History of MECC and Oregon Trail 149
Gammu writes "For the past thirty years, many children have been raised with a heavy diet of MECC games like Oregon Trail, Odell Lake and Lemonade Stand. These products weren't developed by a major game developer. Rather, they were developed by the state of Minnesota for use in their schools. What began as an initiative to get Minnesota students ready for the micro-computer age turned into a multi-million dollar a year business whose products are still used in US schools even a decade after MECC was sold off to another developer."
Re:Link? (Score:2, Informative)
Enjoy
You can play these games online! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:The Censorship of the Oregon Trail (Score:2, Informative)
If "real history" came into such edu-sims, they wouldn't be rated E for everyone, and the tribes would've been quite different. Some friendly traders who even offered up their wives for the settlers, believing that this captured their power. Some wanted to use the white politically to settle scores within their tribe, or attack a competing tribe. Some tribes were aggressive killers to be avoided at all costs. And some settlers would be bringing slaves along to do some of the heavy lifting.
Thievery was common all over the place. A rifle or a horse could be the difference between living well and barely living.
Re:The Censorship of the Oregon Trail (Score:3, Informative)
I can't remember if that was the version on the 4-game disk[1] or the Microzine version; probably the former.
[1] All Western-themed, IIRC. OT, a text-based "defend the Alamo" game, some top-view Indian-fighting game, and I don't remember the other.
Re:The Censorship of the Oregon Trail (Score:2, Informative)
Native American's had the every same vices that the European's did. Slavery, torture, and murdering woman and children. It was a brutal time. Yes the trail of tears was inexcusable. Jackson ignored the Supreme Court and evicted the Cherokee from their land illegaly. I for one am sick of this "cleansing guilt" of the white man. Guess what you didn't kill any Native American's or take their land. And guess what else the Cleavland Indians and Washington Redskins don't bother me. While I am proud of Native American heritage I equally proud of my Irish and German heritage. My Irish ancestors where driven off their land by the English and their priests hunted down and killed. My German great grand father had his drug store looted because he was born in Germany but was living in the US in 1917. But I am also proud that his grandson, my Uncle Charley fought in WWII and helped liberate a Nazi death camp. He was also the one that taught me about being an Indian as he called himself. So get a grip, yes some tribes where friendly but some where every bit as brutal and blood thirsty as any settler. I am glad that my people's culture changed. I am glad they slavery and torture isn't part of my culture any longer. Maybe if my people had followed the way of "The Great Peacemaker" our history would have been different. The real truth is that if you lived back then you would have thought of me as a dirty half-breed and not your equal. We all would like to feel that we are better than those that came before us. We are but only because of their mistakes. We would be just as likely to make the same mistakes if we had lived back then.