Why Oregon Trail's Creators Got Jean Jackets, Not Money
Oregon Trail sold more than 65 million copies, City Pages says, but none of its creators saw a dime.
Here is how a deleted teletype game, a Thanksgiving weekend and a last-minute Apple bid took it into school computer labs.
Sources
8- Article5
- Interview3
The sources the story leans on most, primary sources first. Read dates are when the page was consulted; the live page may have changed since.
Image & music credits
34- License unknown29
- CC BY-SA 4.02
- CC BY-SA 2.01
- CC BY 2.01
32 photos, 1 font, from the hosts linked below. Each file name links to the file's page, which carries the full license terms.
| # | Use | File | Author | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Photo | oregon trail apple2 box.jpg | MECC The Oregon Trail Apple II box and disk, AppleOnline Store photo | License unknown |
| 2 | Photo | heinemann 1971 yearbook.png | Bill Heinemann, Carleton College yearbook 1971, from the GDC 2017 Oregon Trail postmortem slide | License unknown |
| 3 | Photo | carleton 1971 inventors.png | Carleton College 1971 yearbook photographs, slide from the GDC 2017 Oregon Trail postmortem | License unknown |
| 4 | Photo | calendar dec1971.png | December 1971 calendar, calendarmaniacs.com | License unknown |
| 5 | Photo | cc1978 p144 listing.jpg | Creative Computing, May-June 1978, Internet Archive | License unknown |
| 6 | Photo | teletype 33 printing.jpg | Teletype Model 33, Wikimedia Commons (File:Teletype Model 33 (15427779806).jpg) | License unknown |
| 7 | Photo | https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1978-05/page/n146 | archive.org | License unknown |
| 8 | Photo | donner party engraving.jpg | Donner Party engraving, Sparks Museum | License unknown |
| 9 | Photo | prince bryant team.jpg | Prince (#3) at Bryant Junior High, Star Tribune | License unknown |
| 10 | Photo | hp2100a hpmemory.jpg | HP 2100A, HP Memory Project | License unknown |
| 11 | Photo | teletype asr33 classroom.jpg | Teletype Model 33 ASR in use, 1978 (Jud McCranie), Wikimedia Commons, File:ASR 33.jpg | License unknown |
| 12 | Photo | univac 1110 vipclub.jpg | UNIVAC 1110 console, Sperry Univac engineering photograph, vipclubmn.org (EngDocImg/1110-2.jpg) | License unknown |
| 13 | Photo | diary nd msn ea 8014.jpg | Overland trail diary, pp. 59-60 (MSN/EA 8014), University of Notre Dame Archives (honeypot.library.nd.edu) | License unknown |
| 14 | Photo | cyber73.jpg | CDC CYBER 73 memory module, Wikimedia Commons (File:CDC CYBER 73 memory module.jpg) | License unknown |
| 15 | Photo | lemonade stand weather.png | Lemonade Stand, Apple II, MobyGames screenshot | License unknown |
| 16 | Photo | creative computing 1978 05 cover.jpg | Creative Computing, May-June 1978 (vol 4 no 3) cover, archive.org item creativecomputing-1978-05 | License unknown |
| 17 | Photo | https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1978-05/page/n139 | archive.org | License unknown |
| 18 | Photo | https://archive.org/details/creativecomputing-1978-05/page/n139 | archive.org | License unknown |
| 19 | Photo | cc1978 p141 flowchart.jpg | Creative Computing, May-June 1978, Internet Archive | License unknown |
| 20 | Photo | Apple II-IMG 7064.jpg | Rama & Musée Bolo | CC BY-SA 2.0 |
| 21 | Photo | Apple-logo-1977.jpg | Ольга Митрофановна | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| 22 | Photo | mecc elementary vol6 1980 title.png | MECC Elementary Volume 6 v1.2 (1980) title screen, frame at 0:03 of the Apple II recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z5zwA-tw3Q | License unknown |
| 23 | Photo | bouchard 1986.jpg | R. Philip Bouchard, MECC Oregon Trail core team, 1986, University of Georgia | License unknown |
| 24 | Photo | Apple IIe, Google NY office computer museum.jpg | Marcin Wichary from San Francisco, U.S.A. | CC BY 2.0 |
| 25 | Photo | oregon trail disk h106.jpg | The Oregon Trail (MECC, 1985) H-106 disk, version 1.4, archive.org item mecc-oregon-trail-v1.4-plastic-a2-ph | License unknown |
| 26 | Photo | oregon trail apple box front.jpg | The New Oregon Trail (MECC, 1985) Apple II box front, archive.org item mecc-oregon-trail-v1.4-plastic-a2-ph | License unknown |
| 27 | Photo | https://archive.org/details/adoc oregon trail/page/n8 | archive.org | License unknown |
| 28 | Photo | oregon trail creators portraits.jpg | The three creators, Vice (2017) | License unknown |
| 29 | Photo | kevin oleary portrait.jpg | Kevin O'Leary portrait | License unknown |
| 30 | Photo | softkey logo 1994.png | SoftKey Multimedia logo (1994), Avid wiki | License unknown |
| 31 | Photo | mattel logo.png | Mattel logo, Wikimedia Commons (File:Mattel logo.svg) | License unknown |
| 32 | Photo | rawitsch 1971 yearbook.png | Don Rawitsch, Carleton College yearbook 1971, from the GDC 2017 Oregon Trail postmortem slide | License unknown |
| 33 | Font | https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/ | IBM VGA 8x16 from VileR's Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Pack | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Music: Eric Skiff - Behind the waterfall lies the beginning - Resistor Anthems - Available at http://EricSkiff.com/music — https://ericskiff.com/music/
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