A vegan run in Oregon Trail II

Over the past few years, I’ve wanted to revisit the edutainment video games I played as a kid. I’m not sure to what degree the genre still exists. Surely, some developers are making titles that fit the bill, but they don’t seem nearly as prevalent as they were in the 1980s and 1990s.

As video games acquire more recognition as a valid art form, there has been a greater effort to preserve older titles and make them available on current platforms. For instance, I recently enjoyed Grim Fandango, a LucasArts point-and-click classic I never got to in 1998.

Unfortunately, this effort doesn’t seem to have extended to the edutainment genre. Let me provide a couple of examples. I’d love to play the 1996 edition of Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego? but it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere.

Similarly, I’d like to revisit Oregon Trail II. There’s a website where you can play the game on your browser, but it crashes whenever I try to load the title. A quick Google search doesn’t reveal a legal way of accessing the 1995 game.

It’s too bad, because I think a lot of entries in the edutainment genre would be great on iOS, which is where I do a disproportionate amount of my gaming now. Perhaps sales of these old titles wouldn’t justify the cost of porting them. I could imagine that being the case.

One thing I enjoy, after beating a game in the expected way, is to impose an additional challenge on my next playthrough. For me, that often means finishing the title in the most vegan manner possible. I don’t think there is political importance to this. It’s just for fun.

For instance, I glitched into Lord Jabu Jabu’s belly in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time so I wouldn’t have to feed him a fish. And I created a heavily-militarized network of meat-free settlements in Fallout 4. I considered trying something similar with Oregon Trail II.

I should have guessed it had already been attempted. A YouTube user called Master of Survival uploaded a video trying this about seven years ago. I was interested to see how the player addressed the challenge in a game centered on animal exploitation.

Riding in a covered wagon was unavoidable. Master of Survival loaded it with five pounds of garlic, 50 pounds of rhubarb, 60 pounds of celery, 100 pounds of rice, 200 pounds of onions, 450 pounds of potatoes, 600 pounds of dried beans, and 1000 pounds of dried fruit and vegetables.

The player set off, refilling their food supplies at various trading posts. Master of Survival had a rough go of it. One by one, all the party members died. Finally, the central character expired near Sinker Creek Butte. It was a solid initial effort, which could obviously be improved upon.

If I can figure out how to get Oregon Trail II running, I’d love to give the challenge a shot. Maybe if I try the browser version on a desktop it would work.