Buffalo Hunting, River Fording, Food Rationing on Oregon Trail for the iPhone

In addition to the D.A.R.E. program and McGruff the crime dog, Oregon Trail played a critical role in my development as a human being. I imagine that anyone in America who remembers Girbauds and Ocean Pacific from the elementary school kickball court days knows exactly what I’m talking about. Who among us hasn’t packed the family into the wagon, loaded up with salt pork, ammunition, spare axles and extra wheels to brave the treacherous journey to the Promised Land out west?

Heaven knows I have. That’s why it’s with great pleasure that I learned Oregon Trail is coming to the iPhone. The iVersion, it seems, will not be a simple port, but rather a complete overhaul. iOregon Trail is thematically true to the original, but I have to say, that after seeing a few screenshots, I’m not sure I dig the Manga-inspired aesthetic. In my mind, cowboys and ninjas don’t mix.

But none-the-less, I’m looking forward to revisiting some of the most delightful and tragic moments from my childhood. For me, Oregon Trail was my first real introduction to human suffering and death. While as many as 16,000 brave pioneers actually died on the real Oregon Trail, I’m confident that I witnessed at least double that number of virtual deaths on my pixilated green Apple computer monitor. I lost beloved family members to malaria, typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, madness, blindness, drowning, grizzly bear attack, snake bite, ox trampling and Indian attack. Imagine the nightmares ravaging my 9 year old psyche.

But ultimately, passing Fort Kearney, marveling at a digi-Chimney Rock, and fording the treacherous Snake River to arrive in the beautiful Willamette Valley were well worth all of the suffering. Oh yeah, and the hundreds of thousands of bullets expended trying to kill buffalo, that was fun too.

If you ran the gauntlet of public school in the 80s/90s or are just a sucker for nostalgia, be sure to get a hold of the iPhone version of Oregon Trail when it is released. There’s no official release date yet, but it should be available soon. Check out some screens over at IGN if you’re curious to see the anime-inspired graphical retooling. For reviews on vintage and contemporary games, head over to our video game site .

More tales of iAdventure and video game tribulation: