{"id":7053,"date":"2026-09-15T17:22:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=7053"},"modified":"2026-09-15T17:22:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T17:22:03","slug":"how-the-oregon-trail-became-a-generational-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=7053","title":{"rendered":"How The Oregon Trail became a generational icon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Whether you played it in the back of your classroom or on your computer at home, if you were a kid in the last 30 years you almost certainly grew up playing <em>The Oregon Trail<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">On <a href=\"https:\/\/pod.link\/1840983742\">the season 5 premiere of <em>Version History,<\/em><\/a> our fearless wagon leader David Pierce is joined by gaming journalist Chris Grant and Philip Bouchard, the designer and team leader of the game\u2019s most iconic version. They talk about the academic origins of <em>The Oregon Trail, <\/em>the game\u2019s complicated legacy, and whether anyone ever really died of dysentery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">This is the first episode of the fifth season of <em>Version History<\/em>, and this time we\u2019re going back to school. In the weeks to come, we\u2019re taking on the iconic TI-84 graphing calculator, One Laptop Per Child, Chromebook, LeapPad, and the overhead projector.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Plus, this Friday, we\u2019ll livestream a playthrough of <em>The Oregon Trail<\/em> from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/theverge\">The Verge\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>. Find out which Verge staffers make it to the end, and which ones fall along the way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Here\u2019s how to get every episode as soon as it drops:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">If you want to know more about <em>The Oregon Trail<\/em>, here are some links to get you started:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/podcast\/995432\/how-the-oregon-trail-became-a-generational-icon\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you played it in the back of your classroom or on your computer at home, if you were a kid in the last 30 years you almost certainly grew up playing The Oregon Trail. On the season 5 premiere of Version History, our fearless wagon leader David Pierce is joined by gaming journalist Chris [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[39,124,34,738],"class_list":["post-7053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-gaming","tag-podcasts","tag-tech","tag-version-history"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How The Oregon Trail became a generational icon - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The story of Oregon Trail, one of the most iconic edutainment computer games of all time, on Version History.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=7053\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How The Oregon Trail became a generational icon - 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