by The Learning Company
Platform:
Windows 98 / Me / 95, Mac
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A decidedly low-tech era in U.S. history goes electronic in Oregon Trail 5th Edition, a game for children ages nine and older that pits players against all the hazards a wagon-train voyage can dish out. Following Captain Jed Freedman and a trio of young pioneers out West, this program teaches history, map reading, geography, and a variety of other skills. Players must keep their wits sharp if they want to keep their party healthy and well-fed all the way across the country.
Oregon Trail 5th Edition offers a good all-around workout in reading skills and problem solving. Using limited funds, players must equip their wagons, balancing the need to survive on the trail with the necessity for moving quickly. Shortages will inevitably crop up along the way, and members of the wagon train can die of thirst, fever, snakebite, or many other perils... if you don't have the right equipment on hand to deal with the emergency. Even a well-equipped party can come to grief, though. Swamped wagons can lose critical supplies, and though there are people sprinkled along the trip who might provide help or trade goods, happening on the right trade is by no means assured.
Except for being a bit slow-paced, Oregon Trail 5th Edition has few flaws. The people aboard the wagon trains come from a variety of cultures. Though the game glosses over the ugliest aspects of this historical period, it does not skirt them entirely. Players who over-hunt the resources of a particular native tribe are likely to hear about it. The game has a variety of features that flesh out the travel experience, like a trip diary and animated campfire tales--one of them about the Donner party--that effectively break up the pace of play.
For children interested in a multifaceted educational challenge, Oregon Trail makes a good choice, capturing the difficulties and dangers of the long voyages that settlers made so long ago. (Ages 9 and older) --Alyx Dellamonica
Platform: WINDOWS & MACINTOSH Publisher: LEARNING COMPANY Packaging: JEWEL CASE Rating: AGES: 9 AND UP Explore the West! Live the Adventure! Survive the Trail! Westward Ho! Are you ready to travel the Oregon Trail? It s going to take insight and careful planning to choose the right traveling companions gear and supplies. Even then there are countless unpredictable hazards like swollen rivers poisonous creatures and deadly diseases. You ll have to strategize and make quick decisions. And they ll have to be right.Create Your JourneyDecide your occupation who you ll take with you and where you re headed!Learn From the PioneersTalk with pioneers Irish African Americans Native Americans and other settlers. Share their dreams fears and adventures.Blaze a TrailFord raging rivers. Hunt fish and forage for food. Be a part of the taming of the wild West. From the banks of the great Mississippi to the sweeping Williamette Valley you ll carve your own trail through an historic adventure.Discover Jed s TalesThrough riveting mini-movies you ll befriend Captain Jed Freedman an experienced fur trader who is trail-wise and a great story-teller! System Requirements for Windows Windows 98 2000 Me XP Pentium166 MHz or faster 32 MB RAM 120 MB free hard disk space 640x480 monitor 16-bit color Windows-compatible sound card & speakers 8X CD-ROM drive System Requirements for Macintosh Mac OS 8.6 9.2 OS X Power PC 180 MHz or faster 32 MB RAM 120 MB free hard disk space 640x480 monitor thousands of colors 8X CD-ROM drive