PodcastsGamingTechHow The Oregon Trail became a generational iconOn Version History: The game’s designer tells us how the brutal edutainment adventure came together.On Version History: The game’s designer tells us how the brutal edutainment adventure came together.by David Pierce and Travis LarchukSep 15, 2026, 4:18 PM UTCShareGiftWhether 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 Grant and Philip Bouchard, the designer and team leader of the game’s most iconic version. They talk about the academic origins of The Oregon Trail, the game’s complicated legacy, and whether anyone ever really died of dysentery. This is the first episode of the fifth season of Version History, and this time we’re going back to school. In the weeks to come, we’re taking on the iconic TI-84 graphing calculator, One Laptop Per Child, Chromebook, LeapPad, and the overhead projector.Plus, this Friday, we’ll livestream a playthrough of The Oregon Trail from The Verge’s YouTube channel.
Find out which Verge staffers make it to the end, and which ones fall along the way.Here’s how to get every episode as soon as it drops:The Version History podcast feedThe Version History YouTube channelOur TikTok and Instagram accountsIf you’re a Verge subscriber, you can also get access to Version History (and all our other podcasts) with no ads. All you have to do is visit your account settings.If you want to know more about The Oregon Trail, here are some links to get you started:From Gaming Historian: The Story of The Oregon TrailFrom The Atlantic: Going West: The World of Live Action, Competitive Oregon TrailFrom Epic Games: Representing history: the many faces of The Oregon TrailFrom died-of-dysentery.com: A Brief History of the Oregon Trail GameFrom BBC: 50 years of The Oregon Trail: The hidden controversies of a video game that defined the USFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.David PierceTravis LarchukGamingPodcastsTechVersion HistoryMost PopularApple releases iOS 27 with Siri AI overhaulThe Steam Frame is made for irresponsible hardware nerds like meThe Dell XPS 13 is the first real competitor to the MacBook NeomacOS 27 is available nowJensen Huang puts Trump on speakerphone onstage to announce robots won’t take over the worldAdvertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad
Leave a Reply