The Oregon Trail is a text-based strategy video game developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) beginning in 1975. It was developed as a computer game to teach school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. In the game, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon via a covered wagon in 1847. Along the way the player must purchase supplies, hunt for food, and make choices on how to proceed along the trail while encountering random events such as storms and wagon breakdowns. The original versions of the game contain no graphics, as they were developed for computers that used teleprinters instead of computer monitors. A later Apple II port added a graphical shooting minigame.
The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, most commonly known as MECC, was an organization founded in 1973 best known for developing the edutainment video game series The Oregon Trail and its spinoffs. The goal of the organization was to coordinate and provide computer services to schools in the state of Minnesota; however, its software eventually became popular in schools around the world. MECC had its headquarters in the Brookdale Corporate Center in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. It was acquired by SoftKey in 1995 and was shut down in 1999.
Word Munchers is a 1985 video game and the first of the Munchers educational series. It was made by MECC for Apple II, then ported to DOS and Macintosh in 1991. It was re-released in 1996 for Windows and Macintosh as "Word Munchers Deluxe". The concept of the game was designed by Philip R. Bouchard, who also designed The Oregon Trail.
Africa Trail is an educational computer game developed by MECC and published by The Learning Company. The gameplay resembles that of MECC's other "Trail" games, in which players must prepare for a long journey, choose their traveling companions, and make it safely to their destination. In Africa Trail, players must travel across Africa via bicycle. The game includes a Multimedia Resource Tool to allow players to make their own journal and presentation of the journey.
SoftKey International was a software company founded by Kevin O'Leary in 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. It was known as The Learning Company from 1995 to 1999 after acquiring The Learning Company and taking its name.
Oregon Trail II is an educational video game released by MECC in 1995. It was published by SoftKey Multimedia. It is a revised version of the original The Oregon Trail video game. It was redesigned with the help of American Studies PhD Wayne Studer. In contrast to the original version of the game, Oregon Trail II made an effort to include greater roles for women and racial minorities.
Freedom! is a 1993 educational computer game developed and published by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). Based on similar gameplay from MECC's earlier The Oregon Trail, the player assumes the role of a runaway slave in the antebellum period of American history who is trying to reach the North through the Underground Railroad. The game was developed with help of an African-American consultant who guided MECC on appropriate graphics and dialect that represented the era. It is recognized as one of the first video games dealing with the topic of slavery.
The American Girls Premiere is an educational computer game developed and published by The Learning Company for American Girl. The game allows players to create theatrical productions featuring characters from American Girl's Historical collection, along with scenes and other elements unique to each of the girls' respective time periods.
Disney's Animated Storybook is a point-and-click adventure interactive storybook video game series based on Walt Disney feature animations and Pixar films that were released throughout the 1990s. They were published by Disney Interactive for personal computers for children ages four to eight years old. Starting from 1994, most of the entries in the series were developed by Media Station. They have the same plots as their respective films, though abridged due to the limited medium.
Amazon Trail 3rd Edition: Rainforest Adventures is a 1998 game based on the video game The Oregon Trail. It is not a true sequel to the franchise, but is rather largely the same game as Amazon Trail II, only with updated graphics, interfaces, and major bug fixes that caused problems in the second game. The game was published by The Learning Company.
The Oregon Trail 3rd Edition is the second sequel to the 1985 edutainment video game The Oregon Trail after Oregon Trail II. It was developed by MECC and released in 1997.
The Oregon Trail 4th Edition is a 1999 video game, and the third sequel to The Oregon Trail. Players learn teamwork, supply management, critical-thinking, and decision-making.
Jenny's Journeys is a first-person, single-player, educational video game created in 1984 by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). It was released for the computer Apple II. In the game, players utilize a compass and a map to navigate a car containing the protagonist, Jenny, through a pixelated town. The player, acting as Jenny, provides directions at each intersection while the car's owner, 'Aunt Jenny', rides along. The objective of the game is to successfully travel from point to point while utilizing the map. There are three levels of difficulty.
Reader Rabbit Toddler is a 1997 educational video game developed by KnowWare and published by The Learning Company. It is part of the Reader Rabbit series.
Reader Rabbit Kindergarten is a video game within the edutainment series Reader Rabbit, published by The Learning Company in July 1997.
Opening Night is a 1995 education/simulation video game by MECC, and developed in cooperation with The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. It is aimed at children aged 10 and up.
Writer Rabbit is a 1986 video game in the educational video game, part of the Reader Rabbit franchise. It was remade as Reader Rabbit 3 for DOS in 1993, which was then re-released for Windows and Macintosh in 1994 under the title "Reader Rabbit 3 Deluxe!".
The Oregon Trail is a series of educational computer games. The first game was originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974. The original game was designed to teach 8th grade schoolchildren about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon in 1848.
MayaQuest: The Mystery Trail is an educational computer game created by MECC and inspired by the actual MayaQuest Expedition. It is a spin-off title of The Oregon Trail series, featuring cities of the Classical Mayan civilization. While travelling across the lands by bicycle, the player learns all about the ancient culture and history of the indigenous people. The game also contains some Spanish language for additional learning.
The Oregon Trail is an educational strategy video game developed and published by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC). It was first released in 1985 for the Apple II, with later ports to DOS in 1990, Mac OS in 1991, and Microsoft Windows in 1993. It was created as a re-imagining of the popular text-based game of the same name, originally created in 1971 and published by MECC in 1975. In the game, the player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon on the Oregon Trail in 1848. Along the trail, the player makes choices about supplies, resource management, and the route, and deals with hunting for food, crossing rivers, and random events such as storms and disease.
