Manifest Destiny
Two words can be used to accurately describe some of my earliest memories of PC usage: Oregon Trail. The concept was simple, name your people, buy your supplies, and try to get to Oregon without: starving, drowning, coming down with dysentery or typhoid, any any other assortment of maladies.
It is a game that anyone who my age knows and remembers fondly. When Michelle and I went to Montana last summer I chose a driving route that intentionally passed Chimney Rock. Why did I want to go past Chimney Rock? Besides being a significant symbol of the West, it was in Oregon Trail, therefore it must be worthy of a stop. It was too bad we got there when we did because it was at the end of the day and the little museum there was closing. But we took pictures.
I have always been fascinated by the West. I love Dances With Wolves, books and TV shows and anything I find about it. There was a sense of freedom and exploration that is really unique to American history. There were also compelling stories of all kind, from Lewis and Clark to the mountain men to the wagon trains to the iron trains to the plight of the Native Americans to Custer and on and on. It holds a grip on me to this day.
Oregon Trail is probably the single experience that started it all. It started my fascination with the West and my fascination with computers. Both things I am hooked on to this day, though in very different capacities. So imagine my surprise when I received in my inbox the other day from a friend an Apple IIe emulator with the ROM files for Oregon Trail. I tried it once, and in honor of the Donner Party my last surviving person died of starvation while struggling to cross the mountains in winter. I will try again, because one should always want to pursue their personal manifest destiny.
It is a game that anyone who my age knows and remembers fondly. When Michelle and I went to Montana last summer I chose a driving route that intentionally passed Chimney Rock. Why did I want to go past Chimney Rock? Besides being a significant symbol of the West, it was in Oregon Trail, therefore it must be worthy of a stop. It was too bad we got there when we did because it was at the end of the day and the little museum there was closing. But we took pictures.
I have always been fascinated by the West. I love Dances With Wolves, books and TV shows and anything I find about it. There was a sense of freedom and exploration that is really unique to American history. There were also compelling stories of all kind, from Lewis and Clark to the mountain men to the wagon trains to the iron trains to the plight of the Native Americans to Custer and on and on. It holds a grip on me to this day.
Oregon Trail is probably the single experience that started it all. It started my fascination with the West and my fascination with computers. Both things I am hooked on to this day, though in very different capacities. So imagine my surprise when I received in my inbox the other day from a friend an Apple IIe emulator with the ROM files for Oregon Trail. I tried it once, and in honor of the Donner Party my last surviving person died of starvation while struggling to cross the mountains in winter. I will try again, because one should always want to pursue their personal manifest destiny.
posted by Chris at 6:18 AM
3 Comments:
Oregon Trail is the bomb. That game rocks.
Yeah, I played over lunch the other day, I bought so much food that I didn't need to hunt until I got in the high country. By then I only had <60 bullets so I had to conserve my shots for dear and bear. That 100 lb limit really chaps my ass.
Sometimes I liked trying to see how fast I could kill off all my people. My personal record is the last person dying in the first river crossing.
Post a Comment
<< Home