Oregon Trail game Internet Archive.png
The popular computer game, which debuted in 1971, recently released as a tabletop card game exclusive to Target.
(The Internet Archive)
Here are a few things you may not know about "The Oregon Trail," the computer game that let you set out on a quest for the Willamette Valley that inevitably ended prematurely when your character died of dysentery:
It's been around since 1971.
It's been inducted into the video game hall of fame.
And it's just gotten its own tabletop adaptation.
The tabletop card game was recently sighted by a redditor and confirmed in stock at several Portland-area Target stores by an employee late Wednesday night. Target spokesman Lee Henderson told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the game's street date is July 31 -- although some stores have gotten their shipments of "The Oregon Trail," they won't be selling them until then.
The card game appears to remain pretty faithful to the popular computer game. Cards are decorated with 8-bit imagery and all of the classic supplies are represented, from oxen to bullets and food.
Player progression in certain scenarios seems to depend on dice rolls. For example, fording the river requires a player to roll in order to find out whether the crossing is successful.
The game is reportedly a Target exclusive. The only stores in the Portland-metro area that were out of stock as of Wednesday night are the Southwest Morrison Street location and the one at the Clackamas Promenade.
An employee who did a store check over the phone said that most stores in the area had at least 10 copies of the game in stock. (We used the product code 087-10-2911 to find it.)
The game was released with almost no announcement. It was reportedly part of a batch of Target exclusives that were dropped without fanfare.
This post has been modified to reflect the following update: The original post indicated that "The Oregon Trail Card Game" was on sale Wednesday when the street date, as clarified by a Target spokesman, is July 31.
--Eder Campuzano
503.221.4344
@edercampuzano
ecampuzano@oregonian.com