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[Sappho]

Oh man, this is the exact version I played in school on the Apple II. Then when I was about 13, there was a promotion at a shoe store in the mall where you'd get a free copy of the game on fancy schmancy CD formatted for Windows 95 if you bought a pair of shoes there. I needed a new pair anyway so I bought them there with my grandmother just so I could get the CD.

That was half my life ago! I still have it and now and then I pop it in and give it a quick playthrough. I usually make it all the way there with most of the party alive. The high score list is all my name.

Anyway, it's been a while since I had a go on it, but I seem to recall that after you hunt once in any area, the big game all disappear completely until you've traveled a while. Also, don't forget that while food bought in the store lasts forever, hunted food spoils after a while, so there's no point in having too much.

When someone gets sick I always say rest until they're better, for a maximum of 8 days unless you run out of food. Then you continue as best you can without getting everyone else killed in the process.

I have to ask, though, do the clothes actually do anything? I always thought their only contribution to the game mechanics was as a trading tool for the indians to cross some of the later rivers. I don't remember ever thinking that the people actually needed clothes to stay healthy, or that not having them caused any real hardship. Have I been missing this whole part of the game all these years? I also never paid for a ferry - if the river's less than 3 ft deep, ford, otherwise caulk, and I'd make it about 85% of the time with no issue.

[NRDL]

Let everyone else get better, slow down. 

[Saint]

KILL EVERYONE, one man journey ftw.

[Sensei]

We decide to shoot ourselves some food and wait a few days.

It doesn't help much though. There's bad water here!

Our health is worse than it was when we started waiting!

It's pretty lousy country. The oxen lack grass and Urist even got a snake bite, so we tally to the next landmark at a strenuous pace. Even that doesn't work! We lose the trail in a valley less than a day away from safe camp. We'll be delayed for a while.


Fully four days later, we reach Independence Rock. Urist is still doing poorly because of his bite (I guess he didn't rest while we searched for the trail.)

Everyone is well after three days' rest.

The big elk seem to take two bullets to kill, but hunting is still excellent. We in South Pass- with, as usual, one person ill and the rest of us in mediocre health.


After resting for almost a week, we blame our health on the strange country and get ready to leave again. There's a fork in the road, though-


Which way should we take?

[IronyOwl]

I say Fort Bridger because it's a longer trip.

Also, can you trade at settlements or only buy?

[Basque]

Wow Sensei, you are doing a great job keeping everyone alive and on track! I was surprised you got so many bad events right in a row. We've yet to even see one good event! XD Anyway, since we don't need to buy anything I think we should take the shortcut to Green River. We'll have to check the length and depth too-apparently caulking works better than I remember but we still have $20 if we need a ferry or anything.

Since we did lose clothes we won't have enough to trade with Indians for passage on one river (it takes 3 sets), but I forget whether that was a good choice to make or not.

[Sensei]

We DID buy (trade for food) more clothes. I think we have 11 sets now actually.

We also have found fruit a few times, I think it's in the logs in some screenshots. That just adds 8-12 (ish) pounds of food, which doesn't really matter since I've been pretty efficient about hunting. I can't think of any other 'good events' off hand. Food from hunting does NOT go bad, by the way, in this version of Oregon trail all food is just one integer and it keeps forever (possibly excepting an event in which you find some is rotten, but that doesn't count). Mmmm, buffalo jerky!

[NRDL]

To the fort!

[Sheb]

Yeah, to the fort!

[Sappho]

Are you sure? That looks exactly like the version I have, and I distinctly remember losing hundreds of pounds per trip due to spoilage. If not, that's excellent!

I vote shortcut to the river. We don't need anything at the fort, right? And if we take a shorter route, we can spend more time resting and trying to heal everyone up.

By the way, did you guys know they made an Oregon Trail Facebook game? Normally I hate all Facebook games on principle, but this one is surprisingly fun.

[Sensei]

Two people say river, three say fort- I'm taking the river, because honestly we don't need to take the 70 mile detour for supplies.


Things are going well: The grass is green again, the weather's nice and the buffalo are back.


Things aren't perfect for long though. Brian gets bitten by a snake, so I decide to steady our pace.


He's well again by Green River.




Since the river is a mere 400 feet across, we decide to caulk the wagon yet again. I accidentally press Ford and every single person in the wagon drowns.


Meanwhile in, uh, parallel universe land where that didn't happen:


We arrive later and with more injured, but we still wait some time. By July 22nd, we're back in good health. This time we actually caulk across, and uneventfully.

We resume a strenuous pace out and ARGH DAMMIT.


A steady pace. But we daren't stop, because it's a land of bad water and no grass. Eventually we arrive at Soda Springs.


Urist's leg is still broken. It's August already though. Should we wait or try to press on, and how fast? It might start to get mighty cold if the journey pushes into October.

[EuchreJack]

How is everyone else's health?

How long does a leg take to heal in-game?  I'd imagine that in real life, it'd probably take about a month, in which case you'd best take a steady pace and not rest.

[Tarran]

"Hey everyone, let's ford the river that is deeper than we are while standing!"

"GLUB GLUB GLUB GLUB."

That was hilarious.

[IronyOwl]

Now that was a DF-style screwup right there.

"Well this should be eas- WAIT GOD NO STOP DYING IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"

[Sensei]

Health is currently 'fair', in my experience a broken leg can take 3-10 days to heal (guess developers figured waiting three months for him to heal would suck, and rightly). I think it's basically interchangeable with other injuries/illnesses. I refuse to check the wiki, however.

And at 20 feet deep, that's something like "Hey everyone, let's ford the river that is deeper than me standing on your shoulders while you stand on an ox!"