Playing the Classic Oregon Trail on a Modern Computer
Audra, thank you for your comments! There are several options for re-familiarizing yourself with The Oregon Trail. As you pointed out, one option is to seek out a recent version of the game. Another option is to play the 1985 design — on a modern computer.
Several websites provide access to the 1985 Apple II version of the game, and at least one website lets you play the DOS version, which is nearly identical. To play the Apple II version on a modern computer, you need to use an Apple II emulator. Likewise, if you want to play the DOS version, then you need to use a DOS emulator. There are three ways to do this:
1) The easiest method is to go to a website where the emulator is built right into the web page — meaning that you don’t have to install anything at all. A good example is:
When you arrive at this website, just click the “Load” button for Drive 1, then choose “Educational”, and then “Oregon Trail — Disk 1”. You should also load Disk 2 to Drive 2, or else you will need to change to Disk 2 when you get halfway to Oregon.
If you would like to play the DOS version of the game, then the following website is an excellent choice, because it is so easy to use. Getting started is completely self-explanatory:
archive.org/details/msdos_Oregon_Trail_The_1990
2) A second method is to go to a website that installs an Apple II plug-in into your web browser, allowing the browser to serve as the emulator. One such website is:
Click on the picture of The Oregon Trail. If all goes well, then the site will install an extension to your web browser that simulates an Apple II — and then you can play the game.
3) A third method is to download a free Apple II emulator application to your computer. For example, if your computer runs Windows, then a good choice is AppleWin. After the app is installed, just download the disk images for The Oregon Trail (which consists of two disks) and play away!
Regardless of which method you use to access The Oregon Trail, I hope that you have a great time playing the game once again!