TITLE
The Forgotten History of ‘The Oregon Trail,’ As Told By Its Creators
AUTHOR
Kevin Wong
PUBLICATION
Motherboard: Tech By Vice
YEAR
2017
ARTICLE TYPE
Interview
FROM THE ARTICLE
Three Minnesotan public school teachers created The Oregon Trail in 1971. At the time, computers were new to education; there were no monitors, and students played the first version of the game on a teletypewriter—an electromechanical typewriter that could communicate, via phone line, with a large, mainframe computer. The game was text-based and paper-based; a student would type out his or her commands on a roll of paper, and the computer would respond by typing back status updates.Motherboard tracked down all three original creators—Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger—to learn about the humble beginnings of their iconic game. Here is the origin story of The Oregon Trail, in their own words.
GAMES MENTIONED
The Oregon Trail
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Paul Dillenberger
Bill Heinemann
Don Rawitsch
ALTERNATE LINK
Archived Copy @ Internet Archive
NOTES
An oral history of The Oregon Trail’s creation with Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger.