Game 411: Oregon (Apple II)

Here we go again!

Oregon as it was called, not The Oregon Trail, was one of the first games that MECC converted to the Apple II, and consequently was one of the first games on the platform. I haven't been able to find a copy of the original version, but in 1980 it was bundled with four other games (Fur Trader, Nomad, Sumer, and Voyageur) in MECC's Elementary Volume 6, which itself had a final updated release in 1984. This is the version I am playing for this entry - differences between it and the original are unknown.

 

Being based on the original HP BASIC code, this is still much simpler than the iconic 1985 edition. The hunting minigame is redone, and there's a graphical map added, but that's about it.

Oh, and as I soon discovered when I tried to play on the highest difficulty using the same strategy as before, the difficulty is completely rebalanced.

You see, on the highest difficulty, not only is hunting much more difficult than in the original game, but it also yields practically nothing.

In the original, a moderately successful hunt got you about 40lbs of food, a bullseye got you over 50, and you eat between 13-23, depending on ration sizes. You can stuff yourself every night as long as you can type reasonably fast.

But here, things work very differently. A random number between 5 and 14 is chosen, and you get a set number of chances to shoot deer. The first one you hit is worth that many pounds, the second worth double that, and so on. Unfortunately, on the highest difficulty, you only get two chances, which means a perfect hunt (which is no guarantee) could yield as little as 15 pounds total!

With that in mind, I tried a different approach. Stock up on food. Dole starvation rations. Buy extra medicine - it's cheaper than food.

I save $25 for the doctor

And I made it to Oregon on my first try with this strategy.

 

 

225 might be enough to get me to Oregon, and it might not, so for now I hunt.

Rotten luck - double miss! Hunting is a combination of timing and luck - your bullets move slowly, and the deer can randomly speed up or slow down, making it more difficult or just ruining your shot altogether, which is what happened here.

I slink back to the wagon and nibble on some fire cake.

Oh great!

April 12th - we encounter some riders.

They look hostile. My gun looks loaded. Attack!

I am successful. Too bad we can't eat them.

Four weeks in and I'm already over 25% there. My food should last the rest of the trip... right? For now I forgo hunting.

What? How did you do that?

Halfway there. Still got 150lbs of food.

Whoops! Should have brought more clothes.

The situation isn't looking quite as optimistic now. I've got 18 weeks of food left, and I'll need to hit an average of 51 miles per week to reach Oregon before it runs out. But up in the Blackfoot mountains this is no guarantee. So I take some time to hunt some mountain deer.

Twelve lousy pounds is all I get from a perfect hunt, but it's something. I go back and eat both of them.

Again, Charlotte?

 

I don't hunt after this - barring catastrophe, I've got enough for the remaining 800 miles, and I want to get to Oregon before winter.

So of course catastrophe strikes.

And again.

And again!

AND AGAIN.

Until I finally leave Idaho...

...and catch dysentery.

Two weeks later, we arrive. Sick, hungry, cold, and nearly broke, but we're here.

Telegram office: "That will be $25."

GAB rating: Average. I thought Oregon could stand to be a little more hardscrabble, and this version was, but it's not enough. If you always eat as little as possible, you almost can't lose, unless you underprovision and are very bad at hunting. I replayed a few times on the hardest setting, and did not once fail to reach Oregon by September.