History of MECC and Oregon Trail

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?

[NappinLeprechaun]

http://www.virtualapple.org/oregontraildisk.html [virtualapple.org]
Enjoy :)

You can play these games online!

[antdude]

Play Oregon Trail [virtualapple.org] on Virtual Apple 2 [virtualapple.org]'s emulator. There are other games as well.

Re:The Censorship of the Oregon Trail

[Anonymous Coward]

I just read Ambrose's account of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Yes, some Native Americans stole from settlers. Of course, settlers were also guilty of abominable behavior to natives. Judging either group as a whole is simplistic to the point of being naive.

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

[Nimey]

I had probably four or five versions of Oregon Trail just on my Apple //c, and one did indeed have attacking Indians. You would encounter Injuns, and the game would say if they looked hostile or not (it was never wrong). You could keep going, circle the wagons (which had no effect), or fight. If they were hostile and you kept going, they'd raid your supplies. I don't remember what happened if they were friendly but you fought -- either they ran off or you killed innocent pixels.

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

[LWATCDR]

Guess what I am part Native American I am Iroquois from the Seneca tribe to be exact. Your view of Native Americans is idealized at best. Native American's respect for the environment has everything to do with there level of technology at the time. The Celtic people and many other European cultures worshiped nature until they reached a certain level of technology. Not only that but many people believe that the Maya civilization collapsed because it destroyed it's environment. I can also promise you that if the Aztec had ships, guns, and canon and managed to invade Europe in the time of the dark ages they would have been a far more brutal than the Europeans where.
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.