The Oregon Trail (Pressman Toys series)

Last updated

The Oregon Trail is a series of card games and a board game based on the video game of the same name, produced by Pressman Toy Corporation.

Contents

The Oregon Trail Card Game

The Oregon Trail Card Game
Players2–6
Setup time5 minutes
Playing time30 minutes
Age range12+

The first card game was released on August 1, 2016. [1] The game is exclusively distributed through Target, [2] although copies are also available via Amazon.com. [3] The game components are in the style of 8-bit video games to emulate the look and feel of the original releases. [4]

Gameplay

The object of The Oregon Trail card game is to follow the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley, Oregon, with a party of two to six players. [2] Players write their names, or "frontier name" aliases, on a roster. On the back of the roster are tombstones, which can be customized when players die, as in the original video game. [5] Players play trail cards to progress, with the players needing to play 50 cards to win. Each trail card ends on the left, right, or middle of the card, and a subsequent trail card must be placed to smoothly connect to the previous one. Of the 56 trail cards, 46 have consequences associated with them, such as rolling a die to cross a river, which can result in the player losing a supply card or dying. [5] Other trail cards require the player to draw a calamity card, which represent accidents such as snakebites, dead oxen, typhoid, or dysentery. There are sixteen unique calamity cards, with one in eight resulting in instant death. [5] Calamity cards that do not result in instant death can be remedied by supply cards, of which there are seven different types, including clean water, ammunition, and medicine. Other trail cards represent forts or towns, allowing the player to resupply. All players win if one or more players are still alive after the 50th card is played. A successful game should take around 30 minutes to play. [5]

Reception

Writing for Ars Technica , Megan Geuss complained that some cards have ambiguous instructions or are hard to understand, but praised the cooperative aspect as "refreshing" and stated that players in her group "weren't bored by the end". She concluded that winning the game is "really hard" and that her group never did. [6]

The Oregon Trail: Hunt For Food Card Game

The Oregon Trail: Hunt For Food Card Game
Players2–6
Age range12+

This card game is based on the hunting trip portion of the video game, except the players' goal is to collect 600 pounds of meat.

The Oregon Trail: Journey to Willamette Valley

The Oregon Trail: Journey to Willamette Valley
The Oregon Trail Game: Journey to Willamette Valley (box title)
Players2–4
Age range13+

The Oregon Trail: Journey to Willamette Valley is a board game for 2–4 players, where players start the trip from Independence, Missouri in 1844 to Willamette Valley. Each player has 4 family members as in the first The Oregon Trail video game, but has the ability to upgrade their wagon.

Related Research Articles

The Oregon Trail was a historic migration route across the western United States.

<i>Arkham Horror</i> American adventure board game, first published 1987

Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure board game designed by Richard Launius, originally published in 1987 by Chaosium. The game is based on Chaosium's roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, which is set in the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft and other horror writers. The game's second edition was released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2005, with a third edition in 2018.

<i>7 Wonders</i> (board game) 2011 board game

7 Wonders is a board game created by Antoine Bauza in 2010 and originally published by Repos Production. Three decks of cards featuring images of historical civilizations, armed conflicts, and commercial activity are used in the card drafting game 7 Wonders. The game received critical success upon its release, and won numerous awards, including the inaugural Kennerspiel des Jahres connoisseurs' award in 2011.

<i>Lords of Waterdeep</i> Board game

Lords of Waterdeep is a German-style board game designed by Peter Lee and Rodney Thompson and published by Wizards of the Coast in 2012. The game is set in Waterdeep, a fictional city in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Players take the roles of the masked rulers of Waterdeep, deploying agents and hiring adventurers to complete quests and increase their influence over the city.

<i>Switch 16</i> Childrens board game

Switch 16 is a children's board game published by Tomy in 2001.

<i>Codenames</i> (board game) 2015 spy-themed board game

Codenames is a 2015 party card game designed by Vlaada Chvátil and published by Czech Games Edition. Two teams compete by each having a "spymaster" give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. The other players on the team attempt to guess their team's words while avoiding the words of the other team. Codenames received positive reviews and won the 2016 Spiel des Jahres award for the best board game of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blood Rage (board game)</span> 2015 strategic board game

Blood Rage is a Viking themed board game designed by Eric Lang and published by CMON Limited in 2015. Each player controls a clan of mythological Vikings seeking glory as Ragnarok approaches. Played in three ages or rounds, Blood Rage features card drafting, battles and territory control via forces represented by sculpted plastic miniatures. All conflicts are resolved through playing cards, and cards are also used to improve and differentiate the different clans and the leaders, warriors, ships and monsters at their command.

<i>The Oregon Trail</i> (series) Series of educational computer games

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.

<i>Terraforming Mars</i> (board game) 2016 strategy board game

Terraforming Mars is a board game for 1 to 5 players designed by Jacob Fryxelius and published by FryxGames in 2016, and thereafter by 12 others, including Stronghold Games. In Terraforming Mars, players take the role of corporations working together to terraform the planet Mars by raising the temperature, adding oxygen to the atmosphere, covering the planet's surface with water and creating plant and animal life. The game incorporates elements of resource management, engine building, and strategic planning. Players compete to earn the most victory points, which are measured by their contribution to terraforming and to human infrastructure. These goals are achieved by collecting income and resources which allow them to play various projects, represented by cards that increase their income or resources, build infrastructure, or directly contribute to terraforming the planet. The game was received positively by fans and critics, and received numerous awards.

<i>The Oregon Trail</i> (1985 video game) 1985 video game

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.

Karuba is a tile-laying race game for 2–4 players, designed by Rudiger Dorn and published by HABA in 2015. Each player has 4 explorers, which move through the jungle on the player's private board in order to discover treasure and reach hidden temples. The game was nominated for the 2016 Spiel Des Jahres award.

A digital tabletop game is a video game genre that includes video games that have gameplay similar to physical tabletop games, including board games, card games, and role-playing games. Many digital tabletop games are adaptions of existing physical games into the video games, though some of these are wholly digital games that use tabletop game mechanics. There are also tabletop game simulators that allow for users to recreate tabletop games from a variety of game pieces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolution (board game)</span> 2014 board game

Evolution is a 2014 board game where 2-6 players build a highly competitive ecosystem of omnivores, carnivores and scavengers. Players adapt their existing species and evolve new ones in response both to the abundance or scarcity of food, but also the behaviour of other species in the ecosystem. The scoring system rewards players whose species have high populations, consume the most food and are the most diverse. It was designed by Dominic Crapuchettes of North Star Games, working with Dmitry Knorre and Sergei Machin, who had previously released a similar game in Russia.

<i>Sagrada</i> (board game) Dice-drafting board game

Sagrada is a dice-drafting board game designed by Adrian Adamescu and Daryl Andrews and published in 2017 by Floodgate Games. Each player constructs a stained-glass window using dice on a personal 4×5 game board board with restrictions on the types of dice that can be played on each space. Players gain points by completing public and secret objectives for dice placements, and the one with the most after ten rounds is the winner.

Parks is a board game with a theme based on the national parks of the United States, published by Keymaster Games. The game's art was derived from the Fifty-Nine Parks Print Series.

<i>Broom Service</i> (board game) Role selection board game

Broom Service is a role selection board game designed by Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister, and published by Ravensburger. It won the 2015 Kennerspiel, the Spiel des Jahres connoisseurs game of the year award.

<i>Great Western Trail</i> (board game) Wild West-themed board game

Great Western Trail is a board game designed by Alexander Pfister for two to four players, which was published in 2017 by Eggertspiele. It is a complex and strategic 'Eurogame', loosely themed on the American frontier and the original Great Western Cattle Trail, in which players engage in the transportation of cattle. A second edition was published in 2021, for one to four players.

<i>Cartographers</i> (board game) Roll and write board game

Cartographers is a roll and write board game designed by Jordy Adan and published in 2019 by Thunderworks Games. It is part of the Roll Player universe. In the game, players aim to draw terrains based on drawn cards that award points based on the relevant letter cards. The game received positive reviews, and was nominated for the Kennerspiel des Jahres, but lost to The Crew. It was also runner-up to Parks for the Best Family Game of the 2019 Board Game Quests Awards. An app for solitary play was released in 2020.

Viticulture is a worker placement board game published by Stonemaier Games in 2013. The game's design was crowdfunded via a campaign on Kickstarter, with the concept of players building an Italian vineyard. Upon its release, Viticulture received praise for its engagement, but its luck was critiqued. Several expansions and reprints were later released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imhotep (board game)</span> Strategy board game

Imhotep is a board game designed by Phil Walker-Harding and published in 2016 by Thames & Kosmos.

References

  1. Krol, Jacob (July 29, 2016). "The Oregon Trail is back, but this time it's a card game". CNET . Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Robinson, Will (August 2, 2016). "An Oregon Trail card game is here". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  3. Erickson, Christine (July 31, 2016). "You can buy the Oregon Trail card game online". The Daily Dot . Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  4. Zumbach, Lauren (August 1, 2016). "Target selling 'Oregon Trail' card game". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Campuzano, Eder (August 4, 2016). "6 things to know about 'The Oregon Trail Card Game'". The Oregonian . Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  6. Geuss, Megan (September 5, 2016). "Oregon Trail Card Game: Simple, repetitive, and you'll die of dysentery. A lot". Ars Technica . Retrieved August 13, 2022.