How The Oregon Trail became a generational icon
The Verge's 'Version History' podcast is launching its fifth season with an episode dedicated to the cultural impact of the educational video game The Oregon Trail. The series explores the game's academic origins and its lasting legacy on generations of students.
Why it matters
The Oregon Trail serves as a touchstone for digital literacy and educational gaming history in the United States.
Whether you played it in the back of your classroom or on your computer at home, if you were a kid in the last 30 years you almost certainly grew up playing The Oregon Trail.
On the season 5 premiere of Version History, our fearless wagon leader David Pierce is joined by gaming journalist Chris Grant and Philip Bouchard, the designer and team leader of the game’s most iconic version. They talk about the academic origins of The Oregon Trail, the game’s complicated legacy, and whether anyone ever really died of dysentery.
This is the first episode of the fifth season of Version History, and this time we’re going back to school. In the weeks to come, we’re taking on the iconic TI-84 graphing calculator, One Laptop Per Child, Chromebook, LeapPad, and the overhead projector.
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