Q 01/05

Student teachers from which Minnesota school wrote the original Oregon Trail?

A) Carleton

B) Macalester

C) St. Olaf

D) Gustavus Adolphus

Answer · why

A) Carleton

Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger were Carleton College seniors doing student teaching in Minneapolis; they coded the game in about t...

Q 02/05

In what year did the very first version of The Oregon Trail debut in a Minneapolis junior-high classroom?

A) 1974

B) 1978

C) 1982

D) 1971

Answer · why

D) 1971

The Oregon Trail was first played on 3 December 1971 on the Minneapolis school district's HP 2100 minicomputer, reached through a teleprinter with no ...

Q 03/05

In the original teleprinter version, what word did players have to type to fire their gun while hunting?

A) POW

B) FIRE

C) SHOOT

D) BANG

Answer · why

D) BANG

Later versions randomised the word between BANG and POW, and typing it faster earned more food; a misspelling meant the shot did nothing.

Q 04/05

Which Minnesota organisation produced and distributed The Oregon Trail from 1975?

A) PLATO

B) MECC

C) SRI

D) TIES

Answer · why

B) MECC

MECC, the state-funded Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, put the game on its timesharing network in 1975, giving it to Minnesota schools fre...

Q 05/05

Which future music superstar was among the Minneapolis students who play-tested the first version?

A) Prince

B) Bob Dylan

C) Morris Day

D) Jimmy Jam

Answer · why

A) Prince

Heinemann and Dillenberger let students at Bryant Junior High try it, and the kids stayed late at school for another turn.