- On the Trail of the Oregon Trail, Part 1 (filfre.net)
I recently got a copy of 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. It’s not really a very good book, for reasons that are interesting on their own and that I hope to talk about in another post very soon. Right now, though, I want to talk about the very first entry in the book, on The Oregon Trail, because that entry sent me down a rabbit hole from which I have only just emerged, blinking and reconsidering the history of interactive narrative.
- 1971: The Oregon Trail (if50.substack.com)
In the midst of the cold but snowless Minnesota December of 1971, a student teacher named Don Rawitsch wheeled a bulky teletypewriter into his 8th grade history class. Students gathered around curiously as he plugged in power and phone cables, switched on the humming machine, and dialed the number on a rotary pad that would connect him to a $100,000 minicomputer fifty miles away. The students, Mr. Rawitsch said, were going to play a game.
- Oregon Trail Mainframe (archive.org)
A conversion of Oregon Trail to Applesoft BASIC, created by Chris Torrence in April 2015, from the original 1975 source code uploaded by Jimmy Maher
- Mount Shuksan (wa100.dnr.wa.gov)
Visitors new to Washington may never have heard of Mount Shuksan, but it is one of North America’s most iconic peaks. Situated on the western flank of the rugged North Cascades National Park, the mountain is capped by glaciers and surrounded by picturesque alpine lakes and meadows. The area offers a wealth of outdoor activities year-round, including hiking, camping, mountain biking, fishing, climbing, mountaineering, skiing, and snowshoeing. Mount Shuksan is frequently photographed from nearby Picture Lake, which provides a reflecting pool for this striking summit. The peak is widely regarded as one of North America’s classic mountaineering routes, renowned for its technical difficulty. For those seeking a more relaxing pursuit, accessible trails around the mountain, including the aptly named ‘artist point’, offer unparalleled views of Mount Shuksan as well as nearby Mount Baker and the surrounding peaks of the North Cascades.