the family (Papa, Nana, Justin, Jenni and Walter) – which accidently got deleted when Ashley called to tell me about how awesome the LOST Season 4 finale was (I’m very excited she has blown through the whole series in the matter of a month, BTW) – we ended up sticking with the default names and went on our merry way.

I’ll say this – the hunting, picking fruit, floating the river – is way better than the Apple II version, yet stays true to the original game. While Indians are not narrowly picking off my family (which was apparently PC back in the 80s… but not in the 00’s), one of the children did get carried off by a bald eagle and was found two days later in a tree.

I’m still on the trail – and I’m doing this in easy mode until I get the hang of it – but all in all, I’d say this game is worth every penny – just because I can sit there and play it with my husband while we talk about the old version and reminisce about the olden days. We sound like we’re already 75 apparently ;)

So if you went to elementary school in MISD – or remember playing this game at school back in the day, grab the game on the iPhone. Better yet, if you are a true dork, download the original version for the Apple II here for free: http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=gmfiles.detail&id=128. Reading the comments even reminded me that it was a two-disk floppy game! Ah, the memories!

And if you were one of the punks that would leave the vulgar tombstones – now you’re free to do that in the comfort of your own living room without fear of a goodie two-shoes (i.e. ME) ratting you out to the school librarian.

“RIP Zack Morris. You were so hot and I wanted to marry you, even though I’m only 11.”