The wagon, the river, dying of dysentary.

All you ever wanted to do was

get to Willamette Valley safely.

It's the Oregon Trail, but did you know

that this iconic game started as a board game?

It was 1971, three guys, Don, Bill, and Paul

were roommates in Minnesota.

They were student teachers.

Don, who would often dress up as historical figures

to captivate his students, needed a creative way

to teach lessons about the Oregon Trail.

So he created a board game.

He started by using a map of the American frontier

and wrote flash cards for the hardships pioneers faced,

like dysentery, broken wagon wheels, and snake bites.

As soon as his roommates got wind of the board game,

they suggested he pump it up by

turning it into a computer game.

Over the next two weeks, the three men put together

the very first version of Oregon Trail.

But, small problem: they didn't have a computer,

so they used this wacky machine, a teletype,

a sort of glorified typewriter

that didn't even have a monitor.

Basically, they would type code

onto these huge pieces of paper and then print them out.

When the program was done, Don's class

couldn't get enough of the game.

Kids were staying late and arriving early

just so they could play Oregon Trail.

Several years later, Don got a job

with the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortion,

an educational software company

and he pitched them Oregon Trail as a program idea.

As soon as Apple 2s were launched in the late '70s

and sent out to classrooms all over Minnesota,

Oregon Trail became a big hit.

Such a big hit that other states began licensing the game.

And the rest, as they say, is history.