WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en-US 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.718 (gentle contemplative music) 00:00:03.718 --> 00:00:05.490 - [Narrator] In 1869, 00:00:05.490 --> 00:00:08.550 German American painter Albert Bierstadt, 00:00:08.550 --> 00:00:11.910 known for his landscapes of the American frontier, 00:00:11.910 --> 00:00:14.523 completed one of his most famous works. 00:00:15.450 --> 00:00:18.450 He called it "Emigrants Crossing the Plains," 00:00:18.450 --> 00:00:21.867 but most people refer to it as "The Oregon Trail." 00:00:22.710 --> 00:00:25.920 - And he painted a lot of pictures of the Rocky Mountains, 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:30.920 which, in those days, there was no photography, or not much, 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:34.860 so it was best for an artist to go out 00:00:34.860 --> 00:00:37.410 and paint pictures of what he saw. 00:00:37.410 --> 00:00:39.690 And he brought those back to the East Coast, 00:00:39.690 --> 00:00:44.690 and it created an interest in people moving out West. 00:00:45.150 --> 00:00:46.830 You see the beautiful sunsets. 00:00:46.830 --> 00:00:51.000 You see the idyllic setting of the cows 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.670 eating the grass under the trees. 00:00:53.670 --> 00:00:57.900 Artists are often the leaders in new ideas 00:00:57.900 --> 00:01:01.020 and new ways of thinking about things. 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:05.910 So, in some sense, I guess, Paul and Don and I were artists 00:01:05.910 --> 00:01:07.815 drawing a picture of what could be 00:01:07.815 --> 00:01:11.103 in the educational computer software. 00:01:12.207 --> 00:01:13.800 (light thoughtful music) 00:01:13.800 --> 00:01:16.715 - [Narrator] In 1971, three student teachers 00:01:16.715 --> 00:01:18.660 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 00:01:18.660 --> 00:01:21.540 created an educational simulation game 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:24.390 about traveling the Oregon Trail. 00:01:24.390 --> 00:01:27.990 Multiple generations of children played the game at school, 00:01:27.990 --> 00:01:30.360 thanks to the rise of the personal computer 00:01:30.360 --> 00:01:32.853 and its incorporation into classrooms. 00:01:34.230 --> 00:01:37.650 More than 50 years later, "The Oregon Trail" series 00:01:37.650 --> 00:01:41.010 has sold more than 65 million copies 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:42.120 and has been inducted 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:45.060 into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. 00:01:45.060 --> 00:01:49.170 The game is now a permanent fixture in pop culture. 00:01:49.170 --> 00:01:51.480 But for the original creators, 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:55.710 the game's success did not translate to financial wealth. 00:01:55.710 --> 00:01:57.780 They made the game for themselves, 00:01:57.780 --> 00:02:02.490 and, more importantly, to help teach their students. 00:02:02.490 --> 00:02:07.140 - We were not creating the program to be entrepreneurs, 00:02:07.140 --> 00:02:09.420 we were just trying to do good teaching. 00:02:09.420 --> 00:02:10.950 We're certainly enjoying the fame 00:02:10.950 --> 00:02:13.020 that we've gotten since then. 00:02:13.020 --> 00:02:15.150 And it's nice to tell our story. 00:02:15.150 --> 00:02:17.520 And, you know, the fact that I don't 00:02:17.520 --> 00:02:20.820 own some island somewhere, it's not a big deal. (chuckles) 00:02:20.820 --> 00:02:22.980 - More just lucky coincidence 00:02:22.980 --> 00:02:24.960 that I happened to be at the right time, 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:27.630 doing something that nobody else had done. 00:02:27.630 --> 00:02:28.463 It's interesting, 00:02:28.463 --> 00:02:31.590 I've worked hard at a lot of different things, 00:02:31.590 --> 00:02:34.080 but instead, I get a lot of recognition 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:35.603 for something I spent 10 days on 00:02:35.603 --> 00:02:37.503 and was having a ball doing it. 00:02:38.820 --> 00:02:41.340 - [Narrator] This is the story of how a little computer game 00:02:41.340 --> 00:02:44.190 about westward expansion in the United States 00:02:44.190 --> 00:02:45.900 made learning fun, 00:02:45.900 --> 00:02:48.330 and how it changed the software industry, 00:02:48.330 --> 00:02:50.520 computers in education, 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:53.820 and the lives of millions of students. 00:02:53.820 --> 00:02:57.027 This is the story of "The Oregon Trail." 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:08.430 40 miles south of Minneapolis, 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:10.320 on the banks of the Cannon River, 00:03:10.320 --> 00:03:13.200 is the town of Northfield, Minnesota, 00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:15.243 home to Carleton College. 00:03:16.200 --> 00:03:19.410 It's a small, private liberal arts college, 00:03:19.410 --> 00:03:22.773 often considered one of the top schools in the Midwest. 00:03:23.730 --> 00:03:25.710 - Carleton I knew was a good school. 00:03:25.710 --> 00:03:28.170 I applied to it because a friend of our family's 00:03:28.170 --> 00:03:29.250 had gone there. 00:03:29.250 --> 00:03:32.490 And Carleton had 300 to 400 in each year, 00:03:32.490 --> 00:03:36.660 so maybe there were 1,600 or 1,500 students there. 00:03:36.660 --> 00:03:38.580 So it was a small setting. 00:03:38.580 --> 00:03:40.560 The classes were small. 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:44.610 They had seminars that had small groups of people. 00:03:44.610 --> 00:03:47.520 And it was a very socialistic school. 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:52.203 Once you paid your tuition, everything else was free. 00:03:53.490 --> 00:03:55.593 They kind of equalized everybody there. 00:03:56.490 --> 00:03:59.010 - I looked at a bunch of different colleges. 00:03:59.010 --> 00:04:01.680 I applied to Princeton, but I didn't get in. 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:03.600 I looked at Northwestern in Illinois, 00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:06.270 but I did not like the campus at all. 00:04:06.270 --> 00:04:08.550 I looked at Carleton in Minnesota, 00:04:08.550 --> 00:04:11.490 which was kind of a high-powered school, 00:04:11.490 --> 00:04:15.540 and That looked like the kind of environment I wanted, 00:04:15.540 --> 00:04:19.170 which was a little bit not in the city, 00:04:19.170 --> 00:04:20.820 kind of rural setting. 00:04:20.820 --> 00:04:24.120 And everything was contained on campus, 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:26.040 and I kind of liked that. 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:28.770 At the time, I think the tuition for Carleton 00:04:28.770 --> 00:04:33.147 was $3,000 a year, which sounds like a real bargain now. 00:04:33.147 --> 00:04:34.620 (bright thoughtful music) 00:04:34.620 --> 00:04:37.230 - [Narrator] In the fall of 1971, 00:04:37.230 --> 00:04:39.330 Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann 00:04:39.330 --> 00:04:42.300 were seniors at Carleton College. 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:43.950 They were math majors, 00:04:43.950 --> 00:04:47.520 hoping to become teachers after graduation. 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:50.670 - Well, it seemed to be the subject that I did the best in. 00:04:50.670 --> 00:04:54.270 I remember looking at my high school teachers 00:04:54.270 --> 00:04:55.320 and thought, "You know what? 00:04:55.320 --> 00:04:58.230 "It'd be kind of fun to be a math teacher." 00:04:58.230 --> 00:05:00.480 - Well, I always liked math when I was a kid. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:02.700 I had an older brother who was five years older 00:05:02.700 --> 00:05:04.620 who was into math, 00:05:04.620 --> 00:05:08.070 and he would teach a lot of things to me about math 00:05:08.070 --> 00:05:10.050 before I got to them in school. 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:12.990 I think part of why I wanted to be a teacher 00:05:12.990 --> 00:05:16.050 is I had seen it done, and I enjoyed learning, 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:19.413 and I wanted to make it enjoyable for other people to learn. 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:25.200 - I met Bill Heinemann in a math methods class. 00:05:25.200 --> 00:05:27.960 We had a professor who would try to teach us 00:05:27.960 --> 00:05:30.510 what to expect in a class, how to teach a lesson, 00:05:30.510 --> 00:05:34.140 we'd practice on each other, how to design a lesson. 00:05:34.140 --> 00:05:35.970 Bill's a nice guy. 00:05:35.970 --> 00:05:38.550 We got along right away. 00:05:38.550 --> 00:05:40.980 - I first met Paul my freshman year 00:05:40.980 --> 00:05:44.220 when he was on the same floor as I was. 00:05:44.220 --> 00:05:46.440 He was an interesting character. 00:05:46.440 --> 00:05:48.390 He had real long hair at the time, 00:05:48.390 --> 00:05:51.570 and that was new to me. (chuckles) 00:05:51.570 --> 00:05:55.473 And he also played a guitar in a rock band or something. 00:05:58.320 --> 00:06:00.870 - [Narrator] Dillenberger and Heinemann were on their way 00:06:00.870 --> 00:06:02.880 to becoming math teachers, 00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:05.220 but there was a new, up-and-coming field, 00:06:05.220 --> 00:06:09.690 that also caught their interest, computing and programming. 00:06:09.690 --> 00:06:12.838 And in Minnesota, it was thriving. 00:06:12.838 --> 00:06:14.820 (light groovy music) 00:06:14.820 --> 00:06:17.648 Between the 1950s and 1980s, 00:06:17.648 --> 00:06:21.270 Minnesota had a bustling computing industry. 00:06:21.270 --> 00:06:24.390 Author Joy Lisi Rankin described the Twin Cities 00:06:24.390 --> 00:06:27.240 as having a "computer identity." 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:32.160 Companies such as Honeywell, Control Data, IBM, UNIVAC, 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:36.600 and more, all had headquarters or offices in the area. 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:39.927 Some companies partnered with the University of Minnesota 00:06:39.927 --> 00:06:42.930 and made the state a central hub for research 00:06:42.930 --> 00:06:44.940 and manufacturing. 00:06:44.940 --> 00:06:47.850 - So back in the early '70s, computers were quite different 00:06:47.850 --> 00:06:49.170 than how we think of them today. 00:06:49.170 --> 00:06:51.390 There were no personal computers. 00:06:51.390 --> 00:06:54.090 A typical computer might cost $1 million. 00:06:54.090 --> 00:06:55.050 It would be huge. 00:06:55.050 --> 00:06:56.250 It'd be taller than a person. 00:06:56.250 --> 00:06:58.230 It would occupy a big room, 00:06:58.230 --> 00:06:59.670 often in the basement of the building. 00:06:59.670 --> 00:07:02.580 It would have a whole team of people attending to its needs, 00:07:02.580 --> 00:07:04.680 so quite a different thing. 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:06.240 - [Narrator] Despite the high cost, 00:07:06.240 --> 00:07:09.990 the possibilities of computing seemed endless. 00:07:09.990 --> 00:07:13.170 People were finding new ways to integrate computers 00:07:13.170 --> 00:07:15.120 into their everyday lives, 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:18.720 and soon, it made its way into education. 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:21.270 Organizations popped up around the state 00:07:21.270 --> 00:07:24.660 to incorporate computers into the classroom. 00:07:24.660 --> 00:07:28.620 In 1967, 18 Minnesota school districts 00:07:28.620 --> 00:07:31.980 formed a new organization called Total Information 00:07:31.980 --> 00:07:35.520 for Educational Systems, or TIES. 00:07:35.520 --> 00:07:37.140 Their goal was to get students 00:07:37.140 --> 00:07:39.663 and teachers familiar with computing. 00:07:40.710 --> 00:07:45.150 Administrators could input schedules or process payroll. 00:07:45.150 --> 00:07:47.220 Teachers could incorporate programs 00:07:47.220 --> 00:07:49.382 and games into their lessons. 00:07:49.382 --> 00:07:50.215 (coach yelling) 00:07:50.215 --> 00:07:51.750 Students could use the computer 00:07:51.750 --> 00:07:54.903 to keep track of sports scores and statistics. 00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:58.710 Carleton College also caught the computer bug 00:07:58.710 --> 00:08:01.175 that was going around Minnesota. 00:08:01.175 --> 00:08:02.250 (baseball bat thwacks) (crowd cheering) 00:08:02.250 --> 00:08:05.670 Students used computers to keep track of batting averages 00:08:05.670 --> 00:08:07.680 in the softball league. 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:09.930 There were computer science courses 00:08:09.930 --> 00:08:12.240 and lectures on programming. 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:16.980 Carleton even had their own programming language, FOCARL, 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:19.680 a modified version of FOCAL. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:21.840 - At Carleton, the thing that was nice about that 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:23.850 compared to the high school class, 00:08:23.850 --> 00:08:27.030 was that you worked on what was called a teletype, 00:08:27.030 --> 00:08:29.670 which was a big clunky old typewriter. 00:08:29.670 --> 00:08:32.940 And you would phone up the mainframe computer, 00:08:32.940 --> 00:08:34.740 which was at Carleton. 00:08:34.740 --> 00:08:39.600 You'd type in your computer code, then you could type "run" 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.970 and it would follow the statements that you wrote 00:08:41.970 --> 00:08:44.010 and you'd get immediate feedback. 00:08:44.010 --> 00:08:48.450 This is really nice because now I can debug in real-time, 00:08:48.450 --> 00:08:50.400 rather than having to keep waiting a week, 00:08:50.400 --> 00:08:52.150 waiting another week, and so forth. 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:54.690 - [Narrator] But one of the more popular 00:08:54.690 --> 00:08:57.540 uses of the computer was gaming, 00:08:57.540 --> 00:09:01.560 and students not only played games, they made them. 00:09:01.560 --> 00:09:03.570 One student created a pinball game 00:09:03.570 --> 00:09:06.570 that was eventually banned from the computer lab 00:09:06.570 --> 00:09:10.320 because staff kept having to repair the joysticks. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:12.540 - And that was kind of a neat, interactive game. 00:09:12.540 --> 00:09:14.013 That was probably the best game 00:09:14.013 --> 00:09:15.780 that was on the computer lab. 00:09:15.780 --> 00:09:18.270 I don't know, one of the other Carleton students 00:09:18.270 --> 00:09:19.680 wrote that, I guess. 00:09:19.680 --> 00:09:21.420 And then, there was another program 00:09:21.420 --> 00:09:23.700 that captured my imagination. 00:09:23.700 --> 00:09:26.670 It was a program called "ELIZA." 00:09:26.670 --> 00:09:29.520 It would try to initiate a conversation 00:09:29.520 --> 00:09:31.755 with the person at the computer. 00:09:31.755 --> 00:09:34.770 (laughs) It really wasn't very intelligent, 00:09:34.770 --> 00:09:36.750 but it gave me the possibility 00:09:36.750 --> 00:09:38.820 that, hey, you could do things with computers 00:09:38.820 --> 00:09:40.410 that aren't just numbers. 00:09:40.410 --> 00:09:43.830 You can do things with sentences, 00:09:43.830 --> 00:09:45.720 interacting with a person. 00:09:45.720 --> 00:09:48.120 You can ask them a question, they can answer. 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:49.500 You can pick up that answer. 00:09:49.500 --> 00:09:51.806 You can do something with that answer. 00:09:51.806 --> 00:09:52.740 (soft contemplative music) 00:09:52.740 --> 00:09:54.180 - [Narrator] For Bill Heinemann, 00:09:54.180 --> 00:09:57.090 computers were a revelation. 00:09:57.090 --> 00:09:59.760 - And I spent a lot of time in the computer lab 00:09:59.760 --> 00:10:02.490 because having a computer at your fingertips 00:10:02.490 --> 00:10:07.490 to do your bidding, whatever you tell it to do, it does it. 00:10:07.980 --> 00:10:12.270 And it's like you have your own servant to do things, 00:10:12.270 --> 00:10:15.450 and you can command it to do whatever you wanted it to do. 00:10:15.450 --> 00:10:18.270 They had only a five-week programming course, 00:10:18.270 --> 00:10:19.800 and I took that. 00:10:19.800 --> 00:10:22.260 And I really enjoyed that 00:10:22.260 --> 00:10:24.600 and thought that was one of the easiest classes 00:10:24.600 --> 00:10:26.310 I had at Carleton. 00:10:26.310 --> 00:10:31.310 So, this logic and computing was where my talents were. 00:10:32.490 --> 00:10:35.430 And I took a game theory course, 00:10:35.430 --> 00:10:39.447 and I wrote a program that analyzed the game of kalah, 00:10:39.447 --> 00:10:42.210 the game with the pits and the stones. 00:10:42.210 --> 00:10:46.710 And I wanted to find out what the winning first move was, 00:10:46.710 --> 00:10:48.510 if there was such a thing. 00:10:48.510 --> 00:10:50.310 And I programmed it so that it learned. 00:10:50.310 --> 00:10:53.220 It was a heuristic program that, as it played, 00:10:53.220 --> 00:10:55.710 it would learn how to play and improve. 00:10:55.710 --> 00:11:00.710 And I watched it for, it must have been two or three hours. 00:11:00.750 --> 00:11:05.340 And I saw that it's not anywhere close to the end yet. 00:11:05.340 --> 00:11:08.790 So I put a sign on the computer, "In use," 00:11:08.790 --> 00:11:11.940 and I went back to my dorm, went to sleep, 00:11:11.940 --> 00:11:15.030 got up the next morning, hurried over to the computer lab 00:11:15.030 --> 00:11:18.420 to see if it was done or what was going on. 00:11:18.420 --> 00:11:22.680 And it said, "Out of memory." (laughs) 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:27.270 So I never did figure out what the first right move was. 00:11:27.270 --> 00:11:29.130 But I had a program that would figure it out. 00:11:29.130 --> 00:11:31.920 But at that time, the computer just didn't have enough 00:11:31.920 --> 00:11:33.843 power to do that. 00:11:36.900 --> 00:11:38.760 - [Narrator] But programming on the computer 00:11:38.760 --> 00:11:40.590 would have to wait. 00:11:40.590 --> 00:11:44.880 In the fall of 1971, Paul Dillenberger and Bill Heinemann 00:11:44.880 --> 00:11:47.910 began their student teaching assignments. 00:11:47.910 --> 00:11:49.780 - The student teaching experience that we had 00:11:49.780 --> 00:11:52.140 was a 16-week program 00:11:52.140 --> 00:11:55.950 where you would live up in the Minneapolis, St. Paul area. 00:11:55.950 --> 00:11:59.550 Carleton is a good hour south of Minneapolis, 00:11:59.550 --> 00:12:03.150 and so they actually rented us an apartment. 00:12:03.150 --> 00:12:04.890 And there were five of us, 00:12:04.890 --> 00:12:07.800 two social studies teachers, three math teachers, 00:12:07.800 --> 00:12:09.570 that lived in this apartment. 00:12:09.570 --> 00:12:10.620 - There were two bedrooms. 00:12:10.620 --> 00:12:12.720 There were two of us in each bedroom, 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:14.520 and one slept on the couch. 00:12:14.520 --> 00:12:18.420 We did our own cooking and kinda took turns. 00:12:18.420 --> 00:12:21.330 I think maybe after I did my turn cooking, 00:12:21.330 --> 00:12:24.330 they said, "You don't have to cook anymore, Bill." 00:12:24.330 --> 00:12:26.850 So the five of us would go off 00:12:26.850 --> 00:12:29.610 and do our student teaching, come back, 00:12:29.610 --> 00:12:32.700 and then just share the experiences that we had teaching, 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:34.830 and problems that we encountered, 00:12:34.830 --> 00:12:36.273 and successes that we'd had. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:40.260 - [Narrator] One of their roommates was Don Rawitsch, 00:12:40.260 --> 00:12:43.500 a history major from Homewood, Illinois. 00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:47.100 Rawitsch originally wanted to be a math teacher, 00:12:47.100 --> 00:12:49.380 but when he arrived at Carleton College, 00:12:49.380 --> 00:12:51.090 he quickly realized that math 00:12:51.090 --> 00:12:53.670 was much more advanced than he thought. 00:12:53.670 --> 00:12:55.620 He switched over to history, 00:12:55.620 --> 00:12:58.860 thanks to his love of non-fiction books. 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:03.860 - I knew Don just because everybody knew Don. (laughs) 00:13:03.900 --> 00:13:08.900 He was the Rotblatt czar, which was the softball league 00:13:09.030 --> 00:13:12.420 that almost everybody at Carleton participated in. 00:13:12.420 --> 00:13:15.510 - We lived on the same floor, but at different ends of it. 00:13:15.510 --> 00:13:16.980 But I didn't really get to know him 00:13:16.980 --> 00:13:19.470 until we lived in this apartment 00:13:19.470 --> 00:13:21.870 and this student-teaching experience. 00:13:21.870 --> 00:13:24.420 Don's very methodical. 00:13:24.420 --> 00:13:25.590 He's a good leader. 00:13:25.590 --> 00:13:27.300 He has good ideas. 00:13:27.300 --> 00:13:29.373 We got along very well, as well. 00:13:31.770 --> 00:13:33.180 - [Narrator] Dillenberger and Heinemann 00:13:33.180 --> 00:13:35.310 were assigned to do their student teaching 00:13:35.310 --> 00:13:39.480 at Bryant Junior High, near downtown Minneapolis. 00:13:39.480 --> 00:13:41.790 Rawitsch taught at Jordan Junior High, 00:13:41.790 --> 00:13:43.470 about 20 minutes north, 00:13:43.470 --> 00:13:47.176 and was assigned an eighth-grade American history class. 00:13:47.176 --> 00:13:48.300 (light acoustic folk music) 00:13:48.300 --> 00:13:52.320 For Rawitsch, it was a somewhat challenging environment. 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:56.070 The students, quote, "didn't sit still for anything," 00:13:56.070 --> 00:13:57.690 and his supervising teacher 00:13:57.690 --> 00:14:00.000 taught in a very traditional way, 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:02.193 reading mostly from a textbook. 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:06.330 At Carleton College, Rawitsch learned the importance 00:14:06.330 --> 00:14:09.360 of finding new ways to educate students, 00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:12.900 incorporating creativity into the curriculum. 00:14:12.900 --> 00:14:15.570 He put those ideas to the test. 00:14:15.570 --> 00:14:18.000 One time, he and a fellow student teacher 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:21.300 dressed as the famous explorers Lewis and Clarke 00:14:21.300 --> 00:14:24.150 and told the students about their travels. 00:14:24.150 --> 00:14:27.630 Another time, Rawitsch had a teacher pretend to shoot him 00:14:27.630 --> 00:14:30.525 with a starter pistol in front of the class. 00:14:30.525 --> 00:14:32.850 (gun pops) (students screaming) 00:14:32.850 --> 00:14:34.980 The students put on a mock trial 00:14:34.980 --> 00:14:38.557 and learned how people observe an event differently. 00:14:38.557 --> 00:14:41.737 - [Don Narrator] "I was excited and maybe a little naive. 00:14:41.737 --> 00:14:43.417 "I really wanted to do some things in the classroom 00:14:43.417 --> 00:14:47.070 "that the students were not necessarily used to." 00:14:47.070 --> 00:14:48.273 Don Rawitsch. 00:14:51.060 --> 00:14:53.539 - [Narrator] By November of 1971, 00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:57.510 Rawitsch had mostly been observing the classrooms, 00:14:57.510 --> 00:15:01.080 but now it was time for more responsibilities. 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:03.810 His supervising teacher assigned him the unit 00:15:03.810 --> 00:15:06.950 on westward movement in the United States, 00:15:06.950 --> 00:15:09.063 he would have two weeks to prepare. 00:15:10.140 --> 00:15:13.380 Once again, Rawitsch looked for creative ways 00:15:13.380 --> 00:15:15.300 to engage the class. 00:15:15.300 --> 00:15:18.090 He came up with the idea for a board game 00:15:18.090 --> 00:15:21.660 where students would be assigned roles on a wagon train 00:15:21.660 --> 00:15:24.720 and make their way through a frontier trail. 00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:27.630 As he brainstormed how the game would work, 00:15:27.630 --> 00:15:29.160 Dillenberger and Heinemann 00:15:29.160 --> 00:15:32.010 arrived home from student teaching. 00:15:32.010 --> 00:15:37.010 - Don had this big roll of butcher paper or something 00:15:37.590 --> 00:15:39.090 rolled out on the floor. 00:15:39.090 --> 00:15:42.330 It took up the whole length of the living room. 00:15:42.330 --> 00:15:43.920 I said, "What is this?" 00:15:43.920 --> 00:15:45.547 And he said, "Well, it's a game. 00:15:45.547 --> 00:15:48.997 "I'm teaching a unit on the westward expansion, 00:15:48.997 --> 00:15:51.870 "and I want the kids to play this game." 00:15:51.870 --> 00:15:53.550 - He had lots of cards, I remember, 00:15:53.550 --> 00:15:55.440 that had different things that could happen to you 00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:57.183 along the trip on the trail. 00:15:57.183 --> 00:15:59.040 - Then he described a little bit more 00:15:59.040 --> 00:16:00.540 of what the game was like, 00:16:00.540 --> 00:16:03.780 and he was gonna have the kids shake dice. 00:16:03.780 --> 00:16:06.067 I thought, "This is actually a perfect 00:16:06.067 --> 00:16:09.060 "application for a computer program." 00:16:09.060 --> 00:16:12.630 And Don was like, "What in the world are you talking about?" 00:16:12.630 --> 00:16:13.987 And I said, "No, no, no. 00:16:13.987 --> 00:16:16.837 "I could have the computer keep track 00:16:16.837 --> 00:16:19.207 "of what supplies you have, 00:16:19.207 --> 00:16:22.537 "and instead of shaking dice to see how fast you go, 00:16:22.537 --> 00:16:24.277 "it could be dependent upon 00:16:24.277 --> 00:16:27.127 "how much you spent on your wagon. 00:16:27.127 --> 00:16:29.257 "The more you spend, the better wagon you have, 00:16:29.257 --> 00:16:30.247 "the faster it goes. 00:16:30.247 --> 00:16:32.990 "The more you spend on your oxen, the faster it goes. 00:16:32.990 --> 00:16:34.087 "I could have it figure out 00:16:34.087 --> 00:16:36.817 "how much stuff you had in your wagon 00:16:36.817 --> 00:16:38.223 "and how much weight that was, 00:16:38.223 --> 00:16:41.017 "and the lighter of the wagon, the faster it went. 00:16:41.017 --> 00:16:43.177 "We could have you eat. 00:16:43.177 --> 00:16:44.010 "And when you eat, 00:16:44.010 --> 00:16:46.837 "you could decide if you wanna just eat a little bit 00:16:46.837 --> 00:16:49.567 "to try to just barely stay alive, 00:16:49.567 --> 00:16:53.497 "or do you wanna eat a little bit more substantial meal. 00:16:53.497 --> 00:16:56.137 "And depending on how well you ate, 00:16:56.137 --> 00:16:59.587 "it would consume your resources, your food faster, 00:16:59.587 --> 00:17:03.090 "but you would have a better chance of staying healthy." 00:17:03.090 --> 00:17:05.670 So all these ideas came flooding into me. 00:17:05.670 --> 00:17:08.497 And he said, "Well, it sounds great, Bill, 00:17:08.497 --> 00:17:11.160 "but I need this by next Friday." 00:17:11.160 --> 00:17:13.777 And I thought a little bit and said, "Yeah. 00:17:13.777 --> 00:17:15.967 "I can have something working by next Friday, 00:17:15.967 --> 00:17:17.220 "can't we, Paul?" 00:17:17.220 --> 00:17:19.530 - I looked at him, and I looked at Don, 00:17:19.530 --> 00:17:23.880 and said, "Yeah, I think we could do that." 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:27.690 - I don't know if he understood what my question was. 00:17:27.690 --> 00:17:29.617 What my real question was: 00:17:29.617 --> 00:17:32.227 "Paul, is it okay if we stay at school 00:17:32.227 --> 00:17:35.377 "from the time school gets out to 9:00 at night 00:17:35.377 --> 00:17:37.317 "for the next seven or eight nights?" 00:17:40.080 --> 00:17:42.450 - [Narrator] As the trio discussed the possibilities 00:17:42.450 --> 00:17:45.660 of their new game, one question remained: 00:17:45.660 --> 00:17:47.820 Which frontier trail would they use 00:17:47.820 --> 00:17:50.070 as the base of their game? 00:17:50.070 --> 00:17:52.920 For Rawitsch, there was only one choice: 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:56.700 It was the longest and most traveled trail of them all, 00:17:56.700 --> 00:17:58.374 the Oregon Trail. 00:17:58.374 --> 00:18:00.270 (bright folk music) (horse whinnying) 00:18:00.270 --> 00:18:02.010 Between 1836 and 1869, 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:09.200 more than 400,000 people made the 2,170-mile journey 00:18:09.960 --> 00:18:11.430 to Oregon. 00:18:11.430 --> 00:18:16.230 They were farmers and ranchers, hoping to acquire more land. 00:18:16.230 --> 00:18:19.680 Business people starting new ventures. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:23.340 Missionaries wanting to spread the word. 00:18:23.340 --> 00:18:26.520 Miners hoping to strike gold. 00:18:26.520 --> 00:18:29.673 And families seeking a better life. 00:18:30.540 --> 00:18:33.750 - I find this episode of American history fascinating, 00:18:33.750 --> 00:18:35.370 this westward migration, 00:18:35.370 --> 00:18:37.560 and particularly, the Oregon Trail aspect. 00:18:37.560 --> 00:18:41.550 This was a bit of history written by ordinary people. 00:18:41.550 --> 00:18:43.140 So much of what we read about history 00:18:43.140 --> 00:18:45.390 is all about famous names: 00:18:45.390 --> 00:18:46.890 The presidents who did things. 00:18:46.890 --> 00:18:48.450 The religious leaders who did things. 00:18:48.450 --> 00:18:50.490 The captains of industry who did things. 00:18:50.490 --> 00:18:53.550 And here was something where we don't worry about the names, 00:18:53.550 --> 00:18:56.880 we worry about what these 400,000 people did. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:18:58.800 And we treat each of those 400,000 people 00:18:58.800 --> 00:19:00.720 as being heroic in their own way, 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:04.590 making this very difficult 2,000-mile journey to Oregon 00:19:04.590 --> 00:19:06.930 in order to try to have a better life. 00:19:06.930 --> 00:19:09.210 And that's why this episode in history 00:19:09.210 --> 00:19:11.880 is particularly well adapted for a game. 00:19:11.880 --> 00:19:13.080 You don't have to change history, 00:19:13.080 --> 00:19:15.990 you can just be one of those 400,000 people 00:19:15.990 --> 00:19:17.223 making that journey. 00:19:21.120 --> 00:19:23.550 - [Narrator] Over the weekend, Don Rawitsch, 00:19:23.550 --> 00:19:25.890 Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger 00:19:25.890 --> 00:19:28.293 laid the foundation for their new game. 00:19:29.130 --> 00:19:33.060 Rawitsch, admittedly, "knew nothing about computers." 00:19:33.060 --> 00:19:36.577 His role was to, quote, "bring the history into it, 00:19:36.577 --> 00:19:38.197 "and suggest the various things 00:19:38.197 --> 00:19:41.700 "that could happen to settlers traveling the trail." 00:19:41.700 --> 00:19:44.010 Heinemann was the main programmer, 00:19:44.010 --> 00:19:45.837 he drew up flowcharts for the game 00:19:45.837 --> 00:19:49.740 and wrote the majority of the code by hand on paper. 00:19:49.740 --> 00:19:52.980 Dillenberger was, essentially, the debugger. 00:19:52.980 --> 00:19:55.920 He wrote up subroutines, cleaned up the text, 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:57.660 and tested the game. 00:19:57.660 --> 00:20:00.210 - After talking to Don about what was done, 00:20:00.210 --> 00:20:03.330 I started imagining the things that I would do, 00:20:03.330 --> 00:20:06.157 and started asking Don, and we had a lot of feedback. 00:20:06.157 --> 00:20:09.007 "If I do this, is that gonna work? 00:20:09.007 --> 00:20:09.997 "How many turns? 00:20:09.997 --> 00:20:12.720 "How long do you want this game to last?" 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:15.157 And then I asked Don, "Well, how long did it take 00:20:15.157 --> 00:20:18.360 "the wagon trains usually to get where they were going?" 00:20:18.360 --> 00:20:19.590 And so we discussed this, 00:20:19.590 --> 00:20:21.690 and I finally decided that each turn 00:20:21.690 --> 00:20:23.430 would represent two weeks. 00:20:23.430 --> 00:20:26.220 - You'd have so much money, you could buy oxen 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:30.540 and supplies and food, and you type in these numbers. 00:20:30.540 --> 00:20:34.543 And so, I would say, you know, "Today is March 24th, 1841," 00:20:35.670 --> 00:20:37.020 or something like that. 00:20:37.020 --> 00:20:40.350 And then depending on where you are in that two-week period, 00:20:40.350 --> 00:20:42.570 certain things could happen to you. 00:20:42.570 --> 00:20:45.300 - My favorite part of the game was actually coding 00:20:45.300 --> 00:20:47.940 some of the probabilities into it. 00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:50.970 So it was not just the probabilities of the luck things, 00:20:50.970 --> 00:20:54.870 but the probability of getting attacked by a rider 00:20:54.870 --> 00:20:57.360 was low at the very beginning. 00:20:57.360 --> 00:20:59.520 They're too close to civilization. 00:20:59.520 --> 00:21:01.740 But it spiked in the Plains, 00:21:01.740 --> 00:21:04.560 where you weren't far enough away from civilization 00:21:04.560 --> 00:21:07.500 that you didn't have some characters coming after you 00:21:07.500 --> 00:21:10.260 trying to take your possessions. 00:21:10.260 --> 00:21:13.200 - We tried to figure out what probability is 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:14.430 that something would happen. 00:21:14.430 --> 00:21:17.287 And so we would figure, "Well, the probability's pretty high 00:21:17.287 --> 00:21:20.287 "in the mountains that your wagon wheel might come off, 00:21:20.287 --> 00:21:24.240 "or you might be too cold." 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:25.710 - One of the things that you could do 00:21:25.710 --> 00:21:27.780 was stop to go hunting. 00:21:27.780 --> 00:21:31.560 There was a timed input so that we could record 00:21:31.560 --> 00:21:33.600 how long it took for them to respond. 00:21:33.600 --> 00:21:36.270 So if they spelled "bang" wrong, they didn't get anything. 00:21:36.270 --> 00:21:37.650 They were a terrible shot. 00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:40.350 If they took too long, they didn't get anything. 00:21:40.350 --> 00:21:42.990 If they took a reasonable amount of time, 00:21:42.990 --> 00:21:46.260 they got a reasonable amount of meat from hunting. 00:21:46.260 --> 00:21:48.420 And if they did it very quickly, 00:21:48.420 --> 00:21:50.520 then they were rewarded even more. 00:21:50.520 --> 00:21:52.087 - I remember coming with the idea, as well, 00:21:52.087 --> 00:21:54.457 "If they're gonna die, let's ask if they want a gravestone 00:21:54.457 --> 00:21:57.150 "or do they want a priest, or whatever." 00:21:57.150 --> 00:21:58.860 - When we were programming this, 00:21:58.860 --> 00:22:01.800 Paul and I were confined to the computer room 00:22:01.800 --> 00:22:03.630 at Bryant Junior High, 00:22:03.630 --> 00:22:05.640 which was actually a janitor's closet. 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:09.270 It was about big enough to hold a ladder and a bucket, 00:22:09.270 --> 00:22:10.103 and that was about it. 00:22:10.103 --> 00:22:12.690 Then instead, they'd taken the ladder and the bucket out, 00:22:12.690 --> 00:22:15.570 and they'd put a teletype and two chairs, 00:22:15.570 --> 00:22:16.980 one at the computer, 00:22:16.980 --> 00:22:19.860 and one on the other side of the doorway. (chuckles) 00:22:19.860 --> 00:22:22.110 - The computer was in kind of a closet. 00:22:22.110 --> 00:22:24.630 We would spend time after school working on it. 00:22:24.630 --> 00:22:28.410 And I believe one weekend we even took the darn thing home 00:22:28.410 --> 00:22:32.641 to the apartment and called via our phone there. 00:22:32.641 --> 00:22:34.140 (light thoughtful music) 00:22:34.140 --> 00:22:36.270 - [Narrator] Over the course of two weeks, 00:22:36.270 --> 00:22:39.660 Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger 00:22:39.660 --> 00:22:42.900 had created an educational computer game. 00:22:42.900 --> 00:22:46.440 It was one of only a few at the time. 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:51.120 - There were a few, I don't wanna call them educational. 00:22:51.120 --> 00:22:53.400 There was a Civil War simulation, 00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:57.120 which basically the only thing you educated there 00:22:57.120 --> 00:23:00.090 is if you give your soldiers enough cigarettes you win. 00:23:00.090 --> 00:23:01.990 And it wasn't very interesting at all. 00:23:03.030 --> 00:23:05.430 And as soon as we started writing this, 00:23:05.430 --> 00:23:07.207 we said, "This is way better 00:23:07.207 --> 00:23:09.300 "than anything that's out there." 00:23:09.300 --> 00:23:11.580 - We were young. We were 21 years old. 00:23:11.580 --> 00:23:14.130 It was a fun thing to do. 00:23:14.130 --> 00:23:17.790 And Don put his trust in us that we could get this done. 00:23:17.790 --> 00:23:20.127 He stopped what he was doing and said, "Okay," 00:23:20.127 --> 00:23:22.601 you know, "go ahead and do this." 00:23:22.601 --> 00:23:23.670 (computer keyboard clicking) 00:23:23.670 --> 00:23:25.440 - [Narrator] With the programming complete, 00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:27.180 Heinemann and Dillenberger did 00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:30.120 what any good game developer would do, 00:23:30.120 --> 00:23:32.520 they put their game to the test. 00:23:32.520 --> 00:23:35.100 - We put it on the Bryant account first, 00:23:35.100 --> 00:23:37.797 and we named it "OREGON." 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:42.480 Bill and I tried it out with our kids before 00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:44.015 Don's class tried it. 00:23:44.015 --> 00:23:44.970 (bright gentle music) 00:23:44.970 --> 00:23:48.690 The first time we had students play the program, 00:23:48.690 --> 00:23:50.130 they got really into it. 00:23:50.130 --> 00:23:51.420 There'd be one kid at the keyboard 00:23:51.420 --> 00:23:52.890 and there'd maybe be three or four kids 00:23:52.890 --> 00:23:55.020 standing behind that person, watching 00:23:55.020 --> 00:23:56.997 and reading what's going on. 00:23:56.997 --> 00:24:00.300 - The word quickly spread through the school 00:24:00.300 --> 00:24:01.740 that there was this cool program, 00:24:01.740 --> 00:24:03.177 you could play, "Oregon Trail." 00:24:03.177 --> 00:24:05.010 And so kids were bringing their friends 00:24:05.010 --> 00:24:08.130 and pretty soon, there was a long lineup before school, 00:24:08.130 --> 00:24:10.470 after school, lunch. 00:24:10.470 --> 00:24:12.120 The computer was constantly busy 00:24:12.120 --> 00:24:14.310 for the rest of the time we were there. 00:24:14.310 --> 00:24:17.160 I figured out that one of the students 00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:19.380 that was there at the time was Prince. 00:24:19.380 --> 00:24:21.247 And I remember one of the teachers saying, 00:24:21.247 --> 00:24:24.667 "There's a kid in the school here who has his own business. 00:24:24.667 --> 00:24:28.530 "He's a musician, and he writes his own songs." 00:24:28.530 --> 00:24:32.430 And I figured out later who that was. (chuckles) 00:24:32.430 --> 00:24:33.900 - We knew there was something to this game 00:24:33.900 --> 00:24:37.143 because of the way the kids were attracted to it. 00:24:38.100 --> 00:24:40.140 - [Narrator] Both students and faculty 00:24:40.140 --> 00:24:41.763 were enamored with the game. 00:24:43.170 --> 00:24:46.740 But some staff members had concerns. 00:24:46.740 --> 00:24:49.710 - I remember that when we first put it up there, 00:24:49.710 --> 00:24:53.220 the people from Bryant Junior High came over to us 00:24:53.220 --> 00:24:56.580 and said, "You can't say that somebody was 'tomahawked.'" 00:24:56.580 --> 00:24:59.190 There was an Indian population in that area. 00:24:59.190 --> 00:25:01.722 And I thought, "Well, they're right. 00:25:01.722 --> 00:25:04.387 "You want the Indian kids to enjoy playing this game, too. 00:25:04.387 --> 00:25:06.307 "You don't want them to always be 00:25:06.307 --> 00:25:09.780 "fighting against themselves, and portrayed as the bad guy." 00:25:09.780 --> 00:25:12.277 - We would say things like "Indians ahead, 00:25:12.277 --> 00:25:13.590 "they look hostile." 00:25:13.590 --> 00:25:17.130 We changed it to, "Riders ahead, they look hostile." 00:25:17.130 --> 00:25:20.310 You know, I grew up in the 1950s and '60s, 00:25:20.310 --> 00:25:23.640 and I watched, you know, Westerns. 00:25:23.640 --> 00:25:27.210 In the Westerns, you know, the Indians were the bad guys. 00:25:27.210 --> 00:25:30.510 So, yeah, like I said, we were a little naive about that, 00:25:30.510 --> 00:25:32.610 but we learned quickly, and we made changes 00:25:32.610 --> 00:25:33.993 and kept it that way. 00:25:35.700 --> 00:25:37.740 - [Narrator] With the testing phase complete, 00:25:37.740 --> 00:25:40.863 it was time to debut "OREGON" in a classroom. 00:25:44.641 --> 00:25:47.400 (school bell ringing) (students chattering) 00:25:47.400 --> 00:25:51.510 On Friday, December 3rd, 1971, 00:25:51.510 --> 00:25:55.230 at Jordan Junior High in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 00:25:55.230 --> 00:25:57.810 Don Rawitsch introduced his lesson plan 00:25:57.810 --> 00:26:01.500 on westward movement in the United States. 00:26:01.500 --> 00:26:04.020 He split the classroom into groups of five 00:26:04.020 --> 00:26:06.810 and had them rotate through various activities, 00:26:06.810 --> 00:26:09.753 including textbook readings and worksheets. 00:26:10.620 --> 00:26:13.980 One of those activities was the "OREGON" game. 00:26:13.980 --> 00:26:16.170 For the majority of the students, 00:26:16.170 --> 00:26:19.754 it was their first experience using a computer. 00:26:19.754 --> 00:26:20.880 (bright thoughtful music) 00:26:20.880 --> 00:26:22.260 - He would have the kids in groups, 00:26:22.260 --> 00:26:24.750 and he'd assign each person a different role, 00:26:24.750 --> 00:26:26.310 so they would kind of go as a team 00:26:26.310 --> 00:26:28.020 and make decisions as a team. 00:26:28.020 --> 00:26:30.960 Depending on what the computer decided, 00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:33.780 each run ended up being different, 00:26:33.780 --> 00:26:35.700 which was, I think, kind of nice about it. 00:26:35.700 --> 00:26:38.220 I think one of the things that the program was successful 00:26:38.220 --> 00:26:40.770 was because there were so many different things 00:26:40.770 --> 00:26:43.290 that could happen in different places along the trail, 00:26:43.290 --> 00:26:47.103 so it wouldn't always work out the same way every time. 00:26:48.307 --> 00:26:50.167 - [Don Narrator] "If I sat five students down 00:26:50.167 --> 00:26:51.277 "at the teletype device 00:26:51.277 --> 00:26:53.467 "and told them to follow the instructions, 00:26:53.467 --> 00:26:56.007 "I was interested to see how they would solve the problems 00:26:56.007 --> 00:26:57.967 "of group decision making. 00:26:57.967 --> 00:26:59.557 "At first, it was chaos, 00:26:59.557 --> 00:27:02.077 "but the clock forced them to create a democracy 00:27:02.077 --> 00:27:03.930 "to make decisions." 00:27:03.930 --> 00:27:05.479 Don Rawitsch 00:27:05.479 --> 00:27:08.970 - And it put the kids in the driver's seat, so to speak. 00:27:08.970 --> 00:27:12.420 One of the things that maybe it wasn't intentional, 00:27:12.420 --> 00:27:13.890 but I realized right away 00:27:13.890 --> 00:27:16.050 that when we put this program out there, 00:27:16.050 --> 00:27:19.410 that it was gonna not only teach history, 00:27:19.410 --> 00:27:21.210 but they were gonna have to do math 00:27:21.210 --> 00:27:23.400 to figure out how much money they had left 00:27:23.400 --> 00:27:25.410 and what they were gonna spend it on. 00:27:25.410 --> 00:27:26.700 The other thing is reading. 00:27:26.700 --> 00:27:28.980 Some of the kids, even though they were in eighth grade, 00:27:28.980 --> 00:27:31.440 we were in the inner city of Minneapolis, 00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:34.410 some of the kids, their reading skills were not very good. 00:27:34.410 --> 00:27:37.470 So the kids learned how to read, how to do math, 00:27:37.470 --> 00:27:38.910 how to plan ahead, 00:27:38.910 --> 00:27:41.523 and a little bit of history on the side, too. 00:27:42.496 --> 00:27:43.530 (light folk music) 00:27:43.530 --> 00:27:45.780 - [Narrator] Rawitsch used the "OREGON" program 00:27:45.780 --> 00:27:49.980 for one week, teaching three or four classes a day. 00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:54.090 He estimated about 100 kids experienced the game. 00:27:54.090 --> 00:27:56.490 And just like at Bryant Junior High, 00:27:56.490 --> 00:28:00.300 the students at Jordan Junior High were obsessed with it. 00:28:00.300 --> 00:28:02.160 Kids came in after school 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:04.563 or skipped lunch to play the game again. 00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:08.280 But with the fall semester coming to an end, 00:28:08.280 --> 00:28:12.030 the buzz over "OREGON" was short-lived. 00:28:12.030 --> 00:28:15.150 - Since it was on the Bryant Junior High account, 00:28:15.150 --> 00:28:17.820 we had to give Don our passwords 00:28:17.820 --> 00:28:19.290 so he could use it at his school, 00:28:19.290 --> 00:28:20.850 which was Jordan Junior High. 00:28:20.850 --> 00:28:24.600 So, I remember talking to the district computer person, 00:28:24.600 --> 00:28:27.067 and they were looking at their records to say, 00:28:27.067 --> 00:28:27.907 "Now, wait a minute. 00:28:27.907 --> 00:28:30.667 "Bryant is signed in two different times. 00:28:30.667 --> 00:28:32.130 "How can that be?" 00:28:32.130 --> 00:28:34.443 So they kind of figured out what we had done. 00:28:35.730 --> 00:28:37.800 - [Narrator] Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, 00:28:37.800 --> 00:28:40.590 and Paul Dillenberger collectively decided 00:28:40.590 --> 00:28:42.480 to remove the "OREGON" game 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:45.180 from the Minnesota public school's high-priced, 00:28:45.180 --> 00:28:47.070 mainframe computer. 00:28:47.070 --> 00:28:49.860 They printed off copies of the game's code 00:28:49.860 --> 00:28:52.170 then deleted the program. 00:28:52.170 --> 00:28:55.440 They jokingly referred to their pages of programming 00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:57.720 as "sacred scrolls." 00:28:57.720 --> 00:29:00.090 After completing their student teaching, 00:29:00.090 --> 00:29:03.120 the three friends headed back to Carleton College 00:29:03.120 --> 00:29:05.820 to finish their final semester. 00:29:05.820 --> 00:29:10.050 The "OREGON" game was officially unplayable 00:29:10.050 --> 00:29:10.883 for now. 00:29:15.885 --> 00:29:19.135 (audience applauding) 00:29:20.040 --> 00:29:22.530 In the spring of 1972, 00:29:22.530 --> 00:29:25.800 Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger 00:29:25.800 --> 00:29:28.833 were preparing to graduate from Carleton College. 00:29:29.730 --> 00:29:33.450 But the feeling was not all sunshine and rainbows. 00:29:33.450 --> 00:29:36.093 A war loomed over their heads. 00:29:36.093 --> 00:29:39.863 (light rock music) (helicopter rotors whirring) 00:29:39.863 --> 00:29:41.550 (explosions blasting) 00:29:41.550 --> 00:29:45.060 Since 1965, the United States military 00:29:45.060 --> 00:29:47.277 had been fighting in the Vietnam War. 00:29:47.277 --> 00:29:49.680 And as the conflict dragged on, 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:53.363 the American public's support for the war dwindled. 00:29:53.363 --> 00:29:54.222 - [News Reporter] We're on the outskirts of- 00:29:54.222 --> 00:29:57.300 - [Narrator] It was one of the first conflicts seen at home, 00:29:57.300 --> 00:30:00.330 images and videos were broadcast to televisions 00:30:00.330 --> 00:30:01.890 across the country, 00:30:01.890 --> 00:30:05.070 and the soldiers who made it home were often traumatized 00:30:05.070 --> 00:30:07.410 by what they experienced. 00:30:07.410 --> 00:30:09.330 - When I was a freshman, 00:30:09.330 --> 00:30:11.370 there were a lot of protests on campus 00:30:11.370 --> 00:30:13.800 over the war in Vietnam. 00:30:13.800 --> 00:30:15.480 I did meet with some of them. 00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:18.300 I had similar ideas to some of the hippie-type people 00:30:18.300 --> 00:30:20.940 that normally I wouldn't have associated with at all. 00:30:20.940 --> 00:30:24.780 But they were opposed mostly on the grounds 00:30:24.780 --> 00:30:27.363 that this was not a just war. 00:30:28.410 --> 00:30:31.260 - The Vietnam War, I was very much against the war. 00:30:31.260 --> 00:30:34.380 I couldn't even imagine myself shooting at anybody 00:30:34.380 --> 00:30:35.820 or anything like that. 00:30:35.820 --> 00:30:39.450 My situation, they had a draft lottery 00:30:39.450 --> 00:30:42.480 where you got numbers from one to 365 00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:44.070 depending on your birthday. 00:30:44.070 --> 00:30:45.060 And my number... 00:30:45.060 --> 00:30:47.760 I remember sitting there watching them pulling the numbers, 00:30:47.760 --> 00:30:52.760 and my number was 33, which was pretty low out of 365, 00:30:53.070 --> 00:30:54.150 and I was sure to go. 00:30:54.150 --> 00:30:56.610 And I was on a student deferment. 00:30:56.610 --> 00:30:59.100 That fall that we wrote the program, 00:30:59.100 --> 00:31:02.760 I went home for the holidays at wintertime, 00:31:02.760 --> 00:31:06.907 and my mother said to me, "You know, 00:31:06.907 --> 00:31:09.690 "you might be interested in this newspaper article." 00:31:09.690 --> 00:31:10.830 So, I started reading it. 00:31:10.830 --> 00:31:14.130 And evidently, the selective service system 00:31:14.130 --> 00:31:16.290 expired that year 00:31:16.290 --> 00:31:21.290 and so they got a temporary law in to extend it to March 31. 00:31:22.140 --> 00:31:25.740 And they said, "Well, if you declare yourself 1-A," 00:31:25.740 --> 00:31:28.860 like fit to go, "before December 31..." 00:31:28.860 --> 00:31:32.370 And since the year is extended to March 31, 00:31:32.370 --> 00:31:34.590 if they don't call you by March 31, 00:31:34.590 --> 00:31:37.380 then you go on to the next category, which is 1-H. 00:31:37.380 --> 00:31:41.370 Which means that they have to go through all 365 numbers 00:31:41.370 --> 00:31:44.190 before they would even think about getting to you. 00:31:44.190 --> 00:31:48.000 I knew that if I didn't do that, 00:31:48.000 --> 00:31:49.680 I would get drafted in June. 00:31:49.680 --> 00:31:52.920 It was my senior year, no more student deferment. 00:31:52.920 --> 00:31:55.980 I dropped my 2-S, my student deferment. 00:31:55.980 --> 00:31:59.310 I sweated it out, January, February, March, 00:31:59.310 --> 00:32:02.280 and April 1 came, and I got my 1-H card, 00:32:02.280 --> 00:32:04.410 and I didn't have to go. 00:32:04.410 --> 00:32:08.490 So, thank you to my mother. (chuckles) 00:32:08.490 --> 00:32:10.257 - We were kind of listening to the radio all night long, 00:32:10.257 --> 00:32:12.840 and they would announce a few numbers at a time. 00:32:12.840 --> 00:32:15.633 And we thought, "Oh, boy, it's getting up. 00:32:16.867 --> 00:32:17.707 "We haven't been called. 00:32:17.707 --> 00:32:19.490 "We're gonna be one of the last ones to go." 00:32:19.490 --> 00:32:22.380 It got up to around 340. 00:32:22.380 --> 00:32:26.247 But it turned out that I was around 345 or something, 00:32:26.247 --> 00:32:30.363 and my roommate was 365, so we never got called. 00:32:31.291 --> 00:32:32.610 (gentle thoughtful music) 00:32:32.610 --> 00:32:36.420 - [Narrator] Don Rawitsch was also against the Vietnam War. 00:32:36.420 --> 00:32:38.880 As a freshman, he assumed the war would end 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:42.300 by the time he graduated from Carleton College. 00:32:42.300 --> 00:32:45.630 But now, Rawitsch faced a harsh reality: 00:32:45.630 --> 00:32:49.020 His number had been called in the draft lottery. 00:32:49.020 --> 00:32:53.550 So, Rawitsch declared himself a conscientious objector. 00:32:53.550 --> 00:32:56.400 He laid out his reasons for opposing the war 00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:59.220 and collected letters of support from fellow students 00:32:59.220 --> 00:33:01.230 and friends back home. 00:33:01.230 --> 00:33:04.680 The local draft board accepted his proposal. 00:33:04.680 --> 00:33:07.740 As an alternative to serving in the military, 00:33:07.740 --> 00:33:11.313 Rawitsch had to find a job that was in the public interest. 00:33:12.270 --> 00:33:15.600 Through a connection from a Carleton College professor, 00:33:15.600 --> 00:33:19.000 Rawitsch met with a man named Dale LaFrenz. 00:33:20.194 --> 00:33:23.610 LaFrenz had a background as a math teacher, 00:33:23.610 --> 00:33:25.620 but he was also on the ground floor 00:33:25.620 --> 00:33:29.520 of the computer revolution in Minnesota education. 00:33:29.520 --> 00:33:30.840 He helped launch and grow 00:33:30.840 --> 00:33:33.570 the Minnesota TIES computer project 00:33:33.570 --> 00:33:34.800 and worked with Honeywell 00:33:34.800 --> 00:33:39.150 to implement instructional time-sharing systems in schools. 00:33:39.150 --> 00:33:42.810 But now, LaFrenz was doing consulting work. 00:33:42.810 --> 00:33:44.880 The Minneapolis public school system 00:33:44.880 --> 00:33:47.490 was conducting a research project, 00:33:47.490 --> 00:33:49.800 studying different models of instruction 00:33:49.800 --> 00:33:52.050 through various local schools. 00:33:52.050 --> 00:33:54.060 LaFrenz met with Rawitsch 00:33:54.060 --> 00:33:57.540 to see if he would be a good fit for the project. 00:33:57.540 --> 00:34:01.627 He found the young man "bright, energetic, smart. 00:34:01.627 --> 00:34:04.650 "He was a nerd before the word was around." 00:34:04.650 --> 00:34:08.310 So, LaFrenz hired Rawitsch to collect data, 00:34:08.310 --> 00:34:12.240 write up reports, and help analyze outcomes. 00:34:12.240 --> 00:34:14.700 The research project lasted two years, 00:34:14.700 --> 00:34:17.790 ending in June of 1974. 00:34:17.790 --> 00:34:20.160 By then, the United States' involvement 00:34:20.160 --> 00:34:23.100 in the Vietnam War was over. 00:34:23.100 --> 00:34:26.070 With his public service requirement fulfilled, 00:34:26.070 --> 00:34:28.740 Rawitsch looked for teaching jobs. 00:34:28.740 --> 00:34:31.980 Unfortunately, he couldn't find any. 00:34:31.980 --> 00:34:35.130 He went back to his old boss, Dale LaFrenz, 00:34:35.130 --> 00:34:38.370 to see if he had any suggestions. 00:34:38.370 --> 00:34:40.351 Rawitsch was in luck. 00:34:40.351 --> 00:34:41.910 (bright acoustic music) 00:34:41.910 --> 00:34:45.270 A few years earlier, Minnesota Governor Harold LeVander 00:34:45.270 --> 00:34:47.910 noted that the state's computing expenses 00:34:47.910 --> 00:34:49.620 were out of control. 00:34:49.620 --> 00:34:53.190 In order to bring costs down and increase efficiency, 00:34:53.190 --> 00:34:56.633 five agencies, including the University of Minnesota 00:34:56.633 --> 00:35:01.260 and the State Department of Education, came together to form 00:35:01.260 --> 00:35:04.860 the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, 00:35:04.860 --> 00:35:07.440 also known as MECC. 00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:11.797 According to LaFrenz, "MECC had only one thing to do in life 00:35:11.797 --> 00:35:15.930 "and that was computing services for education." 00:35:15.930 --> 00:35:18.600 - Basically, it was a state-funded program, 00:35:18.600 --> 00:35:22.890 so that computing wouldn't just happen in the cities, 00:35:22.890 --> 00:35:26.520 but would happen in the rural areas of Minnesota 00:35:26.520 --> 00:35:29.310 or little towns and so forth. 00:35:29.310 --> 00:35:33.870 They wanted computing to be accessible to all of Minnesota. 00:35:33.870 --> 00:35:36.030 - [Narrator] LaFrenz had been hired 00:35:36.030 --> 00:35:39.420 as the assistant director of this new organization 00:35:39.420 --> 00:35:40.713 and was looking for help, 00:35:41.670 --> 00:35:44.490 so, in October of 1974, 00:35:44.490 --> 00:35:47.700 Don Rawitsch got a job with MECC. 00:35:47.700 --> 00:35:51.000 According to Rawitsch, it was an exciting time. 00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:54.337 He said, "We were the first wave of people working 00:35:54.337 --> 00:35:57.300 "in the educational computing business." 00:35:57.300 --> 00:35:59.970 There was nothing else like it in the world. 00:35:59.970 --> 00:36:02.670 MECC held workshops to get teachers comfortable 00:36:02.670 --> 00:36:05.250 using computers in the classroom. 00:36:05.250 --> 00:36:07.380 They created a software library 00:36:07.380 --> 00:36:10.560 accessible to every school across the state. 00:36:10.560 --> 00:36:13.050 They bought teletype terminals in bulk 00:36:13.050 --> 00:36:15.693 and resold them to schools at a steep discount. 00:36:16.560 --> 00:36:19.380 MECC even helped with infrastructure, 00:36:19.380 --> 00:36:21.480 they collaborated with telephone companies 00:36:21.480 --> 00:36:24.060 to help bring down the costs of rural schools 00:36:24.060 --> 00:36:26.220 connecting to the network. 00:36:26.220 --> 00:36:29.250 Before MECC, only 14% of students 00:36:29.250 --> 00:36:33.960 outside of the Twin Cities area had access to computers. 00:36:33.960 --> 00:36:38.960 By 1975, that number had tripled to 46%. 00:36:41.820 --> 00:36:43.620 When Rawitsch first arrived, 00:36:43.620 --> 00:36:45.690 co-workers showed him the collection 00:36:45.690 --> 00:36:49.364 of educational computer programs available to schools. 00:36:49.364 --> 00:36:50.700 (bright thoughtful music) 00:36:50.700 --> 00:36:52.020 - There wasn't a lot. 00:36:52.020 --> 00:36:54.270 In those days, the math departments 00:36:54.270 --> 00:36:56.790 really were in charge of the computers. 00:36:56.790 --> 00:36:58.227 There were, like, math games on it, 00:36:58.227 --> 00:37:02.703 you know, it could ask math problems and things like that. 00:37:03.930 --> 00:37:06.420 - [Narrator] Rawitsch noticed there was a severe lack 00:37:06.420 --> 00:37:08.850 of social studies programs. 00:37:08.850 --> 00:37:11.700 And that's when he remembered "OREGON," 00:37:11.700 --> 00:37:15.510 it could make a great addition to the MECC software library. 00:37:15.510 --> 00:37:17.040 When he asked his superiors 00:37:17.040 --> 00:37:19.200 if he could add software to the library, 00:37:19.200 --> 00:37:23.112 they replied, "Yes, as many as we can find." 00:37:23.112 --> 00:37:23.970 (computer keyboard clicking) 00:37:23.970 --> 00:37:27.480 So over the 1974 Thanksgiving break, 00:37:27.480 --> 00:37:31.140 Don Rawitsch took home a teletype and re-typed "OREGON" 00:37:31.140 --> 00:37:34.650 from his printed-off copy of the game's code. 00:37:34.650 --> 00:37:39.650 But he didn't stop there, he also made updates to the game. 00:37:39.780 --> 00:37:42.607 According to Rawitsch, he got a, quote, 00:37:42.607 --> 00:37:45.270 "crash course in programming." 00:37:45.270 --> 00:37:47.910 - So he cleaned it up so it was a lot more accurate. 00:37:47.910 --> 00:37:49.590 And I know he did a lot of research. 00:37:49.590 --> 00:37:51.780 He read a lot of the diaries of settlers 00:37:51.780 --> 00:37:53.880 that took the trail to Oregon. 00:37:53.880 --> 00:37:56.580 He got more realistic probabilities. 00:37:56.580 --> 00:37:58.170 I mean, when we first wrote the program, 00:37:58.170 --> 00:38:00.120 we were guessing in a lot of it, 00:38:00.120 --> 00:38:03.540 and he was able to find out more about, you know, 00:38:03.540 --> 00:38:05.640 how likely you were to die or get sick 00:38:05.640 --> 00:38:06.790 or something to happen. 00:38:08.280 --> 00:38:09.990 - [Narrator] But some changes required 00:38:09.990 --> 00:38:12.810 some additional programming expertise. 00:38:12.810 --> 00:38:15.720 For that, Rawitsch turned to his old friend, 00:38:15.720 --> 00:38:18.090 Bill Heinemann, for help. 00:38:18.090 --> 00:38:20.370 - I remember him asking me 00:38:20.370 --> 00:38:23.550 if I'd be willing to make some changes to the program. 00:38:23.550 --> 00:38:26.010 And I said, "Sure, that sounds like fun." 00:38:26.010 --> 00:38:30.600 Don soon discovered that kids will try to stretch 00:38:30.600 --> 00:38:34.140 the possibility (chuckles) of answering questions. 00:38:34.140 --> 00:38:36.067 So when it said, "How much do you wanna spend 00:38:36.067 --> 00:38:37.530 "on your clothing?" 00:38:37.530 --> 00:38:41.520 they figured out they could enter a negative amount in there 00:38:41.520 --> 00:38:43.800 and essentially, get money back. 00:38:43.800 --> 00:38:45.930 So they'd enter a negative real high number, 00:38:45.930 --> 00:38:47.070 and they'd get tons of money, 00:38:47.070 --> 00:38:49.140 which they would buy tons of bullets, 00:38:49.140 --> 00:38:52.680 and tons of food and whatever. 00:38:52.680 --> 00:38:54.810 So that was an easy fix 00:38:54.810 --> 00:38:57.450 just to make sure that the number was positive. 00:38:57.450 --> 00:38:59.807 If it was negative, it would say, "You can't do that," 00:38:59.807 --> 00:39:03.033 and it would loop back and ask the question again. 00:39:03.990 --> 00:39:06.450 - [Narrator] Later, Heinemann also updated 00:39:06.450 --> 00:39:08.310 the hunting mini-game. 00:39:08.310 --> 00:39:09.300 - Kids soon learned 00:39:09.300 --> 00:39:10.800 that "Oh, we're gonna have to type 'bang.'" 00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:13.710 And they would get their fingers set on the keys 00:39:13.710 --> 00:39:15.240 for typing "bang," 00:39:15.240 --> 00:39:18.450 and then they would say, "Okay, somebody press return now," 00:39:18.450 --> 00:39:20.040 'cause they didn't wanna take their fingers off 00:39:20.040 --> 00:39:21.720 to press return. 00:39:21.720 --> 00:39:25.800 On the scroll here, I've got my pencil scratches on the back 00:39:25.800 --> 00:39:27.270 that has four choices: 00:39:27.270 --> 00:39:30.420 Blam, wham, pow, or bang. 00:39:30.420 --> 00:39:32.040 So they didn't know what was gonna come up, 00:39:32.040 --> 00:39:33.900 so they couldn't get their fingers on the keys 00:39:33.900 --> 00:39:37.050 and just wait until somebody pressed enter, 00:39:37.050 --> 00:39:40.110 they had to actually read what came out. 00:39:40.110 --> 00:39:41.250 When you're doing it quickly, 00:39:41.250 --> 00:39:45.090 you don't always think of doing devious things 00:39:45.090 --> 00:39:46.240 like the kids think of. 00:39:47.130 --> 00:39:48.300 (light upbeat folk music) 00:39:48.300 --> 00:39:52.440 - [Narrator] In 1975, the updated version of "OREGON" 00:39:52.440 --> 00:39:55.983 was made available to Minnesota schools statewide. 00:39:56.820 --> 00:39:59.730 Rawitsch also wrote up a teacher's guide. 00:39:59.730 --> 00:40:02.280 It not only explained how the game worked, 00:40:02.280 --> 00:40:06.150 but provided learning outcomes, historical documentation, 00:40:06.150 --> 00:40:07.740 suggested readings, 00:40:07.740 --> 00:40:11.073 and ideas for integrating the game into the curriculum. 00:40:12.210 --> 00:40:16.260 Once again, "OREGON" was a hit with students. 00:40:16.260 --> 00:40:17.760 For the next five years, 00:40:17.760 --> 00:40:21.960 it was the most-run program on the MECC software library. 00:40:21.960 --> 00:40:24.690 - When I was hired in Minneapolis, 00:40:24.690 --> 00:40:27.840 I then had access to the game. 00:40:27.840 --> 00:40:30.930 And I managed to include it in my math classes, 00:40:30.930 --> 00:40:33.180 sometimes as just a reward. 00:40:33.180 --> 00:40:36.690 So I was fond of it, fond of the game. 00:40:36.690 --> 00:40:39.210 - I got a job at UNIVAC. 00:40:39.210 --> 00:40:42.570 And interestingly enough, it was while I was at UNIVAC 00:40:42.570 --> 00:40:46.860 that UNIVAC put in a bid for the mainframe 00:40:46.860 --> 00:40:50.250 to run the TIES system or the MECC system. 00:40:50.250 --> 00:40:55.250 I wasn't on the project, but one of my coworkers was, 00:40:55.470 --> 00:40:58.650 and he was saying that he couldn't figure it out. 00:40:58.650 --> 00:41:01.500 There's this one program that's using up all the resources. 00:41:01.500 --> 00:41:04.770 I said, "Let me guess: 'Oregon Trail.'" 00:41:04.770 --> 00:41:06.090 He says, "Yes. How did you know?" 00:41:06.090 --> 00:41:07.590 I said, "I wrote that. 00:41:07.590 --> 00:41:09.217 He said, "Well, what in the world is it doing? 00:41:09.217 --> 00:41:11.467 "It runs all day long, every day. 00:41:11.467 --> 00:41:13.140 "It never stops." 00:41:13.140 --> 00:41:15.120 No, he was not impressed. 00:41:15.120 --> 00:41:18.030 - [Narrator] With the game taking off across Minnesota, 00:41:18.030 --> 00:41:20.130 Rawitsch wanted to share "OREGON" 00:41:20.130 --> 00:41:21.780 with the rest of the world, 00:41:21.780 --> 00:41:24.030 so with permission from Bill Heinemann 00:41:24.030 --> 00:41:25.710 and Paul Dillenberger, 00:41:25.710 --> 00:41:28.320 Rawitsch submitted the game for publication 00:41:28.320 --> 00:41:31.110 in a popular computer magazine. 00:41:31.110 --> 00:41:34.050 And with it, came a new name, 00:41:34.050 --> 00:41:38.790 popularized by the students who played it: 'Oregon Trail.' 00:41:38.790 --> 00:41:40.080 (bright acoustic music) 00:41:40.080 --> 00:41:44.670 - Creative Computing asked for permission to print the code 00:41:44.670 --> 00:41:47.973 in their magazine, which was a hobbyist's magazine. 00:41:48.810 --> 00:41:50.790 At the time, there was no such thing 00:41:50.790 --> 00:41:53.340 as software that could be purchased. 00:41:53.340 --> 00:41:56.310 So they printed out 10 pages of code or something 00:41:56.310 --> 00:41:58.317 in a magazine, and you could type it out. 00:41:58.317 --> 00:42:00.390 And as long as you didn't put a period 00:42:00.390 --> 00:42:01.860 where there was supposed to be a comma, 00:42:01.860 --> 00:42:04.560 and got every parentheses, (laughs) 00:42:04.560 --> 00:42:07.590 every number exactly right, it would work. 00:42:07.590 --> 00:42:10.200 But we gave them permission. 00:42:10.200 --> 00:42:11.680 I realized at the time 00:42:12.840 --> 00:42:15.727 that, "Okay, I'm giving them permission to do this. 00:42:15.727 --> 00:42:18.427 "It's public domain software now. 00:42:18.427 --> 00:42:21.157 "I won't get a penny from it ever, 00:42:21.157 --> 00:42:23.187 "but it'll spread like wildfire." 00:42:24.780 --> 00:42:26.640 - [Narrator] But it wasn't until the introduction 00:42:26.640 --> 00:42:29.700 of a revolutionary new piece of technology 00:42:29.700 --> 00:42:32.160 that "Oregon Trail" would truly begin 00:42:32.160 --> 00:42:33.903 its cross-country journey. 00:42:40.683 --> 00:42:42.988 (gentle contemplative synth music) 00:42:42.988 --> 00:42:45.007 - [Dale Narrator] "One of MECC's instructional coordinators 00:42:45.007 --> 00:42:47.479 "went to California and came back saying, 00:42:47.479 --> 00:42:50.350 "'You know, I went out to this conference in California, 00:42:50.350 --> 00:42:53.587 "'and I saw a little thing about so big, 00:42:53.587 --> 00:42:55.477 "'about the size of a small box, 00:42:55.477 --> 00:42:57.130 "'that does everything that huge computer 00:42:57.130 --> 00:43:01.387 "'out there on the floor does except it does it in color.' 00:43:01.387 --> 00:43:04.227 "He was talking about the Apple II microcomputer." 00:43:05.190 --> 00:43:06.460 Dale LaFrenz. 00:43:08.489 --> 00:43:10.470 - [Narrator] In 1977, 00:43:10.470 --> 00:43:13.530 Apple introduced a new personal computer, 00:43:13.530 --> 00:43:16.380 often called microcomputers. 00:43:16.380 --> 00:43:19.530 It was aimed at the everyday consumer. 00:43:19.530 --> 00:43:22.260 They called it the Apple II. 00:43:22.260 --> 00:43:25.800 For around $1,200, a user could have a computer 00:43:25.800 --> 00:43:29.010 that fit on a desk in their very own home. 00:43:29.010 --> 00:43:31.110 And Apple wasn't alone. 00:43:31.110 --> 00:43:34.320 That same year, Commodore released the PET, 00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:38.130 while Tandy RadioShack offered the TRS-80. 00:43:38.130 --> 00:43:42.450 It was the beginning of a new era in the computer industry. 00:43:42.450 --> 00:43:44.820 MECC quickly took notice. 00:43:44.820 --> 00:43:46.830 They recognized that the affordability 00:43:46.830 --> 00:43:48.780 and power of a microcomputer 00:43:48.780 --> 00:43:51.237 would make it a great addition to the classroom, 00:43:51.237 --> 00:43:54.210 and would allow them to slowly phase out their large, 00:43:54.210 --> 00:43:57.300 expensive telecommunication network. 00:43:57.300 --> 00:44:00.750 MECC decided to set up a statewide purchasing contract 00:44:00.750 --> 00:44:04.140 for one particular microcomputer brand. 00:44:04.140 --> 00:44:08.220 So, they solicited bids from multiple hardware vendors, 00:44:08.220 --> 00:44:10.890 but Apple had the winning offer. 00:44:10.890 --> 00:44:14.493 Between 1978 and 1979, 00:44:14.493 --> 00:44:17.940 MECC sold more than 500 Apple II computers 00:44:17.940 --> 00:44:19.740 to Minnesota schools 00:44:19.740 --> 00:44:23.370 and became one of Apple's largest hardware dealers. 00:44:23.370 --> 00:44:25.830 Other states followed MECC's lead 00:44:25.830 --> 00:44:29.730 and acquired Apple II computers for their own schools. 00:44:29.730 --> 00:44:32.670 The microcomputer industry boomed. 00:44:32.670 --> 00:44:36.330 Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, would later claim 00:44:36.330 --> 00:44:39.037 that "One of the things that built Apple IIs 00:44:39.037 --> 00:44:42.180 "was schools buying Apple IIs." 00:44:42.180 --> 00:44:46.290 The rise of personal computers was also good news for MECC, 00:44:46.290 --> 00:44:50.070 thanks to their growing educational software library. 00:44:50.070 --> 00:44:53.280 As schools in other states acquired computers, 00:44:53.280 --> 00:44:56.580 they turned to MECC for educational software. 00:44:56.580 --> 00:45:00.480 So, the organization converted their software library, 00:45:00.480 --> 00:45:03.540 written in BASIC, to Apple II BASIC, 00:45:03.540 --> 00:45:06.007 and sold the games on disks. 00:45:06.007 --> 00:45:08.910 "Oregon Trail," their most popular title, 00:45:08.910 --> 00:45:11.940 was one of the first games they converted. 00:45:11.940 --> 00:45:14.130 - So this original Apple II version 00:45:14.130 --> 00:45:18.630 was primarily a port of the original text-only game, 00:45:18.630 --> 00:45:20.850 but it was no longer 100% text. 00:45:20.850 --> 00:45:22.110 It was mostly text, 00:45:22.110 --> 00:45:24.210 but the main difference from the original 00:45:24.210 --> 00:45:26.040 was that the shooting activity 00:45:26.040 --> 00:45:28.680 had been put into a graphical context. 00:45:28.680 --> 00:45:30.840 So, if you were hunting for food, 00:45:30.840 --> 00:45:33.660 a little deer slowly moved across the screen, 00:45:33.660 --> 00:45:35.670 and you could press space bar to shoot at it. 00:45:35.670 --> 00:45:37.380 You could be attacked by wolves in this game, 00:45:37.380 --> 00:45:38.790 or you could be attacked by bandits, 00:45:38.790 --> 00:45:41.880 or you could be attacked by what they called hostile riders. 00:45:41.880 --> 00:45:43.770 And you could shoot at any of these, too. 00:45:43.770 --> 00:45:47.820 Otherwise, the game was pretty much a direct port 00:45:47.820 --> 00:45:50.967 from the original timeshare version that Don Rawitsch 00:45:50.967 --> 00:45:52.650 and his colleagues had created, 00:45:52.650 --> 00:45:56.237 with a few small tweaks here and there that were important. 00:45:56.237 --> 00:45:58.590 - [Narrator] MECC's conversion team worked their way 00:45:58.590 --> 00:46:00.810 through the back catalog of software 00:46:00.810 --> 00:46:04.717 and began offering software compilations to schools. 00:46:04.717 --> 00:46:07.560 "Oregon Trail" became one of five titles 00:46:07.560 --> 00:46:11.790 in the "Elementary Volume 6" social studies collection. 00:46:11.790 --> 00:46:15.390 MECC sold these disks to schools around the country. 00:46:15.390 --> 00:46:18.330 They even offered them for sale to consumers, 00:46:18.330 --> 00:46:21.600 through magazines like Creative Computing. 00:46:21.600 --> 00:46:25.470 - But after MECC started producing these Apple II disks, 00:46:25.470 --> 00:46:27.030 there was the potential for them being used 00:46:27.030 --> 00:46:28.080 outside the state. 00:46:28.080 --> 00:46:29.940 We started getting inquiries from other places, 00:46:29.940 --> 00:46:31.020 particularly from Iowa. 00:46:31.020 --> 00:46:34.160 Iowa wanted to be able just to license all of the MECC disks 00:46:34.160 --> 00:46:35.670 at once for the Apple II. 00:46:35.670 --> 00:46:37.860 This led to a new business model, 00:46:37.860 --> 00:46:41.430 where MECC was no longer relying entirely on state funding, 00:46:41.430 --> 00:46:42.960 but was getting an income stream 00:46:42.960 --> 00:46:45.990 by selling the product outside of the state 00:46:45.990 --> 00:46:47.580 to other individual school districts 00:46:47.580 --> 00:46:50.010 or entire states as a site license. 00:46:50.010 --> 00:46:52.800 For a school or a district that got a site license, 00:46:52.800 --> 00:46:54.150 they would pay an annual fee, 00:46:54.150 --> 00:46:57.060 and they could make unlimited copies of MECC software 00:46:57.060 --> 00:46:59.163 for its own use during those 12 months. 00:47:00.480 --> 00:47:03.180 - [Narrator] Thanks to software licensing and sales, 00:47:03.180 --> 00:47:05.430 MECC made a lot of money. 00:47:05.430 --> 00:47:08.820 So much so, in fact, that the higher-ups at MECC 00:47:08.820 --> 00:47:11.340 made a proposition to the state. 00:47:11.340 --> 00:47:13.710 MECC proposed that they would turn themselves 00:47:13.710 --> 00:47:17.970 into a company, wholly owned by the state of Minnesota. 00:47:17.970 --> 00:47:20.760 This would remove all government subsidies, 00:47:20.760 --> 00:47:23.100 but allow MECC to hire more staff 00:47:23.100 --> 00:47:25.890 without strict government regulations. 00:47:25.890 --> 00:47:28.560 They could offer bonuses, commissions, 00:47:28.560 --> 00:47:30.870 higher salaries, and more. 00:47:30.870 --> 00:47:33.570 In addition, MECC would still provide hardware 00:47:33.570 --> 00:47:37.830 and software at a steep discount to Minnesota schools. 00:47:37.830 --> 00:47:40.500 All of these changes would help MECC compete 00:47:40.500 --> 00:47:43.590 in the fast-growing software business. 00:47:43.590 --> 00:47:46.920 In 1984, the Minnesota state legislature 00:47:46.920 --> 00:47:50.070 approved the measure, and MECC became known 00:47:50.070 --> 00:47:54.300 as the Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation. 00:47:54.300 --> 00:47:56.940 Dale LaFrenz, who was now the vice president 00:47:56.940 --> 00:47:58.530 of marketing at MECC, 00:47:58.530 --> 00:48:02.010 was ready to lead the company into new territory, 00:48:02.010 --> 00:48:03.687 the home consumer market. 00:48:03.687 --> 00:48:06.900 And for their first wave of retail products, 00:48:06.900 --> 00:48:10.327 one title stood out above the rest: 00:48:10.327 --> 00:48:11.517 "Oregon Trail." 00:48:17.820 --> 00:48:19.530 - There were two primary reasons 00:48:19.530 --> 00:48:22.080 that MECC decided finally, in 1984, 00:48:22.080 --> 00:48:24.270 to create a new version of "The Oregon Trail." 00:48:24.270 --> 00:48:29.070 The first reason was that the product was now out of date. 00:48:29.070 --> 00:48:31.800 The world had really changed a lot in four years. 00:48:31.800 --> 00:48:34.680 Products that were appearing on the market in 1984 00:48:34.680 --> 00:48:37.803 looked so much better than the ones in 1980. 00:48:37.803 --> 00:48:39.510 They were also being created by teams 00:48:39.510 --> 00:48:41.970 of professional programmers, teams of professional artists, 00:48:41.970 --> 00:48:44.340 teams of professional educational designers. 00:48:44.340 --> 00:48:45.540 But MECC had a second reason 00:48:45.540 --> 00:48:48.123 that was even more motivating for the management. 00:48:48.123 --> 00:48:50.850 MECC was one of the biggest players in the school market 00:48:50.850 --> 00:48:53.880 but had yet to have any real success in the home market, 00:48:53.880 --> 00:48:55.467 and they figured that "Oregon Trail" 00:48:55.467 --> 00:48:57.000 was their best opportunity, 00:48:57.000 --> 00:48:58.950 but it would have to be a brand-new version 00:48:58.950 --> 00:48:59.783 of "The Oregon Trail." 00:48:59.783 --> 00:49:00.750 It couldn't be the old one. 00:49:00.750 --> 00:49:02.621 So, that was my mandate. 00:49:02.621 --> 00:49:04.290 (light thoughtful music) 00:49:04.290 --> 00:49:05.890 - [Narrator] In October of 1984, 00:49:06.750 --> 00:49:09.210 MECC tasked Philip Bouchard, 00:49:09.210 --> 00:49:11.670 a full-time programmer on staff, 00:49:11.670 --> 00:49:14.580 to create an updated version of "Oregon Trail" 00:49:14.580 --> 00:49:16.290 for the home market. 00:49:16.290 --> 00:49:20.160 Bouchard had been at MECC since May of 1981. 00:49:20.160 --> 00:49:22.620 During his first few years on the job, 00:49:22.620 --> 00:49:26.790 he witnessed the meteoric rise of the software industry. 00:49:26.790 --> 00:49:28.860 - And when I first started at MECC, 00:49:28.860 --> 00:49:30.990 the microcomputer group was really tiny. 00:49:30.990 --> 00:49:34.170 We had about five full-time people in that group. 00:49:34.170 --> 00:49:37.170 As MECC grew, the microcomputer software group 00:49:37.170 --> 00:49:38.070 got bigger and bigger, 00:49:38.070 --> 00:49:40.560 and I started working for more different kinds of computers. 00:49:40.560 --> 00:49:42.750 Not just Apple IIs, but a variety of other ones, 00:49:42.750 --> 00:49:45.060 like the Ataris and Commodores, and so on. 00:49:45.060 --> 00:49:47.040 The rest of the company started shrinking and shrinking. 00:49:47.040 --> 00:49:48.840 The timeshare system was shut down. 00:49:48.840 --> 00:49:50.850 Pretty soon, MECC was all about 00:49:50.850 --> 00:49:53.550 creating educational computer software. 00:49:53.550 --> 00:49:56.460 - [Narrator] Now, Bouchard was in charge of updating MECC's 00:49:56.460 --> 00:49:58.290 most popular game. 00:49:58.290 --> 00:50:02.040 Upper management was mostly hands-off on the project, 00:50:02.040 --> 00:50:05.400 but they did have three requirements for the new game. 00:50:05.400 --> 00:50:07.890 First, Bouchard had to preserve 00:50:07.890 --> 00:50:11.250 what made the original game so popular. 00:50:11.250 --> 00:50:16.200 - I was aware of "OREGON" before I even got to MECC. 00:50:16.200 --> 00:50:17.700 I didn't get to play the game, though, 00:50:17.700 --> 00:50:19.350 until I arrived in Minnesota. 00:50:19.350 --> 00:50:20.430 I thought they were exciting. 00:50:20.430 --> 00:50:21.840 I thought they were innovative. 00:50:21.840 --> 00:50:24.360 But I also saw opportunities for improvement 00:50:24.360 --> 00:50:25.470 and opportunities for growth. 00:50:25.470 --> 00:50:28.770 And I thought, "There's more we can do here." 00:50:28.770 --> 00:50:29.820 - [Narrator] Second, 00:50:29.820 --> 00:50:33.210 the game had to appeal to the home market. 00:50:33.210 --> 00:50:35.460 - Now, I was told not to worry about the school market. 00:50:35.460 --> 00:50:36.293 I did. 00:50:36.293 --> 00:50:39.337 I decided, "I wanna create a product that can go both ways. 00:50:39.337 --> 00:50:42.517 "Let's look for the ideas that have the most potential 00:50:42.517 --> 00:50:45.757 "for being both entertaining and educational, 00:50:45.757 --> 00:50:48.237 "and let's emphasize those ideas." 00:50:49.080 --> 00:50:50.220 - [Narrator] And finally, 00:50:50.220 --> 00:50:53.820 the game had to be built for the Apple II computer. 00:50:53.820 --> 00:50:55.320 - So that was a big challenge. 00:50:55.320 --> 00:50:57.750 The Apple II has got this tiny little 64K RAM. 00:50:57.750 --> 00:50:59.220 It's got these tiny little floppy disks 00:50:59.220 --> 00:51:02.010 that hold 128K or something. 00:51:02.010 --> 00:51:03.723 How do we get it to all fit? 00:51:05.910 --> 00:51:07.500 - [Narrator] With those objectives, 00:51:07.500 --> 00:51:09.513 Bouchard assembled his team. 00:51:10.380 --> 00:51:12.270 - There were five of us, at first. 00:51:12.270 --> 00:51:15.450 So I was the team leader and lead designer. 00:51:15.450 --> 00:51:18.420 Shirley Keran was an experienced teacher. 00:51:18.420 --> 00:51:20.850 She also ended up writing all the manuals. 00:51:20.850 --> 00:51:23.940 John Krenz was named the lead programmer. 00:51:23.940 --> 00:51:27.420 Charolyn Kapplinger was the lead graphic designer. 00:51:27.420 --> 00:51:30.270 That meant she did virtually all of the artwork 00:51:30.270 --> 00:51:31.560 that appears in the product. 00:51:31.560 --> 00:51:33.870 And then, finally, we had, Bob Granvin, 00:51:33.870 --> 00:51:35.460 who assisted with programming, 00:51:35.460 --> 00:51:37.620 and he created the first prototype 00:51:37.620 --> 00:51:39.480 that we did for the hunting game. 00:51:39.480 --> 00:51:40.710 So, at the time that our team 00:51:40.710 --> 00:51:42.480 first got started on "The Oregon Trail," 00:51:42.480 --> 00:51:44.970 I was very interested in speaking with Don Rawitsch. 00:51:44.970 --> 00:51:46.440 He was still on staff, 00:51:46.440 --> 00:51:48.750 so I went over to his office and spoke with him. 00:51:48.750 --> 00:51:49.860 I wanted to get his take on, 00:51:49.860 --> 00:51:51.371 well, what did he think about this? 00:51:51.371 --> 00:51:54.330 What were his thoughts as to where it might go? 00:51:54.330 --> 00:51:56.550 Would he like to be involved in weekly meetings? 00:51:56.550 --> 00:51:57.630 He kind of demurred. 00:51:57.630 --> 00:51:58.650 He said, you know, 00:51:58.650 --> 00:52:01.290 he wanted to really respect the boundaries 00:52:01.290 --> 00:52:02.457 between the different divisions of MECC, 00:52:02.457 --> 00:52:04.590 and since he wasn't in the software division, 00:52:04.590 --> 00:52:07.470 he was just gonna stand back and let us take it over. 00:52:07.470 --> 00:52:09.787 But he said, "You know, I think you've got a good team. 00:52:09.787 --> 00:52:13.112 "I think you're gonna do a great job, so I'm not worried." 00:52:13.112 --> 00:52:14.580 (light folk music) 00:52:14.580 --> 00:52:17.250 - [Narrator] To begin, Bouchard and his team got feedback 00:52:17.250 --> 00:52:20.700 from their target demographic, children. 00:52:20.700 --> 00:52:24.937 They wanted to know what made "Oregon Trail" so special. 00:52:24.937 --> 00:52:26.227 - "Why do you like 'The Oregon Trail?' 00:52:26.227 --> 00:52:28.290 "What is it that most appeals to you?" 00:52:28.290 --> 00:52:30.727 And the boys would enthusiastically answer, 00:52:30.727 --> 00:52:32.730 "Hunting, hunting! We like hunting!" 00:52:32.730 --> 00:52:34.380 That was the universal answer. 00:52:34.380 --> 00:52:35.460 Girls, interestingly, 00:52:35.460 --> 00:52:38.310 we found that half the girls didn't much care for the game, 00:52:38.310 --> 00:52:40.090 and half of them did. 00:52:40.090 --> 00:52:42.390 Then, when we started observing the kids playing, 00:52:42.390 --> 00:52:45.030 we could see it wasn't just the shooting 00:52:45.030 --> 00:52:46.290 that was attracting them, 00:52:46.290 --> 00:52:49.560 2/3 of the kids actually cared about getting to Oregon. 00:52:49.560 --> 00:52:52.470 So we could see that the resource management aspect 00:52:52.470 --> 00:52:53.303 was a key part. 00:52:53.303 --> 00:52:55.620 Making sure that you kept an eye on your supplies, 00:52:55.620 --> 00:52:57.570 that at no time you allowed anything to run out 00:52:57.570 --> 00:52:59.370 because that would be certain death in that game. 00:52:59.370 --> 00:53:00.750 The other thing was the fact 00:53:00.750 --> 00:53:02.640 that after every two-week period, 00:53:02.640 --> 00:53:06.480 some random thing would happen that was usually bad, 00:53:06.480 --> 00:53:08.400 and it kind of kept them on the edge of their seats. 00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:09.817 Like, "What's gonna happen this time? 00:53:09.817 --> 00:53:11.040 "What's gonna happen this time?" 00:53:11.040 --> 00:53:13.740 So those two aspects turned out to be 00:53:13.740 --> 00:53:15.300 what I thought were also crucial. 00:53:15.300 --> 00:53:18.600 This goal of surviving all the way to Oregon, 00:53:18.600 --> 00:53:19.950 watching your resources, 00:53:19.950 --> 00:53:22.620 and wondering what's gonna happen on the way. 00:53:22.620 --> 00:53:23.910 - [Narrator] With the feedback, 00:53:23.910 --> 00:53:27.003 Bouchard envisioned a new foundation for the game. 00:53:27.960 --> 00:53:31.320 - The original game was based on a two-week structure 00:53:31.320 --> 00:53:34.170 where two weeks would pass, couple of things would happen, 00:53:34.170 --> 00:53:35.880 two weeks would pass, and so on. 00:53:35.880 --> 00:53:38.580 This particular structure did not facilitate 00:53:38.580 --> 00:53:40.350 the inclusion of any actual geography 00:53:40.350 --> 00:53:41.664 because you couldn't know where you would be 00:53:41.664 --> 00:53:43.530 at the end of these two weeks. 00:53:43.530 --> 00:53:45.840 I wanted a game that was heavily based on geography. 00:53:45.840 --> 00:53:48.120 I wanted it to be as much geography as history. 00:53:48.120 --> 00:53:49.500 This ended up being the idea 00:53:49.500 --> 00:53:51.240 of going from a landmark to landmark. 00:53:51.240 --> 00:53:52.740 That I would include a bunch of different 00:53:52.740 --> 00:53:54.360 landmarks along the way, 00:53:54.360 --> 00:53:56.730 dividing the trail to about 16 segments 00:53:56.730 --> 00:53:58.320 each ending in a landmark. 00:53:58.320 --> 00:53:59.640 And once I presented this idea 00:53:59.640 --> 00:54:01.950 of a landmark-based game structure to the team, 00:54:01.950 --> 00:54:03.210 the team all bought into it. 00:54:03.210 --> 00:54:05.310 Shirley and I, we both started coming up 00:54:05.310 --> 00:54:06.870 with lists of different things 00:54:06.870 --> 00:54:09.630 that people would anticipate along the way. 00:54:09.630 --> 00:54:11.850 There were forts, of course. 00:54:11.850 --> 00:54:14.460 There were a lot of different river crossings. 00:54:14.460 --> 00:54:16.230 But there was a lot of geographical features 00:54:16.230 --> 00:54:17.190 that people would anticipate, 00:54:17.190 --> 00:54:19.680 like Chimney Rock being the most famous. 00:54:19.680 --> 00:54:23.400 But there was still an issue because I wanted the player 00:54:23.400 --> 00:54:26.430 to be able to react immediately if they ran out of food 00:54:26.430 --> 00:54:27.263 or something happened. 00:54:27.263 --> 00:54:29.640 I wanted things to be able to happen between landmarks. 00:54:29.640 --> 00:54:31.470 So the first step in solving that problem 00:54:31.470 --> 00:54:34.830 was that in addition to the landmark-to-landmark cycle, 00:54:34.830 --> 00:54:36.780 I had a daily cycle going underneath it, 00:54:36.780 --> 00:54:40.440 and all of the formulas would be recomputed every day: 00:54:40.440 --> 00:54:41.730 How much food do you have left? 00:54:41.730 --> 00:54:44.220 What is the current health of every member of your party? 00:54:44.220 --> 00:54:46.320 What's the current weather on this particular date? 00:54:46.320 --> 00:54:48.797 But the next problem was now I had 00:54:48.797 --> 00:54:52.050 150 possible stopping points along the trail, 00:54:52.050 --> 00:54:54.997 that's too many times to ask the person, 00:54:54.997 --> 00:54:56.310 "What do you wanna do now?" 00:54:56.310 --> 00:54:57.487 Finally, came up with this idea, 00:54:57.487 --> 00:54:59.587 "Well, what if from landmark to landmark, 00:54:59.587 --> 00:55:01.110 "it just goes on its own?" 00:55:01.110 --> 00:55:02.520 It goes day after day, 00:55:02.520 --> 00:55:03.840 all the data's up there on the screen. 00:55:03.840 --> 00:55:05.850 You can see all these different variables changing: 00:55:05.850 --> 00:55:07.680 Your health, how many miles are left, 00:55:07.680 --> 00:55:09.390 how much food you have, and so on. 00:55:09.390 --> 00:55:11.070 But anytime you can stop it 00:55:11.070 --> 00:55:13.350 and then take an action at that point, 00:55:13.350 --> 00:55:16.087 but you aren't forced to add answer every single day, 00:55:16.087 --> 00:55:17.487 "What do you wanna do next?" 00:55:19.200 --> 00:55:22.050 - [Narrator] The new system simulated a day-to-day journey 00:55:22.050 --> 00:55:24.480 along the Oregon Trail. 00:55:24.480 --> 00:55:28.410 Bouchard and Shirley Keran also expanded on random events 00:55:28.410 --> 00:55:31.350 that could happen daily along the trail. 00:55:31.350 --> 00:55:33.750 A thief could steal supplies, 00:55:33.750 --> 00:55:37.320 or a member of the wagon party might break their arm. 00:55:37.320 --> 00:55:39.570 Some occurrences were positive, 00:55:39.570 --> 00:55:42.390 such as stumbling upon wild fruit. 00:55:42.390 --> 00:55:44.640 It made the journey more exciting 00:55:44.640 --> 00:55:47.160 and kept players on their toes. 00:55:47.160 --> 00:55:49.440 Still, Bouchard felt like things 00:55:49.440 --> 00:55:52.220 were simply happening to the player in the game. 00:55:52.220 --> 00:55:55.080 He wanted to give people more agency 00:55:55.080 --> 00:55:57.240 on their journey to Oregon. 00:55:57.240 --> 00:56:01.230 - In the original game, as compelling as it was, 00:56:01.230 --> 00:56:04.890 there wasn't that much opportunity for decision-making. 00:56:04.890 --> 00:56:07.477 Basically, each two-week period you decided, 00:56:07.477 --> 00:56:09.060 "Do I want to hunt or not?" 00:56:09.060 --> 00:56:11.160 and, "How much am I gonna eat?" 00:56:11.160 --> 00:56:13.770 Otherwise, there was mostly things happening to you. 00:56:13.770 --> 00:56:16.500 In the new product, I wanted to take that great beginning 00:56:16.500 --> 00:56:17.333 and expand it. 00:56:17.333 --> 00:56:19.110 Give the users lots more opportunities, 00:56:19.110 --> 00:56:21.540 lots more decision-making potential. 00:56:21.540 --> 00:56:24.457 Part of that was including additional resources, 00:56:24.457 --> 00:56:26.160 additional things that they could decide 00:56:26.160 --> 00:56:28.440 in terms of how resources were being used. 00:56:28.440 --> 00:56:29.730 Spare parts is one thing. 00:56:29.730 --> 00:56:31.560 So, three different categories of spare parts. 00:56:31.560 --> 00:56:33.570 Because as I was reading, doing the research, 00:56:33.570 --> 00:56:36.060 I saw how often things broke down on the trail, 00:56:36.060 --> 00:56:38.730 which could sometimes be fixed, sometimes not. 00:56:38.730 --> 00:56:40.380 - [Narrator] Bouchard also gave players 00:56:40.380 --> 00:56:42.810 more things to do while traveling. 00:56:42.810 --> 00:56:46.650 They could set their pace, attempt to trade for resources, 00:56:46.650 --> 00:56:49.833 or rest for a few days to recover from injuries. 00:56:51.960 --> 00:56:56.130 But one player decision became a tense experience: 00:56:56.130 --> 00:56:57.603 River crossings. 00:56:57.603 --> 00:56:58.530 (light gentle acoustic music) 00:56:58.530 --> 00:57:00.360 - River crossings didn't occur 00:57:00.360 --> 00:57:01.890 in the original product at all. 00:57:01.890 --> 00:57:04.410 These are based on an actual river you had to cross. 00:57:04.410 --> 00:57:06.930 And these rivers differed in their conditions. 00:57:06.930 --> 00:57:10.560 They differed in how wide they were and the average depth. 00:57:10.560 --> 00:57:11.580 And during the course of a year, 00:57:11.580 --> 00:57:13.950 a river could change the depth of water in it. 00:57:13.950 --> 00:57:17.250 Some had ferries available, some did not. 00:57:17.250 --> 00:57:20.520 Some had helpful Native Americans who could, 00:57:20.520 --> 00:57:22.920 for a fee, help you across, some didn't have that. 00:57:22.920 --> 00:57:24.030 So, there were a lot of variables 00:57:24.030 --> 00:57:25.530 we could incorporate into this. 00:57:25.530 --> 00:57:26.670 What a wonderful opportunity. 00:57:26.670 --> 00:57:29.100 Let's include this in the game where you have to decide 00:57:29.100 --> 00:57:30.420 how are you gonna cross. 00:57:30.420 --> 00:57:31.740 The kids really loved it. 00:57:31.740 --> 00:57:33.240 But once we put in the animations, 00:57:33.240 --> 00:57:34.920 it became a nail-biting experience. 00:57:34.920 --> 00:57:36.990 You can see you've made your decision, 00:57:36.990 --> 00:57:40.117 you're starting across the river, and now you're waiting: 00:57:40.117 --> 00:57:41.670 "Am I gonna make it? Am I gonna make it?" 00:57:41.670 --> 00:57:44.330 And then halfway across, the wagon turns over, 00:57:44.330 --> 00:57:46.470 or it gets all the way across to the far shore. 00:57:46.470 --> 00:57:48.570 So it's a very exciting aspect of the game, 00:57:48.570 --> 00:57:51.180 as well as being an important historical 00:57:51.180 --> 00:57:52.380 educational opportunity. 00:57:53.760 --> 00:57:54.930 - [Narrator] But for many kids, 00:57:54.930 --> 00:57:57.150 the most exciting part of "Oregon Trail" 00:57:57.150 --> 00:57:59.220 was still the hunting. 00:57:59.220 --> 00:58:01.773 Bouchard wanted to ensure they got it right. 00:58:02.790 --> 00:58:03.720 - In the original, 00:58:03.720 --> 00:58:05.525 the shooting activities were very popular. 00:58:05.525 --> 00:58:07.650 And that included not just hunting for food, 00:58:07.650 --> 00:58:10.620 but also shooting at attacking animals, like wolves, 00:58:10.620 --> 00:58:12.390 shooting at attacking people. 00:58:12.390 --> 00:58:14.580 Quite a bit of shooting in the original game. 00:58:14.580 --> 00:58:15.510 For the new game, 00:58:15.510 --> 00:58:17.880 I decided to narrow that down just to the hunting. 00:58:17.880 --> 00:58:19.320 In part because for my research, 00:58:19.320 --> 00:58:21.660 I couldn't find any evidence of actual attacks 00:58:21.660 --> 00:58:23.580 by wild animals on the trail, 00:58:23.580 --> 00:58:27.270 and nor were frontal attacks by bandits or Native Americans 00:58:27.270 --> 00:58:29.850 anything that occurred with any frequency whatsoever. 00:58:29.850 --> 00:58:32.460 Then I wanted to make this game similar 00:58:32.460 --> 00:58:34.890 to a genuine arcade-style game 00:58:34.890 --> 00:58:36.480 like you might find on Apple II, 00:58:36.480 --> 00:58:38.250 if you bought an arcade-style game, 00:58:38.250 --> 00:58:39.600 or if you went to an actual arcade 00:58:39.600 --> 00:58:41.010 and played an arcade game. 00:58:41.010 --> 00:58:42.510 I wanted it to feel a lot like that. 00:58:42.510 --> 00:58:45.347 I worked with John Krenz and Bob Granvin, 00:58:45.347 --> 00:58:46.770 two of my teammates. 00:58:46.770 --> 00:58:48.030 The three of us got together 00:58:48.030 --> 00:58:50.640 and brainstormed hunting idea games. 00:58:50.640 --> 00:58:52.740 Bob created a little prototype 00:58:52.740 --> 00:58:54.990 that illustrated our concepts. 00:58:54.990 --> 00:58:56.730 The problem, though, was that it 00:58:56.730 --> 00:58:58.320 couldn't be done in Applesoft BASIC. 00:58:58.320 --> 00:59:00.660 It would've required assembly language programming, 00:59:00.660 --> 00:59:02.700 which is a bit more, well, considerably more involved. 00:59:02.700 --> 00:59:04.650 It requires a specialist programmer. 00:59:04.650 --> 00:59:07.440 But eventually, my boss gave me permission to do this, 00:59:07.440 --> 00:59:10.920 and we brought in another teammate, Roger Shimada, 00:59:10.920 --> 00:59:13.560 specifically to program this hunting game. 00:59:13.560 --> 00:59:16.770 When Roger first programmed the game, 00:59:16.770 --> 00:59:20.930 we didn't have the dead animals graphics ready yet. 00:59:20.930 --> 00:59:22.380 At his first cut of programming it, 00:59:22.380 --> 00:59:24.423 he just flipped the graphic upside down 00:59:24.423 --> 00:59:25.890 to show that the animal had been shot 00:59:25.890 --> 00:59:27.510 as a temporary measure. 00:59:27.510 --> 00:59:28.650 Well, it was so cute. 00:59:28.650 --> 00:59:29.820 We liked that. 00:59:29.820 --> 00:59:32.610 But we went ahead and put in the dead animal graphics, 00:59:32.610 --> 00:59:35.400 that when you shot, it just collapsed into a lump. 00:59:35.400 --> 00:59:36.750 That wasn't nearly as effective. 00:59:36.750 --> 00:59:39.000 It turned out that it was far more effective 00:59:39.000 --> 00:59:41.070 just to flip the animal upside down, 00:59:41.070 --> 00:59:42.690 and it made for a more entertaining game, 00:59:42.690 --> 00:59:45.300 and it clearly communicated what happened. 00:59:45.300 --> 00:59:46.597 - [Narrator] With all of the updates, 00:59:46.597 --> 00:59:50.453 "The Oregon Trail" game became more and more interactive. 00:59:50.453 --> 00:59:51.930 (gentle acoustic folk music) 00:59:51.930 --> 00:59:53.850 But Bouchard couldn't forget 00:59:53.850 --> 00:59:56.340 that the game was also meant to teach students 00:59:56.340 --> 00:59:58.830 about the people who made the journey 00:59:58.830 --> 01:00:01.590 and the hardships they experienced. 01:00:01.590 --> 01:00:02.952 - So, in the original game, 01:00:02.952 --> 01:00:05.130 one of the things that really caught my attention 01:00:05.130 --> 01:00:08.160 was that it almost gave the illusion 01:00:08.160 --> 01:00:10.260 that you were alone on the trail. 01:00:10.260 --> 01:00:13.320 Mentions of other people were very rare, 01:00:13.320 --> 01:00:14.377 I said, "I wanna be able to have 01:00:14.377 --> 01:00:15.810 "other people in this wagon." 01:00:15.810 --> 01:00:17.610 It's you and these other people, 01:00:17.610 --> 01:00:19.440 probably your family members. 01:00:19.440 --> 01:00:23.010 Came up with this idea, "Why don't we name these people?" 01:00:23.010 --> 01:00:25.800 You, as the player not only provide your own name, 01:00:25.800 --> 01:00:27.990 you provide the name of these other five people, 01:00:27.990 --> 01:00:29.670 and then things can happen 01:00:29.670 --> 01:00:31.680 to the individual people on the wagon. 01:00:31.680 --> 01:00:33.600 Sickness was a real problem on the Oregon Trail. 01:00:33.600 --> 01:00:35.460 A lot of people got sick along the way. 01:00:35.460 --> 01:00:37.710 Sickness and accidents were quite common 01:00:37.710 --> 01:00:40.140 and were, of course, the main causes of death. 01:00:40.140 --> 01:00:44.010 I did research on what diseases people mentioned most often 01:00:44.010 --> 01:00:45.840 using the terminology that they used. 01:00:45.840 --> 01:00:49.470 And I found the six that were mentioned most often, 01:00:49.470 --> 01:00:51.750 I took those six and put them into the game. 01:00:51.750 --> 01:00:53.550 All six are equally probable. 01:00:53.550 --> 01:00:55.740 I didn't make one more probable than the other. 01:00:55.740 --> 01:00:57.720 This worked exceedingly well. 01:00:57.720 --> 01:00:59.250 We could watch the kids, 01:00:59.250 --> 01:01:01.410 they would almost always first time they played, 01:01:01.410 --> 01:01:04.260 put in the names of their siblings, their family members. 01:01:04.260 --> 01:01:06.510 And now they were in charge of the wagon, 01:01:06.510 --> 01:01:09.630 it became very personal for a lot of them, 01:01:09.630 --> 01:01:13.050 and really motivated them to try harder the next time. 01:01:13.050 --> 01:01:14.550 But I wanted to have the opportunity 01:01:14.550 --> 01:01:16.653 to meet other people along the way, too. 01:01:17.520 --> 01:01:19.290 Some of these people would be other immigrants 01:01:19.290 --> 01:01:20.820 who may be in different wagons. 01:01:20.820 --> 01:01:23.700 Or they could be soldiers or traders or trappers 01:01:23.700 --> 01:01:26.490 who were at a particular fort or other landmark. 01:01:26.490 --> 01:01:28.620 It could be Native Americans who lived in the area 01:01:28.620 --> 01:01:30.630 or had come to the area to do trading. 01:01:30.630 --> 01:01:31.860 This varied humanity, 01:01:31.860 --> 01:01:34.080 I wanted you to be able to interact with them 01:01:34.080 --> 01:01:35.373 and hear their stories. 01:01:36.660 --> 01:01:38.250 - [Narrator] If players managed to make it 01:01:38.250 --> 01:01:41.850 to the last part of the journey, at The Dalles landmark, 01:01:41.850 --> 01:01:44.610 they were in for one more surprise: 01:01:44.610 --> 01:01:48.000 A choice on which route to take. 01:01:48.000 --> 01:01:50.580 - One was to raft down the Columbia River, 01:01:50.580 --> 01:01:52.680 and the other one was to take the Barlow Toll Road, 01:01:52.680 --> 01:01:55.560 which was a very rugged toll road through the mountains. 01:01:55.560 --> 01:01:56.970 And this is the reality. 01:01:56.970 --> 01:01:58.140 This is the actual reality 01:01:58.140 --> 01:02:00.090 that the travelers on the trail faced. 01:02:00.090 --> 01:02:04.050 I wanted the game to have kind of a big finale. 01:02:04.050 --> 01:02:05.400 So to make this a big finale, 01:02:05.400 --> 01:02:06.900 I wanted to have a rafting game 01:02:06.900 --> 01:02:09.660 where you raft down the river and had to survive, 01:02:09.660 --> 01:02:11.670 and to take the Barlow Toll Road, 01:02:11.670 --> 01:02:14.100 I was envisioning some other game. 01:02:14.100 --> 01:02:15.840 If I want to meet the needs of different students 01:02:15.840 --> 01:02:19.500 with different game-playing styles, I'll have a puzzle game. 01:02:19.500 --> 01:02:21.060 So how about a puzzle game 01:02:21.060 --> 01:02:23.610 in which you are trying to get your wagon 01:02:23.610 --> 01:02:25.890 up a big mountain and down the other side? 01:02:25.890 --> 01:02:27.390 Which is absolutely true. 01:02:27.390 --> 01:02:29.160 And they were on the Barlow Toll Road 01:02:29.160 --> 01:02:31.770 using ropes, levers, pulleys. 01:02:31.770 --> 01:02:33.420 Again, absolutely true. 01:02:33.420 --> 01:02:35.913 And this would be a fantastic opportunity here. 01:02:36.870 --> 01:02:39.570 - [Narrator] But due to time and technical constraints, 01:02:39.570 --> 01:02:43.980 both games had to be modified or removed altogether. 01:02:43.980 --> 01:02:46.680 - So, I got permission, finally, to do a really simple, 01:02:46.680 --> 01:02:48.480 stripped-down version of the rafting game. 01:02:48.480 --> 01:02:49.998 Much simpler than before. 01:02:49.998 --> 01:02:51.570 But at least it got in. 01:02:51.570 --> 01:02:53.010 But the Barlow Toll Road, 01:02:53.010 --> 01:02:55.350 it operated in the same way as the rest of the game. 01:02:55.350 --> 01:02:56.940 We never got in the game about the puzzle game 01:02:56.940 --> 01:02:58.773 with the ropes, levers, and pulleys. 01:02:59.610 --> 01:03:02.130 - [Narrator] If players managed to survive the rafting 01:03:02.130 --> 01:03:07.130 or the toll road, they made it to Oregon, beating the game. 01:03:07.140 --> 01:03:09.240 - But then, when the player got that far, 01:03:09.240 --> 01:03:10.380 all of a sudden we revealed 01:03:10.380 --> 01:03:12.420 that there was a scoring system underneath this. 01:03:12.420 --> 01:03:14.130 It had been hidden until they arrived, 01:03:14.130 --> 01:03:16.500 and they could see that they had made a high score list 01:03:16.500 --> 01:03:18.390 and that there were other names already on that list 01:03:18.390 --> 01:03:19.770 higher than them. 01:03:19.770 --> 01:03:23.250 So, now, all of a sudden, there was a new motivating factor. 01:03:23.250 --> 01:03:25.680 Because I was creating this product for the home market, 01:03:25.680 --> 01:03:27.540 and I needed to have all kinds of different ways 01:03:27.540 --> 01:03:29.280 to get people to keep playing it again, 01:03:29.280 --> 01:03:30.990 I wanted to go a step further still 01:03:30.990 --> 01:03:33.660 and give you three different difficulty levels. 01:03:33.660 --> 01:03:35.010 It's so much easier to play 01:03:35.010 --> 01:03:36.750 when you can start with a lot of money. 01:03:36.750 --> 01:03:38.107 Ultimately, it ended up being presented as 01:03:38.107 --> 01:03:41.250 "Do you want to be a banker, a carpenter, or a farmer?" 01:03:41.250 --> 01:03:43.230 The implication was that each one 01:03:43.230 --> 01:03:45.570 came with a different amount of money. 01:03:45.570 --> 01:03:47.700 - [Narrator] If players couldn't complete the journey, 01:03:47.700 --> 01:03:50.340 they were given the option to write out their tombstone, 01:03:50.340 --> 01:03:55.195 a fun, yet grim, way to show a game over screen. 01:03:55.195 --> 01:03:59.130 - So the tombstone idea came up rather late in the project. 01:03:59.130 --> 01:04:01.440 The door had already closed in our being able to put 01:04:01.440 --> 01:04:02.910 many more new ideas into it. 01:04:02.910 --> 01:04:05.220 We were, instead, throwing out ideas. 01:04:05.220 --> 01:04:06.690 I think it was Shirley, 01:04:06.690 --> 01:04:07.980 Shirley Keran, one of our team members, 01:04:07.980 --> 01:04:09.930 who brought up the idea in the meeting. 01:04:09.930 --> 01:04:11.430 She had been reading about 01:04:11.430 --> 01:04:13.950 how people often pass grave sites, 01:04:13.950 --> 01:04:15.660 and she was wondering if we might be able to include that 01:04:15.660 --> 01:04:16.920 in the product somehow. 01:04:16.920 --> 01:04:19.447 We had this idea, "Well, what if, 01:04:19.447 --> 01:04:21.307 "after your entire party dies, 01:04:21.307 --> 01:04:23.460 "you can write your own tombstone?" 01:04:23.460 --> 01:04:28.200 This tombstone that you write would be stored on the disk, 01:04:28.200 --> 01:04:30.840 and then, the next time you played that same game, 01:04:30.840 --> 01:04:32.700 you could see where you had last died 01:04:32.700 --> 01:04:34.380 by seeing your old tombstone. 01:04:34.380 --> 01:04:36.030 Or in a school environment, 01:04:36.030 --> 01:04:38.550 where many kids might be using the same disk, 01:04:38.550 --> 01:04:40.530 the next kid to use that disk 01:04:40.530 --> 01:04:42.420 could see the tombstone of the previous player 01:04:42.420 --> 01:04:45.131 if they got as far as that other player had gotten. 01:04:45.131 --> 01:04:46.800 And kids loved it. 01:04:46.800 --> 01:04:49.080 It was a big success. 01:04:49.080 --> 01:04:50.667 And one of the nice things about it 01:04:50.667 --> 01:04:52.380 was that if you die on the way, 01:04:52.380 --> 01:04:54.780 you might feel disappointed in having failed to make it, 01:04:54.780 --> 01:04:56.017 this was a bit of a little boost: 01:04:56.017 --> 01:04:57.607 "Okay, well, I didn't make it Oregon, 01:04:57.607 --> 01:04:58.987 "but at least I got to have a little bit of fun 01:04:58.987 --> 01:05:00.187 "writing the tombstone." 01:05:01.650 --> 01:05:04.260 - [Narrator] By February of 1985, 01:05:04.260 --> 01:05:07.050 six months after development began, 01:05:07.050 --> 01:05:09.660 the team was finally ready to start testing 01:05:09.660 --> 01:05:12.150 an early build of the game. 01:05:12.150 --> 01:05:14.490 - We decided to test at a school. 01:05:14.490 --> 01:05:16.580 We went to a sixth-grade classroom. 01:05:16.580 --> 01:05:18.150 It was basically a one-hour test 01:05:18.150 --> 01:05:20.640 with each of the groups of kids that we worked with. 01:05:20.640 --> 01:05:22.470 We paired them up on the computers. 01:05:22.470 --> 01:05:23.887 I would tell them, 01:05:23.887 --> 01:05:25.747 "We have this product that's not finished yet, 01:05:25.747 --> 01:05:27.577 "and you guys are gonna help us 01:05:27.577 --> 01:05:29.850 "find out what's working, what's not working." 01:05:29.850 --> 01:05:31.303 So we found that they really liked the game. 01:05:31.303 --> 01:05:34.050 There were a lot of things they did successfully, 01:05:34.050 --> 01:05:37.901 but they were bored by the main travel screen. 01:05:37.901 --> 01:05:39.060 (light thoughtful music) (computer beeps) 01:05:39.060 --> 01:05:40.590 Now, the purpose of the travel screen 01:05:40.590 --> 01:05:41.970 is to show time passing. 01:05:41.970 --> 01:05:44.033 That's where you're going from one landmark to another, 01:05:44.033 --> 01:05:46.290 and the days are going by, clicking by, 01:05:46.290 --> 01:05:48.390 the data's changing on the screen. 01:05:48.390 --> 01:05:49.470 Kids were not interested 01:05:49.470 --> 01:05:51.720 in just looking at boxes of data changing. 01:05:51.720 --> 01:05:52.687 Got the team together and said, 01:05:52.687 --> 01:05:54.097 "Let's think of some radical ideas. 01:05:54.097 --> 01:05:55.777 "What's something different 01:05:55.777 --> 01:05:57.900 "that would keep the students engaged?" 01:05:57.900 --> 01:06:00.120 While we were doing this brainstorming, 01:06:00.120 --> 01:06:02.460 another person who wasn't even on our team, 01:06:02.460 --> 01:06:04.770 a programmer named Bill Way, 01:06:04.770 --> 01:06:06.360 who was well known for his ability 01:06:06.360 --> 01:06:08.370 to do cute little animations, 01:06:08.370 --> 01:06:11.287 he walked up, and he said, "Why don't you include 01:06:11.287 --> 01:06:15.328 "a little animation of an ox pulling a wagon?" 01:06:15.328 --> 01:06:17.377 "Yeah. Yeah, we should try that. 01:06:17.377 --> 01:06:19.447 "Don't know if it'll work, but let's try. 01:06:19.447 --> 01:06:21.240 "Let's try building a whole screen around this." 01:06:21.240 --> 01:06:23.460 So we used that as the centerpiece of the screen 01:06:23.460 --> 01:06:25.350 and built a whole new travel screen around it. 01:06:25.350 --> 01:06:26.880 It was great. 01:06:26.880 --> 01:06:27.780 It worked very well. 01:06:27.780 --> 01:06:29.730 They paid a lot of attention to that screen. 01:06:29.730 --> 01:06:32.070 Now, they paid more attention to the animation 01:06:32.070 --> 01:06:32.903 than to the numbers, 01:06:32.903 --> 01:06:34.830 but they paid some attention to the numbers, 01:06:34.830 --> 01:06:36.930 and they were very engaged. 01:06:36.930 --> 01:06:38.100 And interestingly, 01:06:38.100 --> 01:06:40.830 that became the most famous screen of the product. 01:06:40.830 --> 01:06:45.830 So thanks, Bill, for giving us that idea. (laughing) 01:06:46.920 --> 01:06:48.240 - [Narrator] Thanks to their testing, 01:06:48.240 --> 01:06:51.900 the development team also found a potential major problem 01:06:51.900 --> 01:06:53.700 with the tombstones. 01:06:53.700 --> 01:06:57.030 As Bill Heinemann had learned from the original game, 01:06:57.030 --> 01:07:00.180 during development, sometimes you don't think 01:07:00.180 --> 01:07:03.450 about the devious things kids will do. 01:07:03.450 --> 01:07:05.730 - We sent out these beta copies of the product 01:07:05.730 --> 01:07:08.220 to various schools in Minnesota for them to try out 01:07:08.220 --> 01:07:10.110 and let us know what they liked, what they didn't like, 01:07:10.110 --> 01:07:12.450 what were the issues, what worked, what worked well. 01:07:12.450 --> 01:07:14.977 And one teacher wrote back and said, 01:07:14.977 --> 01:07:18.577 "Oh, my goodness, your disk has got profanity on it. 01:07:18.577 --> 01:07:19.777 "One of your QA testers 01:07:19.777 --> 01:07:22.260 "must have put profanity on the tombstone." 01:07:22.260 --> 01:07:23.093 Uh-oh! 01:07:23.093 --> 01:07:25.830 So we quickly checked all the copies of the disks. 01:07:25.830 --> 01:07:27.030 No, there was no profanity. 01:07:27.030 --> 01:07:28.440 There wasn't even a tombstone. 01:07:28.440 --> 01:07:30.967 So, I reported back to her and said, 01:07:30.967 --> 01:07:31.800 "I'm afraid it was your own students 01:07:31.800 --> 01:07:34.500 "that did the profanity on the tombstones." 01:07:34.500 --> 01:07:35.557 Said, "No way! 01:07:35.557 --> 01:07:37.500 "My students would never do that." 01:07:37.500 --> 01:07:39.690 But regardless, I realized that we had a problem now 01:07:39.690 --> 01:07:41.420 'cause it probably was going to happen 01:07:41.420 --> 01:07:43.440 in other classrooms, as well. 01:07:43.440 --> 01:07:46.057 So finally, "Okay, we are going to add 01:07:46.057 --> 01:07:48.030 "another part to the teacher interface." 01:07:48.030 --> 01:07:49.950 There was a hidden teacher interface on there 01:07:49.950 --> 01:07:52.207 in which you can reset the high score list, 01:07:52.207 --> 01:07:54.600 "We'll allow them to reset the tombstone, too." 01:07:54.600 --> 01:07:56.820 So you can just blow the tombstones away, 01:07:56.820 --> 01:07:59.523 and then any profanity, of course, will go away. 01:08:00.420 --> 01:08:01.740 - [Narrator] A final bug check, 01:08:01.740 --> 01:08:03.960 which included a company-wide contest 01:08:03.960 --> 01:08:07.500 to find the best issues in exchange for cash prizes, 01:08:07.500 --> 01:08:09.690 solidified everything. 01:08:09.690 --> 01:08:12.180 10 months after development started, 01:08:12.180 --> 01:08:14.448 the game was finally ready. 01:08:14.448 --> 01:08:17.130 (upbeat acoustic folk music) 01:08:17.130 --> 01:08:20.163 In July of 1985, 01:08:20.163 --> 01:08:23.340 MECC released their new version of "Oregon Trail" 01:08:23.340 --> 01:08:24.573 for the Apple II. 01:08:25.507 --> 01:08:26.977 - [Rawson Narrator] "On this 2,000-mile, 01:08:26.977 --> 01:08:28.687 "six-month journey to the west, 01:08:28.687 --> 01:08:31.207 "there were no Gulf service stations, Holiday Inns, 01:08:31.207 --> 01:08:32.527 "or Dairy Queens. 01:08:32.527 --> 01:08:35.527 "All that travelers had to anticipate were landmarks, 01:08:35.527 --> 01:08:38.197 "102 miles to the Kansas River crossing, 01:08:38.197 --> 01:08:40.837 "83 miles to the Big Blue River crossing, 01:08:40.837 --> 01:08:45.727 "119 miles to Fort Kearney, 250 miles to Chimney Rock. 01:08:45.727 --> 01:08:49.207 "Carcasses of dead oxen and mules, discarded belongings, 01:08:49.207 --> 01:08:52.117 "shallow graves, and the ruts of previous wagon wheels 01:08:52.117 --> 01:08:53.287 "marked the way. 01:08:53.287 --> 01:08:55.477 "That's the setting for 'The Oregon Trail,' 01:08:55.477 --> 01:08:58.090 "a simulation/discovery game for Apple II computers, 01:08:58.090 --> 01:09:01.327 "from The Minnesota Educational Computing Corporation. 01:09:01.327 --> 01:09:03.697 "It's my favorite type of educational game. 01:09:03.697 --> 01:09:06.217 "While playing it, I got so wrapped up in the events, 01:09:06.217 --> 01:09:09.870 "that I began to feel as if I were really making the trip." 01:09:09.870 --> 01:09:10.953 Rawson Stovall. 01:09:12.307 --> 01:09:15.210 - [Narrator] "Oregon Trail" was an absolute hit, 01:09:15.210 --> 01:09:19.110 with students, parents, and teachers. 01:09:19.110 --> 01:09:21.690 But among all the praise and fanfare, 01:09:21.690 --> 01:09:23.700 there was a controversy. 01:09:23.700 --> 01:09:27.210 MECC chose to not include the new version of "Oregon Trail" 01:09:27.210 --> 01:09:30.630 in their site licensing package for schools. 01:09:30.630 --> 01:09:32.262 - This led to a revolt. 01:09:32.262 --> 01:09:35.400 All of our customers, our main source of income 01:09:35.400 --> 01:09:38.700 was all these site license holders who were in other states, 01:09:38.700 --> 01:09:41.970 who were buying our entire collection each year. 01:09:41.970 --> 01:09:43.447 And they said, "How dare you create 01:09:43.447 --> 01:09:44.977 "a new version of 'The Oregon Trail' 01:09:44.977 --> 01:09:47.370 "and not include it in the site license." 01:09:47.370 --> 01:09:49.987 And MECC said, "Okay, we'll do a school version of it, 01:09:49.987 --> 01:09:51.607 "but you'll have to buy individual copies. 01:09:51.607 --> 01:09:53.280 "It won't be part of the site license." 01:09:53.280 --> 01:09:54.750 So we created the school version, 01:09:54.750 --> 01:09:56.400 which is actually the same product, 01:09:56.400 --> 01:09:58.620 has a different manual and different packaging. 01:09:58.620 --> 01:10:00.727 And, "Nope, that's not good enough. 01:10:00.727 --> 01:10:02.767 "We want to include this in the site license. 01:10:02.767 --> 01:10:04.417 "We're paying you a lot of money every year 01:10:04.417 --> 01:10:05.707 "to get all your products, 01:10:05.707 --> 01:10:07.650 "we want 'Oregon Trail' in there, too." 01:10:07.650 --> 01:10:11.460 So MECC agreed, and it was included in the site license. 01:10:11.460 --> 01:10:14.880 Once it did, there were copies all over North America. 01:10:14.880 --> 01:10:15.900 This was really crucial 01:10:15.900 --> 01:10:18.060 because suddenly it became very well known. 01:10:18.060 --> 01:10:19.860 Everybody was seeing the game. 01:10:19.860 --> 01:10:21.300 It also turned out to be crucial 01:10:21.300 --> 01:10:23.280 to success in the home market. 01:10:23.280 --> 01:10:26.640 Rather than trying to sell this thing through advertising, 01:10:26.640 --> 01:10:29.310 kids learned about the game in school, loved it, 01:10:29.310 --> 01:10:32.010 and then asked their parents to buy the home market version. 01:10:32.010 --> 01:10:34.050 And then we started getting letters from teachers 01:10:34.050 --> 01:10:35.190 saying how much they loved it 01:10:35.190 --> 01:10:37.710 and how much they liked playing it on their own 01:10:37.710 --> 01:10:39.270 when the students weren't around. 01:10:39.270 --> 01:10:42.697 By that point, I realized, "Okay, this is a big hit. 01:10:42.697 --> 01:10:44.187 "This is going very well." 01:10:45.360 --> 01:10:47.010 - [Narrator] But for Philip Bouchard, 01:10:47.010 --> 01:10:49.620 the greatest compliment didn't come from the press 01:10:49.620 --> 01:10:52.692 or teachers, it came from his family. 01:10:52.692 --> 01:10:54.000 (gentle mid-tempo acoustic music) 01:10:54.000 --> 01:10:57.330 - Well, not long after the game came out in 1985, 01:10:57.330 --> 01:11:00.330 we drove down to Georgia to see my dad, my sister, 01:11:00.330 --> 01:11:01.650 and my siblings. 01:11:01.650 --> 01:11:03.780 And I brought with me an Apple II computer, 01:11:03.780 --> 01:11:06.660 and I brought this newly released "Oregon Trail" game. 01:11:06.660 --> 01:11:08.460 I set up the Apple II computer, 01:11:08.460 --> 01:11:11.077 and I spent a few minutes showing it to my family: 01:11:11.077 --> 01:11:13.020 "Look at this cool new game we did." 01:11:13.020 --> 01:11:16.770 Now, to my surprise, my dad decided he wanted to play it. 01:11:16.770 --> 01:11:18.660 He didn't make it to Oregon on the first try, 01:11:18.660 --> 01:11:20.520 so he tried again. 01:11:20.520 --> 01:11:21.720 Once he got to Oregon, 01:11:21.720 --> 01:11:23.347 he saw that there was a high score list 01:11:23.347 --> 01:11:25.500 and that he was near the bottom of the high score list. 01:11:25.500 --> 01:11:27.150 Well, my dad was always very competitive, 01:11:27.150 --> 01:11:29.910 so he said, "Well, I have to get higher on this list." 01:11:29.910 --> 01:11:31.740 So during this week as we were visiting, 01:11:31.740 --> 01:11:32.790 I hardly saw my dad. 01:11:32.790 --> 01:11:34.620 He was all the time on the Apple II computer, 01:11:34.620 --> 01:11:36.810 playing "Oregon Trail" over and over. 01:11:36.810 --> 01:11:39.570 And finally, just before it was time to go back, 01:11:39.570 --> 01:11:42.517 he said, "All right, I've done it. 01:11:42.517 --> 01:11:43.987 "I'm the highest name on the list now. 01:11:43.987 --> 01:11:45.607 "I've beaten Stephen Meek. 01:11:45.607 --> 01:11:47.477 "You can take your Apple II computer back now." 01:11:47.477 --> 01:11:49.950 And to the best of my knowledge, that is the only time 01:11:49.950 --> 01:11:53.403 my dad ever played a computer game. (laughing) 01:11:58.217 --> 01:12:00.300 (gentle acoustic folk music) 01:12:00.300 --> 01:12:02.070 - [Narrator] With the overwhelming success 01:12:02.070 --> 01:12:03.330 of "Oregon Trail," 01:12:03.330 --> 01:12:07.050 MECC continued to release new products on the Apple II, 01:12:07.050 --> 01:12:10.470 including "Number Munchers" and "Word Munchers." 01:12:10.470 --> 01:12:14.557 But among the more than 300 software titles MECC released, 01:12:14.557 --> 01:12:18.180 "Oregon Trail" was always their best seller. 01:12:18.180 --> 01:12:19.710 The game was so popular, 01:12:19.710 --> 01:12:23.340 the Shingakusha Summit Software company took a chance 01:12:23.340 --> 01:12:26.940 and licensed the game for a Japanese release. 01:12:26.940 --> 01:12:28.267 In the United States, 01:12:28.267 --> 01:12:31.650 "Oregon Trail" became a cultural phenomenon, 01:12:31.650 --> 01:12:34.230 thanks in no small part to its daily use 01:12:34.230 --> 01:12:36.690 in classrooms across the country. 01:12:36.690 --> 01:12:39.540 Anyone who grew up in the '80s and '90s 01:12:39.540 --> 01:12:42.843 most likely played some version of the game in school. 01:12:43.855 --> 01:12:47.130 - I remember when I went to my track meet 01:12:47.130 --> 01:12:49.620 that my daughter was running in Oregon. 01:12:49.620 --> 01:12:53.070 I went out there to watch her her senior year, 01:12:53.070 --> 01:12:55.800 and there were a bunch of other girls 01:12:55.800 --> 01:12:57.330 on the track team there. 01:12:57.330 --> 01:12:59.310 Suddenly, there was this commotion 01:12:59.310 --> 01:13:01.170 and they all came running over to me 01:13:01.170 --> 01:13:04.230 and said, "Did you write for 'Oregon Trail,' really?" 01:13:04.230 --> 01:13:06.690 They had thought that it was only people in Oregon 01:13:06.690 --> 01:13:08.340 that played "Oregon Trail." 01:13:08.340 --> 01:13:09.450 I guess when I realized 01:13:09.450 --> 01:13:12.840 that just out of a random group of collection of kids 01:13:12.840 --> 01:13:15.750 on a track team, that they had all played "Oregon Trail," 01:13:15.750 --> 01:13:17.820 and they all thought it was great, 01:13:17.820 --> 01:13:20.310 maybe this was a little more pervasive in society 01:13:20.310 --> 01:13:23.520 than I had even imagined up to that point. 01:13:23.520 --> 01:13:24.900 - But the kids are impressed. 01:13:24.900 --> 01:13:26.187 Just the other day I was in a class 01:13:26.187 --> 01:13:29.250 and he says, "You're the 'Oregon Trail' guy, right?" 01:13:29.250 --> 01:13:31.080 You know, I don't know what it is, 01:13:31.080 --> 01:13:33.810 but I had no idea that it would have 01:13:33.810 --> 01:13:38.370 such an expansive audience of people who played it. 01:13:38.370 --> 01:13:43.370 It's like to touch that many people is humbling (laughs) 01:13:43.410 --> 01:13:44.490 in that way, 01:13:44.490 --> 01:13:48.303 even though the game is quite different from the original. 01:13:49.890 --> 01:13:52.770 - I thought this product would reach a peak of popularity 01:13:52.770 --> 01:13:56.220 maybe two years and then kind of fade away. 01:13:56.220 --> 01:13:58.680 I certainly never anticipated 01:13:58.680 --> 01:14:00.730 talking about the product 35 years later. 01:14:02.167 --> 01:14:03.690 - [Narrator] "Oregon Trail's" success 01:14:03.690 --> 01:14:06.933 allowed MECC to dominate the school software market. 01:14:08.280 --> 01:14:11.400 But in the retail world, things were different. 01:14:11.400 --> 01:14:14.730 While the Apple II was the primary personal computer 01:14:14.730 --> 01:14:19.730 used in schools, at home, other platforms reigned supreme. 01:14:20.400 --> 01:14:23.790 There were more and more options available to consumers, 01:14:23.790 --> 01:14:26.340 and prices were coming down. 01:14:26.340 --> 01:14:29.850 The Apple II was also beginning to show its age. 01:14:29.850 --> 01:14:31.290 It was only a matter of time 01:14:31.290 --> 01:14:34.740 before schools upgraded to new computers. 01:14:34.740 --> 01:14:36.240 In order to compete, 01:14:36.240 --> 01:14:40.830 MECC had to start porting their games to other platforms. 01:14:40.830 --> 01:14:45.420 In 1990, five years after the Apple II release, 01:14:45.420 --> 01:14:47.487 MECC finally ported "Oregon Trail" 01:14:47.487 --> 01:14:52.487 and other popular titles to new platforms, such as MS-DOS. 01:14:52.590 --> 01:14:55.620 But it seemed too little, too late. 01:14:55.620 --> 01:15:00.120 Dale LaFrenz, who was now the president and CEO of MECC, 01:15:00.120 --> 01:15:02.797 admitted that the company was, quote, 01:15:02.797 --> 01:15:05.040 "going to get eaten alive." 01:15:05.040 --> 01:15:08.490 It needed investment capital to develop new titles, 01:15:08.490 --> 01:15:10.860 port more games to other platforms, 01:15:10.860 --> 01:15:13.260 and expand their distribution. 01:15:13.260 --> 01:15:15.720 But the state of Minnesota couldn't provide 01:15:15.720 --> 01:15:20.160 any additional funding and decided to sell the company. 01:15:20.160 --> 01:15:23.220 In 1991, a venture capital group 01:15:23.220 --> 01:15:28.220 called North American Fund II bought MECC for $5.25 million. 01:15:29.550 --> 01:15:34.550 Three years later, in March of 1994, MECC went public 01:15:34.710 --> 01:15:37.053 and raised more than $22 million. 01:15:38.070 --> 01:15:40.117 It was a huge success. 01:15:40.117 --> 01:15:43.980 "Oregon Trail" continued to be a money-maker for MECC. 01:15:43.980 --> 01:15:45.990 The company worked on sequels 01:15:45.990 --> 01:15:49.080 and spin-off games that featured the same concepts, 01:15:49.080 --> 01:15:51.240 such as "Amazon Trail." 01:15:51.240 --> 01:15:53.700 At one point, "Oregon Trail" games 01:15:53.700 --> 01:15:57.900 accounted for 33% of MECC's revenue. 01:15:57.900 --> 01:16:01.200 Meanwhile, the original creators of "Oregon Trail," 01:16:01.200 --> 01:16:04.950 Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger, 01:16:04.950 --> 01:16:07.323 never made a penny off the game. 01:16:08.377 --> 01:16:09.547 - [Don Narrator] "When you're an educator, 01:16:09.547 --> 01:16:11.857 "you're encouraged to write and publish. 01:16:11.857 --> 01:16:14.437 "Paul and Bill and I, when you get right down to it, 01:16:14.437 --> 01:16:15.547 "we were teachers. 01:16:15.547 --> 01:16:17.617 "We have the teacher mentality. 01:16:17.617 --> 01:16:21.037 "And so, to get rich off this would have been nice, 01:16:21.037 --> 01:16:23.617 "but not as important as having donated something 01:16:23.617 --> 01:16:26.100 "to the world of education." 01:16:26.100 --> 01:16:27.213 Don Rawitsch. 01:16:28.260 --> 01:16:31.740 - If we had started out as entrepreneurs 01:16:31.740 --> 01:16:35.250 and we wanted to write something and try to sell it, 01:16:35.250 --> 01:16:37.500 make money, that's one thing, 01:16:37.500 --> 01:16:39.660 but that's not what we were about. 01:16:39.660 --> 01:16:41.910 We were always about good teaching, 01:16:41.910 --> 01:16:46.200 and there was no expectation that it would go beyond that. 01:16:46.200 --> 01:16:48.660 - Nobody knew anything about software. 01:16:48.660 --> 01:16:50.880 There were no people to sell it to. 01:16:50.880 --> 01:16:52.410 Think people sometimes forget 01:16:52.410 --> 01:16:54.480 that that was a very different world then, 01:16:54.480 --> 01:16:57.210 with no screens, just teletypes, 01:16:57.210 --> 01:16:58.980 and very few people were even 01:16:58.980 --> 01:17:01.080 acquainted with computers at all. 01:17:01.080 --> 01:17:03.543 It really wasn't much of a possibility. 01:17:04.643 --> 01:17:05.910 (light jaunty acoustic music) 01:17:05.910 --> 01:17:08.610 - [Narrator] But in February of 1995, 01:17:08.610 --> 01:17:10.320 the original creators of the game 01:17:10.320 --> 01:17:12.840 finally got some recognition. 01:17:12.840 --> 01:17:15.990 To celebrate the release of "Oregon Trail II," 01:17:15.990 --> 01:17:18.960 MECC threw an "Oregon Trail"-themed celebration 01:17:18.960 --> 01:17:21.030 at the Mall of America. 01:17:21.030 --> 01:17:23.790 They invited Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, 01:17:23.790 --> 01:17:26.910 and Paul Dillenberger as special guests. 01:17:26.910 --> 01:17:29.340 It was the first time they were recognized 01:17:29.340 --> 01:17:31.920 for their creation of the game. 01:17:31.920 --> 01:17:35.340 - We were acknowledged as the original writers, 01:17:35.340 --> 01:17:37.980 creators of the program. 01:17:37.980 --> 01:17:41.490 We were invited to come, and we were given jean jackets 01:17:41.490 --> 01:17:43.860 which said "Trailhead" on the back. 01:17:43.860 --> 01:17:46.800 And we were given copies of the CD-ROM, 01:17:46.800 --> 01:17:48.693 the latest CD-ROM of the game. 01:17:49.620 --> 01:17:51.930 - And that's the only thing that I ever received 01:17:51.930 --> 01:17:55.683 from "Oregon Trail," was the game and the jacket. 01:17:57.570 --> 01:17:59.100 - [Narrator] Eight months later, 01:17:59.100 --> 01:18:03.693 MECC was acquired by SoftKey for $370 million. 01:18:04.664 --> 01:18:05.754 (light pulsing electronic music) 01:18:05.754 --> 01:18:09.030 SoftKey, founded by Kevin O'Leary, 01:18:09.030 --> 01:18:10.890 was on an acquisition spree 01:18:10.890 --> 01:18:13.680 of educational software companies. 01:18:13.680 --> 01:18:16.080 It also bought The Learning Company, 01:18:16.080 --> 01:18:19.380 makers of the popular "Reader Rabbit" series. 01:18:19.380 --> 01:18:20.760 After the purchase, 01:18:20.760 --> 01:18:24.030 SoftKey changed its name to The Learning Company 01:18:24.030 --> 01:18:26.250 and used it on all of their products, 01:18:26.250 --> 01:18:28.470 including "Oregon Trail." 01:18:28.470 --> 01:18:31.680 Three years later, the company purchased Broderbund, 01:18:31.680 --> 01:18:34.470 makers of the "Carmen Sandiego" games. 01:18:34.470 --> 01:18:36.210 After all of the mergers, 01:18:36.210 --> 01:18:38.880 The Learning Company became the second largest 01:18:38.880 --> 01:18:41.700 independent consumer software company, 01:18:41.700 --> 01:18:44.370 behind only Microsoft. 01:18:44.370 --> 01:18:47.010 Meanwhile, the MECC offices in Minnesota 01:18:47.010 --> 01:18:50.430 continued developing games for The Learning Company. 01:18:50.430 --> 01:18:54.090 But in 1999, everything changed. 01:18:54.090 --> 01:18:57.390 Kevin O'Leary finalized the sale of The Learning Company 01:18:57.390 --> 01:18:59.370 to toy giant Mattel 01:18:59.370 --> 01:19:03.690 for an astonishing $3.8 billion in stock. 01:19:03.690 --> 01:19:05.340 He would stay on as president 01:19:05.340 --> 01:19:08.040 of a new software division at the company. 01:19:08.040 --> 01:19:11.130 Mattel hoped the purchase would add $50 million 01:19:11.130 --> 01:19:13.230 to its quarterly profits. 01:19:13.230 --> 01:19:16.650 But Mattel grossly overvalued The Learning Company, 01:19:16.650 --> 01:19:21.300 seemingly ignoring its aging games and declining sales. 01:19:21.300 --> 01:19:25.920 Instead of adding profit, Mattel lost $105 million 01:19:25.920 --> 01:19:28.520 in the third quarter of 1999. 01:19:28.520 --> 01:19:33.213 In the fourth quarter, they lost another $184 million. 01:19:34.170 --> 01:19:36.690 Kevin O'Leary cashed out his stocks 01:19:36.690 --> 01:19:39.060 and was subsequently fired. 01:19:39.060 --> 01:19:41.670 As a result of the financial losses, 01:19:41.670 --> 01:19:45.753 Mattel permanently closed the MECC offices in Minnesota. 01:19:46.740 --> 01:19:48.600 Later, Businessweek 01:19:48.600 --> 01:19:51.450 would call Mattel's purchase of The Learning Company 01:19:51.450 --> 01:19:54.393 one of the worst business deals of all time. 01:19:56.010 --> 01:20:00.030 Meanwhile, the people who created "The Oregon Trail" games 01:20:00.030 --> 01:20:01.593 went on with their lives. 01:20:02.700 --> 01:20:05.700 In 1990, Don Rawitsch left MECC 01:20:05.700 --> 01:20:07.140 and continued his career 01:20:07.140 --> 01:20:09.900 in the educational technology sector. 01:20:09.900 --> 01:20:12.720 He worked for Jostens Learning and McGraw-Hill, 01:20:12.720 --> 01:20:16.590 before finally starting his own consulting business. 01:20:16.590 --> 01:20:18.780 Paul Dillenberger worked as a math teacher 01:20:18.780 --> 01:20:21.510 and consultant in the Minneapolis school system 01:20:21.510 --> 01:20:23.280 for 30 years. 01:20:23.280 --> 01:20:25.653 Today, he is enjoying retirement. 01:20:26.667 --> 01:20:31.667 - To see it expand like that and used by so many people, 01:20:32.165 --> 01:20:34.143 it makes your heart feel warm. 01:20:35.010 --> 01:20:37.627 Certainly, there was no thought of, 01:20:37.627 --> 01:20:41.010 "Hey, let's make something that's gonna change this world." 01:20:41.010 --> 01:20:43.680 I guess that's the thing. 01:20:43.680 --> 01:20:46.500 A lot of things happen because they happen, 01:20:46.500 --> 01:20:48.719 rather than being planned. 01:20:48.719 --> 01:20:50.580 (bright thoughtful music) 01:20:50.580 --> 01:20:52.680 - [Narrator] Bill Heinemann followed his passion 01:20:52.680 --> 01:20:55.680 and worked in Minnesota's bustling computing industry 01:20:55.680 --> 01:20:57.390 before retiring. 01:20:57.390 --> 01:20:59.130 And in his spare time, 01:20:59.130 --> 01:21:01.773 he continues to try to make school fun. 01:21:02.700 --> 01:21:06.180 - So I coach math team before and after school. 01:21:06.180 --> 01:21:08.550 And I coach chess teams. 01:21:08.550 --> 01:21:11.100 You learn so much from playing games. 01:21:11.100 --> 01:21:13.140 You know, I learned how to figure out 10% 01:21:13.140 --> 01:21:16.770 when I was little when I landed on income tax in "Monopoly." 01:21:16.770 --> 01:21:20.520 But you play a game, and you've gotta learn those things. 01:21:20.520 --> 01:21:24.810 So, I tried to make learning fun then, in 1971, 01:21:24.810 --> 01:21:26.853 and I'm still trying to do that today. 01:21:28.080 --> 01:21:30.300 - [Narrator] After completing work on "Number Munchers" 01:21:30.300 --> 01:21:34.050 in 1986, Philip Bouchard left MECC 01:21:34.050 --> 01:21:37.740 and did some freelance work before joining Broderbund. 01:21:37.740 --> 01:21:40.200 After Mattel's disastrous acquisition 01:21:40.200 --> 01:21:41.340 of The Learning Company 01:21:41.340 --> 01:21:42.840 and the subsequent collapse 01:21:42.840 --> 01:21:45.660 of the educational software industry, 01:21:45.660 --> 01:21:47.520 Bouchard switched gears 01:21:47.520 --> 01:21:51.690 and worked with FedEx and Morgan Stanley on web apps. 01:21:51.690 --> 01:21:55.290 - Did that for another 14 years, and then I retired. 01:21:55.290 --> 01:21:56.940 Since then, I've been able to do things 01:21:56.940 --> 01:21:58.950 that I've always wanted to do, 01:21:58.950 --> 01:22:01.380 like write books, like science books, 01:22:01.380 --> 01:22:03.090 or really do more traveling, 01:22:03.090 --> 01:22:05.130 do nature photography, things like this. 01:22:05.130 --> 01:22:08.160 So, I'm still busy, still doing creative things, 01:22:08.160 --> 01:22:10.350 but now I don't have to worry about the income, 01:22:10.350 --> 01:22:13.950 I just worry about doing the things I want to get out there. 01:22:13.950 --> 01:22:17.910 - [Narrator] Today, "The Oregon Trail's" journey goes on. 01:22:17.910 --> 01:22:21.150 New versions of the game continue to come out, 01:22:21.150 --> 01:22:23.460 and thanks to its prevalence in classrooms 01:22:23.460 --> 01:22:24.960 across the country, 01:22:24.960 --> 01:22:28.260 it has become a nostalgic memory for millions, 01:22:28.260 --> 01:22:32.460 enshrining itself as a permanent fixture in pop culture. 01:22:32.460 --> 01:22:36.870 There is "Oregon Trail" merchandise, card games, books, 01:22:36.870 --> 01:22:40.680 parody games, a musical, and more. 01:22:40.680 --> 01:22:42.450 - Over and over again, you see T-shirts 01:22:42.450 --> 01:22:44.010 or other memes on the internet 01:22:44.010 --> 01:22:46.080 that say, "You have died of dysentery." 01:22:46.080 --> 01:22:48.000 The interesting thing, though, 01:22:48.000 --> 01:22:50.970 is that phrase, "You have died of dysentery," 01:22:50.970 --> 01:22:53.430 doesn't actually appear in the product. 01:22:53.430 --> 01:22:57.480 Instead, it will say, "Sarah has dysentery." 01:22:57.480 --> 01:23:00.660 And then, a little bit later on, you may see another message 01:23:00.660 --> 01:23:03.330 that says, "Sarah has died." 01:23:03.330 --> 01:23:06.060 Furthermore, it says, "You." 01:23:06.060 --> 01:23:08.310 Even if you, as a team leader die, 01:23:08.310 --> 01:23:09.630 it gives you by your name. 01:23:09.630 --> 01:23:11.010 So if you're the team leader as Philip, 01:23:11.010 --> 01:23:13.080 then it says, "Philip has died." 01:23:13.080 --> 01:23:17.370 So, never does it say, "You have died of dysentery." 01:23:17.370 --> 01:23:19.590 But that meme does capture 01:23:19.590 --> 01:23:21.240 the essence of what's happening in the game, 01:23:21.240 --> 01:23:23.760 so it's a good meme in that regard. 01:23:23.760 --> 01:23:27.720 - [Narrator] In 2016, the Strong National Museum of Play 01:23:27.720 --> 01:23:30.870 recognized the importance of "The Oregon Trail," 01:23:30.870 --> 01:23:34.650 and inducted it into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. 01:23:34.650 --> 01:23:36.420 It was the first game inducted 01:23:36.420 --> 01:23:40.320 that was created for educational purposes. 01:23:40.320 --> 01:23:44.670 - We were very proud of the fact that we were up there 01:23:44.670 --> 01:23:49.670 with "Zelda" and "Pong" and (laughs) "Space Invaders," 01:23:50.250 --> 01:23:51.270 all those games, 01:23:51.270 --> 01:23:53.620 and here's the one that was a little different. 01:23:54.600 --> 01:23:56.370 - Have so many people that when they find out 01:23:56.370 --> 01:23:59.880 that I helped create "The Oregon Trail" computer program, 01:23:59.880 --> 01:24:01.807 they, "Oh, that was the highlight 01:24:01.807 --> 01:24:03.787 "of my junior high experience. 01:24:03.787 --> 01:24:06.487 "If it weren't for 'Oregon Trail,' I would've hated school. 01:24:06.487 --> 01:24:08.397 "But there was always that 01:24:08.397 --> 01:24:11.880 "to look forward to in history class." 01:24:11.880 --> 01:24:13.597 - [Narrator] For more than 50 years, 01:24:13.597 --> 01:24:15.840 "The Oregon Trail" has taught students 01:24:15.840 --> 01:24:19.500 about the perilous journey people made in the 1800s 01:24:19.500 --> 01:24:21.180 for a better life. 01:24:21.180 --> 01:24:24.660 It's given educators new ways to teach children 01:24:24.660 --> 01:24:28.950 by incorporating games and technology into the classroom. 01:24:28.950 --> 01:24:32.370 It helped bring about a whole new software industry, 01:24:32.370 --> 01:24:34.560 edutainment games. 01:24:34.560 --> 01:24:38.737 But above all, it taught us that learning could be fun. 01:24:46.429 --> 01:24:50.346 (bright electronic-folk music) 01:25:49.916 --> 01:25:54.666 (bright electronic-folk music continues) 01:26:35.756 --> 01:26:40.506 (bright electronic-folk music continues)