Oregon Trail II, The
© 1994 MECC (The Learning Company)
ARCHIVED REVIEW. It is early spring, 1848. You're seated with your family or friends in a large farm wagon. You have your life's savings of $2000 and are eager to begin the trek to the unknown West. Before you leave, you need to find important supplies by trading. This is accomplished by moving your cursor to a storefront and clicking to go in. You see the shopkeeper, who deducts money from your account for each item you buy (e.g. a rifle is $21.98, and a horse is over $80.00). The trading is fun, interesting and easy. In fact, a set of adult testers spent two hours shopping. (Of course their wagon was too heavy to move!) Once outfitted, you join a wagon train to begin the trek, marked by an onscreen calendar. A moving line on a map shows your progress. You also get reports on daily mileage, weather and your group's health and morale, all of which is saved in a journal. Look out, though. A rattlesnake may bite your father-in-law, or your cousin may get dysentery. If you don't stop to rest, he or she may die and be added to the many graves along the trail side. You may have to trade for parts with other travelers to fix the wagon if it breaks. You also get to learn real facts, such as "Don't eat plants with reddish leaves." Some aspects of the program design could be smoother. The procedure for closing windows is sometimes awkward, and some testers wanted more coaching at first. However, once they caught on, the problem was getting them to stop playing! See Oregon Trail 3rd Edition.
$57.5, Windows CD-ROM, Mac CD-ROM (dual platform CD)
Teaches: US history of the 1800's; westward expansion