Grab your hats and hang on for the adventure of a lifetime with Oregon Trail® II! Relive an exciting period of history in this action packed adventure that changed the United States forever. The combination of full-motion video, soundtrack, digitized speech, over one hundred characters and hundreds of historical landmarks gives you an unbelievable adventure at every turn in the trail. Experience Oregon Trail® II the interactive virtual trail adventure.
Discover the excitement and hardships of the westward movement in Oregon Trail II. Relive two decades in history that changed the United States forever. Blaze new trails west with incredible 3-D graphics, a movie-quality soundtrack, digitized speech, and dozens of interesting characters.
You'll face new challenges and decisions as a pioneer while you explore the Overland Trails in this American history saga. Enhance your journey with facts about the trails that are compiled in an extensive on-line guide book, and record your travels in your personal travel journal. With it's multiple levels of difficulty, Oregon Trail® II is perfect for ages 10-adult. The action is never the same as you venture westward as a Greenhorn, advance as an Adventurer, or lead as a Trail Guide. You'll uncover action-packed adventure at each turn in the trail with Oregon Trail® II.
Features and Benefits
- Relive a period in time that changed the United States forever
- Learn about geography of the Old West
- Capture experiences and improve writing skills with the built-in journal
- See over 5,000 photo-realistic images on your way west
- Listen to hours of digitized speech from over a hundred characters, and motion-picture quality soundtrack
What is the Difference between Oregon Trail & Oregon Trail II?
| Category | OREGON TRAIL | OREGON TRAIL II |
|---|---|---|
| IMAGES | 100 hand drawn images | 5,000 realistic images, including photographs and 3 dimensional renderings of towns and forts. |
| SOUNDS | 19 folk songs to sing along with | Film-like soundtrack, plus 46 tunes |
| LEVELS OF PLAY | One level of play | Multiple levels of play |
| DEPARTURE OPTIONS | Travel the Oregon Trail from one departure point to one destination | Choose from the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails and multiple departure points and destinations for over 100 possible routes. |
| TRAVEL TIMES | Travel the trail only in 1848 | Travel any time from 1840 to 1860 - the exerience is different every year |
| OCCUPATION CHOICES | Choice of 8 occupations | Create your own character by choosing from 25 occupations and over a dozen different skills |
Selected Bibliography
More than two hundred primary and secondary sources were consulted in the extensive research that went into creating Oregon Trail® II and ensuring its historical and geographical accuracy. It would be impractical to try to list all of these sources here, but the following selected bibliography cites the books that proved most consistently useful and provided the greatest amount of information actually incorporated into the program. If you're interested in learning more about the western trails, you may be able to find many of these books at your local library.
Primary (First-hand) Sources
Barton,
Lois, ed. One Woman's West: Recollections of the
Oregon Trail and Settling the Northwest Country by Martha Gay Masterson, 1838-1916.
Spencer Butte Press, 1986.
Brown, William Richard. An
Authentic Wagon Train Journal of
1853 from Indiana to California. Barbara Wills, ed. Horseshoe Printing,
1985.
Clayton, William. The Latter-Day Saints' Emigrants' Guide.
Edited by Stanley B. Kimball. Reprint (originally published 1847). The
Patrice Press, 1983.
Dawson, Charles. Pioneer Tales of the Oregon
Trail and of Jefferson County. Crane & Company, 1912.
Gordon,
Mary, ed. Overland to California with the Pioneer Line: The Gold Rush Diary
of Bernard J. Reid.
The Patrice Press.
Holmes, Kenneth L., ed. Covered Wagon Women: Diaries
and Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1890. Volume 1: 1840-1849.
The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1983.
Jefferson, T.H. Accompaniment
to the Map of the Emigrant Road from Independence, Mo., to San Francisco, California.
1849; no other publication data.
Marcy, Randolph B.
The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland Explorations. Reprint (originally
published 1859). Applewood
Books, no date.
Meeker, Ezra. Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail.
World Book Company, 1924.
Parde, Charles Ross. Dreams
to Dust: A Diary of the California Gold Rush, 1849-1850. James E. Davis,
ed. University of Nebraska Press, 1989.
Parkman, Francis. The Oregon
Trail. Reprint (originally published 1849). The New American Library,
1950.
Preuss, Charles. Topgraphical Map of the Road from Missouri
to Oregon . . . in Seven Sections.
E. Weber and Company, 1846.
Webber, Bert, ed. The Oregon
and Applegate Trail Diary of Welborn Beeson in 1853. Webb Research Group,
1987.
Webber, Bert, ed. The Oregon and California Trail Diary
of Jane Gould in 1862. Webb Research Group, 1987.
Webber, Bert,
ed. The Oregon and Overland Trail Diary of Mary Louisa Black in 1865.
Webb Research Group, 1989.
Webber, Bert, ed. The Oregon Trail
Diary of James Akin, Jr., in
1852. Webb Research Group, 1989.
Webber, Bert, ed. The Oregon
Trail Diary of Rev. Edward Evans Parrish in 1844. Webb Research Group,
1988.
Webber, Bert, ed. The Oregon Trail Diary of Twin Sisters,
Cecelia Adams and Parthenia Blank in 1852. Webb Research Group, 1992.
Secondary Sources
Dary, David. Entrepreneurs
of the Old West. University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
DeVoto,
Bernard. Across the Wide
Missouri. Reprint. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1947.
Dodd, Lawrence.
Narcissa Whitman on the Oregon Trail. Ye Galleon Press, 1985.
Dunlop,
Richard. Great Trails of the West. Abington, 1971.
Fanselow,
Julie. The Traveler's Guide to the Oregon Trail. Falcon
Press, 1992.
Federal Writers' Project. The Oregon Trail: The
Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. Reprint (originally published 1939).
Hastings House, 1972.
Fisher,
Leonard E. The Oregon Trail. Holiday House, 1990.
Franzwa,
Gregory M. Maps of the Oregon Trail. Third edition. The Patrice
Press, 1990.
Franzwa, Gregory M. The Oregon Trail Revisited.
Fourth edition. The Patrice Press, 1988.
Graydon, Charles K. Trail
of the First Wagons Over the Sierra Nevada. The Patrice Press,
1986.
Haines, Aubrey L. Historic Sites Along the Oregon Trail.
The Patrice Press, 1981.
Harris,
E.W. The Overland Emigrant Trail to California. Nevada
Emigrant Trail Marking Committee/Nevada Historical Society, 1986.
Hill,
William E. The Oregon Trail, Yesterday and Today: A Brief History and
Pictorial Journey Along the Wagon Tracks of Pioneers. Caxton Printers, 1987.
Holliday,
J.S. The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush
Experience. Simon and Schuster, 1981.
Horan, James D. The Great
American West: A Pictorial
History from Coronado to the Last Frontier. Bonanza Books, 1959.
Hunt,
Thomas H. and Robert V.H. Adams. Ghost Trails to California.
American West Publishing Company, 1974.
Kimball, Stanley B. Historic
Sites and Markers Along the Mormon and Other Great Western Trails.
University of Illinois Press, 1988.
Lavender, David. The Overland
Migrations: Settlers to Oregon, California, and Utah. U.S. National Park
Service, 1980.
Lavender,
David. Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail. University
of Nebraska Press, 1963.
Mattes, Merrill. The Great Platte River
Road. Nebraska State Historical Society, 1969.
Moffit, Gwen. Hard
Road West: Alone on the California Trail. Viking Press, 1981.
Murphy,
Dan and Gary Ladd. Oregon Trail: Voyage of Discovery-The Story
Behind the Scenery. KC Publications, Inc., 1992.
National Park
Service. Comprehensive
Management and Use Plan: Oregon National Historic Trail-Selected Historic Sites
and Cross-Country Segments. U.S. Department of the Interior, 1981.
Nicholas,
Jonathan and Ron Cronin. On the Oregon Trail. Graphic
Arts Center Publishing Company, 1993.
Paden, Irene D. Prairie Schooner
Detours. The Patrice Press, 1990.
Paden, Irene D. The
Wake of the Prairie Schooner. McMillan and Company, 1947.
Richmond,
Robert W. and Robert W. Mardock,
eds. A Nation Moving West: Readings in the History of the American
Frontier. University of Nebraska Press, 1966.
Rounds, Glen. The
Prairie Schooner. Holiday House, Inc., 1968.
Rumer, Thomas A.
The Wagon Trains of '44: A Comparative View of the Individual Caravans
in the Emigration of 1844 to Oregon. A.H. Clark, 1989.
Schlesinger,
Arthur M., Jr. The Almanac of American History. Perigree Books,
1983.
Shellenberger, Robert.
Wagons West: Trail Tales 1848. Heritage West Books, 1991.
Stein,
R. Conrad. The Story of the Oregon Trail. Childrens Press,
1984.
Stewart, George Rippey. The California Trail. McGraw
Hill Book Company, 1962.
Unruh, John D., Jr. The Plains Across:
The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60. University
of Illinois Press, 1979.
VanSteenwyk, Elizabeth. The California
Gold Rush: West with the Forty-niners.
F. Watts, 1991.
Viola, Herman J. Exploring the
West. Smithsonian Books, 1987.
Worcester, Don, ed. Pioneer
Trails West, by the Western Writers of America. Caxton Printers, 1985.
Wright,
Frank. The Pioneering Adventure in Nevada. Nevada Historical
Society, no date.
The Oregon-California Trails Association
Finally, if you're a really big fan of Oregon Trail II (and we certainly hope you are!) and you want to learn a lot more about the old western trails, you might consider joining the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA for short). The OCTA provides its members with two regular publications filled with information about the trails: a glossy quarterly magazine titled Overland Journal and a monthly newsletter called News from the Plains. The OCTA also sponsors an annual convention. For more information, contact the OCTA at 524 S Osage St, Independence, MO 64050, United States or you can call them at (816) 252-2276.
OCTA is also on the Internet at:
Original CD System Requirements
Macintosh® Product Information:
CD-ROM System Compatibility:
- 68030 (LC III or greater)
- 68040 or Power Macintosh recommended
- System 7.1 or greater
- 5 MB RAM required (8 MB RAM recommended)
- 13" or larger color display (640 x 480, 256-color)
- Double-speed CD-ROM drive
- 12 MB of hard disk space
Windows® Product Information:
CD-ROM System Compatibility:
- 486 or greater
- Microsoft® Windows® 3.1 or greater
- 256-color SVGA display
- 4 MB RAM required (8 MB RAM recommended)
- Windows-compatible mouse
- Windows-compatible sound card
- Double-speed CD-ROM drive
- 12 MB of hard disk space