The Oregon Trail: 5th Edition (PC, 2001)

* Make the wise choices as you avoid hazards and face the many challenges of frontier life
* Go hunting, buy the right supplies, talk to Indians and fellow travelers and much more
* Along the way you'll discover useful wilderness knowledge like avoiding poison and crossing rivers
* Kids will also get to learn the complete story of the Donner Party
* Ages 9 and up

A decidedly low-tech era in U.S. history goes electronic in Oregon Trail 5th Edition, a game for children ages nine and older that pits players against all the hazards a wagon-train voyage can dish out. Following Captain Jed Freedman and a trio of young pioneers out West, this program teaches history, map reading, geography, and a variety of other skills. Players must keep their wits sharp if they want to keep their party healthy and well-fed all the way across the country.

Oregon Trail 5th Edition offers a good all-around workout in reading skills and problem solving. Using limited funds, players must equip their wagons, balancing the need to survive on the trail with the necessity for moving quickly. Shortages will inevitably crop up along the way, and members of the wagon train can die of thirst, fever, snakebite, or many other perils... if you don't have the right equipment on hand to deal with the emergency. Even a well-equipped party can come to grief, though. Swamped wagons can lose critical supplies, and though there are people sprinkled along the trip who might provide help or trade goods, happening on the right trade is by no means assured.

Except for being a bit slow-paced, Oregon Trail 5th Edition has few flaws. The people aboard the wagon trains come from a variety of cultures. Though the game glosses over the ugliest aspects of this historical period, it does not skirt them entirely. Players who over-hunt the resources of a particular native tribe are likely to hear about it. The game has a variety of features that flesh out the travel experience, like a trip diary and animated campfire tales--one of them about the Donner party--that effectively break up the pace of play.

Platform: WINDOWS & MACINTOSH Publisher: LEARNING COMPANY Packaging: JEWEL CASE Rating: AGES: 9 AND UP Explore the West! Live the Adventure! Survive the Trail! Westward Ho! Are you ready to travel the Oregon Trail? It s going to take insight and careful planning to choose the right traveling companions gear and supplies. Even then there are countless unpredictable hazards like swollen rivers poisonous creatures and deadly diseases. You ll have to strategize and make quick decisions. And they ll have to be right.Create Your JourneyDecide your occupation who you ll take with you and where you re headed!Learn From the PioneersTalk with pioneers Irish African Americans Native Americans and other settlers. Share their dreams fears and adventures.Blaze a TrailFord raging rivers. Hunt fish and forage for food. Be a part of the taming of the wild West. From the banks of the great Mississippi to the sweeping Williamette Valley you ll carve your own trail through an historic adventure.Discover Jed s TalesThrough riveting mini-movies you ll befriend Captain Jed Freedman an experienced fur trader who is trail-wise and a great story-teller!

The disk installed very quickly and had no issues. Following the rating guide for ages; I would recommend to use non-familiar names when creating people to join you on your journey. My daughter used family members to join her and was visibly upset when "dad" died, and her best friends were bitten by snakes. We deleted that and restarted a new journey with cartoon character names and that seemed to be fine with her. We purchased this game because the library was constantly on a wait list to rent it and frankly the cost to buy is cheaper than download from the manufacturer (by almost $10). I like the fact that the kids are challenged by the whole process and thinking skills are constantly in play and when correct decisions are made, the kids feel extremely proud.

Oregon Trail is an American Classic. I purchased this item with the intent to play it myself, so I was laughing when the game asked if I were an adult installing the program for a child. I do however have two children and they will surely be learning the game when they are of age.

In the meantime I will enjoy the game in it's newest format. Of course when I played it was on a 3 1/2 Floppy Disk and computers were still in Das Prompt for the most part, but I do enjoy the new graphics and animations.

The story has changed a bit, as you are no longer the father or mother of the "tribe", but a tour guide named Jeb merely helping the family move to and fro. I love this game and I will enjoy this one as well.

My 9 year old son LOVES this game. He tried it at school and has been begging for it for months! His 6 year old brother is playing it, though needs help with some of the reading. Excellent incentive for him to practice reading skills!

I did have a little trouble with it at first. Keep getting an error message & game would shut itself down. Went to the help web support site listed on back of disc case and had to install a patch. (Super easy) Game working great now, with no glitches.

I bought this game for my 9 year old son for Christmas. I used to play this game as a kid and I always enjoyed it and I thought that my son would enjoy it too. I like the graphics the most. The game has really changed since I was a kid. It is much more challenging and you can trade with people. The only thing that I don't like about the game is I have to wait forever to be able to kill an animal while hunting. The rest of the game is great. My son loves it alot too. The price was a steal.