Game 412: The Oregon Trail

The 1985 edition's creepy box art - scan by Mobygames

I've played The Oregon Trail in various incarnations up until and including a 90's CD-ROM edition, and thanks to the magic of emulation I've revisited the original 1985 edition - a copy that famously includes a "peperony and chease" epitaph for a failed party's tombstone. But that was well over 15 years ago, and I haven't played since. The trip I described in my last post was actually "D" playing, with me watching / backseat driving.

One feat I never accomplished was to finish the game as a farmer, who has to keep his budget under $400 - not even enough for food. But survive and your score is tripled - and to get a good score, you've got to keep everyone alive and in good health.

And this is what I attempt to do in the video / AAR below, with no prior rehearsal runs. Just strategy formulated from prior experience and watching her play.

 

 

Four commenters accompany me:

Scribe and PVicente wait in Missouri for the next ride

My strategy will be:

• Spend the winter hunting, leave when the weather warms up
  
• Travel at the maximum speed
• Travel only when in good health
• Don't rest - hunt instead
• Pray
  

 

Supplies cost:

• $40 per oxen yoke
  
• $0.20 per pound of food
• $10 per set of clothes
• $2 per box of ammo
• $10 per spare wagon part
  

 

If we take Matt's advice, which is to take at least three oxen yoke, 1000 pounds of food, ten sets of clothes, and two of each spare wagon part, we'll spend $480, and that doesn't even cover bullets. 

I skimp on food and buy just 100 pounds, knowing I can hunt for what I need. But I add 20 boxes of bullets - 400 rounds total, which is probably overkill.

This leaves me $60 for later.

Let's take a look at the map.

Useless! Let's look at another one... now what do you suppose this "ee-gee-ay" mark could mean?

Before leaving, a fellow traveler offers some advice.

And we leave.

Of course, traveling a hundred miles on so little food during the tail end of winter is suicide, so we set up camp and go hunting all month. Food will be rationed as strictly as possible for now.

No whining - we're not even driving yet!

Hunting is a heavily chance-based minigame. Sometimes you easily bag your limit, which can be attained from two deer or one buffalo. Other times you get an impossibly cluttered hunting grounds or simply don't see any game. Squirrels, rabbits, and beavers aren't even worth the bullet - we ain't French fur traders. But it's worth remembering that animals spawn from the left and right sides of the screen, they tend to ricochet like pinballs off obstacles, and obstacles are always larger than they seem.

On March 3, I bag a buffalo.

That's the way you do it. Supper for months! Just gotta haul this thousand-pound carcass back to the wagon and we'll be eating like kings till June. A little help?

 Who me? Oh, no. I've got a belly ache.

Oh. Maybe you stand guard while I get help?

 Maybe. Can I borrow the gun?

NEVER.

April rolls around, and I've stockpiled just over 1,200 pounds of food - 80 days of all you can eat, and each successful hunt yields another 100lbs, minus the 15 we eat during it. Who needs banker money? Filling rations for everyone, from now on - it's time to roll.

DAMNIT.

April 10th rolls around, and the weather is good. It's time to roll.

 

With this climate and terrain, a grueling pace advances 40 miles in a day but also degrades our health to "fair." I can live with that - a day of hunting (and full rations) brings our health right back up to "good." Furthermore, bad stuff only happens to the wagon while traveling - not while resting. Seems better to sprint 40 miles and spend the next day hunting/resting than to walk the same distance over two days.

In three days, we reach the Kansas River.

We rest a day here to recover some health. A fellow offers pertinent advice.

Rivers are dangerous, and there are only a few ways to cross, none of them certain to work. Even ferries, which you pay money for, can capsize!

 

My personal experience is that caulking is the most reliable method. However, the river is pretty shallow, and I feel lucky enough to try fording.

This is not a horrible outcome.

Immediately on the other side,

 

Fantastic. Despite the injury, we make it to the next landmark - Big Blue River, in only two days.

Another day of rest, and more advice.

I ignore this.

This river is only two feet deep, so we ford it as well - once again, a day is lost stuck in the mud.

April 19th - We're not in Kansas any more, and it's 185 miles to Fort Kearney. The weather is alarmingly hot, and the well water tastes funny.

 

We travel 36 miles this day, but it takes over a week of rest hunting for P-Tux to recover. Rainy weather continues to slow us down a bit.

The main function of forts is to serve as places to buy stuff, but there's nothing you can't get at Independence, and the farther out west you go, the higher the prices. We have $60 of emergency money but there's nothing needed right now.

We rest for a day and get some historical background.

May 4th - Warm weather, 250 miles to Chimney Rock, 129 years until Star Wars day.

An axle breaks - thankfully it can be repaired.

The temperature rises, but we continue to Chimney Rock at a good pace of 40 miles every other day.

Standing 325 feet tall, one Lakota name for this monument means "Elk Penis."

Chimney Rock marks the Nebraska/Wyoming border and is the only interesting place in the former territory. Still is today. We rest here for a day and talk to the other wagons.

 

May 19th - Warm weather, 86 miles to Fort Laramie. The next few days are good - 40 miles every other day, good buffalo hunts, even some wild fruit. Our wagon is filled to capacity.

That's a lot of bull.

Halfway there (haha not really). Disk flip time!

To be continued. Or you could just watch the video and see how it ends.