What's new.

The 1990 game for every screen

The Oregon Trail from 1990 now plays without an emulator, on phones, tablets, Chromebooks and older computers. And the questions you ask us most have their answers on one page.

• The Web Port is made for touch screens. Tap a menu line to choose it, answer with the buttons under the picture, and type names on a keyboard on the screen. Every key gives a soft click.
• It fits phones and tablets held upright or sideways, and the picture keeps its size while you play.
• Hunting in the Web Port has an arrow pad that points the rifle in eight directions, or you can tap where you want to aim. On the Columbia River, tap left or right to steer the raft.
• After one visit the Web Port starts even without internet, and your journey is saved as you travel.
• The Web Port has its own leaderboard, and The Oregon Top Ten inside the game shows its best players.
• The opening screen of the Web Port says who made it, with a link back to the site.
• The leaderboard now lists the best 500 players of each game. If you are further down, Your best run still shows your place.
• Erasing the Top Ten inside a game no longer puts the game's built-in names and scores on the leaderboard, and the scores that got there that way have been removed.
• After you post a score, See the board opens the board of the game you just played.
• If you press Back or Refresh by mistake while a game is running, the browser asks before leaving it.
• A small New label beside the logo tells you when the site has been updated. It goes away once you have looked, or after a week.
• This page got a new look.

More games, and fewer problems while you play

• Seven Oregon Trail games now play in your browser, from the 1990 original and Deluxe to Oregon Trail II and the 3rd, 4th and 5th Editions. The Yukon Trail, Africa Trail and five Amazon Trail games joined them.
• Big games start right away and download the rest while you play. Once a game is on your device, it starts even without internet.
• Games no longer stop after a few minutes in Safari on a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad.
• Games start about two seconds sooner on a first visit, and a slow connection now gets the game instead of an error.
• On phones and tablets you can move the mouse with your finger, and every game has a keyboard on the screen.
• You can download your saved game as a file and load it on another computer. With an account, your dashboard lists your saved games and lets you delete them.
• In games with a high score list, that list now shows the best players from this site. The leaderboard keeps one best score for each player.
• Posting a finished game to the leaderboard starts that game over, so every score on the board comes from a fresh game.
• If a game file arrives broken, for example on a school network, the game tries again by itself or tells you why it cannot start.
• The trail map keeps working where the usual map service is blocked, for example on some school networks.
• The music player plays properly on phones, and you can jump to any point in a song.
• The questions on each game's page now explain saving, changing CDs and why big games keep downloading.

The first version

• The story of the Oregon Trail, from the first fur traders to the railroad, in short chapters you can read in a few minutes each.
• A map of the whole route, stop by stop, from Independence to Oregon City.
• The people and the Native nations of the trail, what families packed and the dangers they met on the way.
• Two quizzes, one on the history of the trail and one on the classic games.
• The Oregon Trail Deluxe, MECC's 1992 game, free to play in your browser, and every game in the series in the catalog.
• A leaderboard for the game and the quiz. Post your score with just a name, no account needed.
• It works offline. Pages you have read and a game you have played open with no connection, and scores wait until you are back online.
• An optional account, for ages 13 and up, keeps your saved games on every computer you use.