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Hollywood Gets Educational With Oregon Trail: The Movie

This article is over 14 years old and may contain outdated information

The debut trailer for Oregon Trail: The Movie, the upcoming feature film based on the hit educational videogame, has been released online and it’s one blockbuster you won’t want to miss.

Based on the real-life Oregon Trail, a perilous overland route to the Pacific Northwest used by settlers in the mid-1800s, The Oregon Trail was originally developed on a mainframe computer in 1971 for use in a history class at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. In the years that followed, the game was reproduced on numerous other platforms, from the Commodore 64 and Apple II to Windows, WiiWare and even the BlackBerry. And now, finally, it’s being made into a highly-anticipated feature film.

Okay, not really. But this trailer by “Los Angeles-based new media production group” Half Day Today! looks like it has a lot of potential. Silly though it may be, it’s no worse an idea than movies based on Asteroids or Battleship, which are actually real projects in development. I haven’t seen Hitman, Prince of Persia or anything by Uwe Boll, but you better believe that I’d pay good money to see this.

Oregon Trail, for the benefit of those who’ve never played it, is notoriously difficult, with all manner of unpleasant fates, from snake bites to dysentery, awaiting the members of your party. “You have died of dysentery,” in fact, took on a life of its own as a popular internet meme. The warnings were dire but true: “You will die on this trail… just like ol’ Poop Face!”

Poor ol’ Poop Face. I bet he didn’t want to be a carpenter either.

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