If you don’t know, The Oregon Trail is a game that pretty much everybody in the United States between the ages of 30 and 50 has played, or at least heard of. If you had a computer in your school, this game was on it. If you were lucky, you got to play it during free time.
It was a notoriously difficult game for children to play, about how hard life was for people crossing the country in the 19th century. Often, you or your whole wagon train party died on your way there. And even if they didn’t, you would still have to deal with snake bites, fires, and oxen drowning when you try to forward a river. (Pro tip: always caulk the wagon and float it across the river.) Most kids liked it because there was a mini game where you got to shoot buffalo and deer for food, and in a later version, you could go foraging. There was also a rafting mini game that usually ended with you crashing into rocks in a big river and dying.
It felt very dated even then, but it’s still something that everybody seems to know about. So I’ve wondered what the equivalent is in other countries. I have read that there is a game called Cross Country Canada that Canadian kids play in school, which is about truckers and supply chains, I think? It sounded kind of dull, but then, so does The Oregon Trail, and I loved it so much that I begged my grandparents to get a copy for their home computer so I could play it at their house.
I also know that computers aren’t widespread in every part of the world, but I want to know what kind of educational entertainment — books, TV shows, card or board games — were used in your country to teach you things.
Though I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out ham-fisted attempts to make learning fun are really more of an American thing.