What 'The Oregon Trail' Co-Creator Thinks of Apple's Plans for a Movie (cbsnews.com)
(Sunday December 01, 2024 @03:34AM (EditorDavid)
from the you-have-died-of-dysentery dept.)
- Reference: 0175570669
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/24/12/01/0112232/what-the-oregon-trail-co-creator-thinks-of-apples-plans-for-a-movie
- Source link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/oregon-trail-movie-creator-bill-heinemann/
It's one of the most successful — and oldest — computer games of all-time. This week CBS News Minnesota interviewed Bill Heinemann, who in 1971 co-created "The Oregon Trail" as an educational video game simulating pioneers travelling west.
> "It's surprising and gratifying and humbling, in a way, that a little thing that I spent two weeks on has become a worldwide phenomenon," Heinemann said... The game's become known for the many ways players can die, including by dysentery, but Heinemann's favorite was death by snake bite. "It only happened once every several hundred times, and so people could've played it for months and all of a sudden, 'What? I got bit by a snake and died? This has never happened to me before!'" he said.
The game has been the subject of [1]numerous [2]satirical [3]articles by [4]McSweeney's . And long-time Slashdot reader [5]whois_drek points out that a sketch comedy group [6]also based a movie on the videogame in 2023 .
So how does the game's co-creator feel about [7]Apple's plans to film a new big-budget movie based on the game ?
> "Surprising to me how popular it's become and how long the interest in it has been around," Heinemann said. "And this is just the next step I guess."
>
> He won't be making any money off the movie. In fact, Heinemann's never seen a dime from the iconic game. He and his two co-creators, Rawitsch and Paul Dillenberger, turned it over to the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium shortly after they invented it. Heinemann says it doesn't bother him. "I didn't do it for money," he said. "I did it for just the love of the game and the love of teaching."
Thanks to Slashdot reader [8]quonset for sharing the news.
[1] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/epitaphs-from-oregon-trail-after-some-eighth-grade-boys-had-used-the-computer
[2] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-oregon-trail-updated-for-millennial-moms
[3] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/oregon-trail-is-changing-so-that-we-share-less-of-your-private-dysentery-information
[4] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/from-the-journal-of-daniel-smith-a-character-in-the-apple-ii-version-of-the-oregon-trail
[5] https://www.slashdot.org/~whois_drek
[6] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23026530/
[7] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/10/28/2249214/oregon-trail-action-comedy-movie-in-development-at-apple
[8] https://www.slashdot.org/~quonset
> "It's surprising and gratifying and humbling, in a way, that a little thing that I spent two weeks on has become a worldwide phenomenon," Heinemann said... The game's become known for the many ways players can die, including by dysentery, but Heinemann's favorite was death by snake bite. "It only happened once every several hundred times, and so people could've played it for months and all of a sudden, 'What? I got bit by a snake and died? This has never happened to me before!'" he said.
The game has been the subject of [1]numerous [2]satirical [3]articles by [4]McSweeney's . And long-time Slashdot reader [5]whois_drek points out that a sketch comedy group [6]also based a movie on the videogame in 2023 .
So how does the game's co-creator feel about [7]Apple's plans to film a new big-budget movie based on the game ?
> "Surprising to me how popular it's become and how long the interest in it has been around," Heinemann said. "And this is just the next step I guess."
>
> He won't be making any money off the movie. In fact, Heinemann's never seen a dime from the iconic game. He and his two co-creators, Rawitsch and Paul Dillenberger, turned it over to the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium shortly after they invented it. Heinemann says it doesn't bother him. "I didn't do it for money," he said. "I did it for just the love of the game and the love of teaching."
Thanks to Slashdot reader [8]quonset for sharing the news.
[1] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/epitaphs-from-oregon-trail-after-some-eighth-grade-boys-had-used-the-computer
[2] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-oregon-trail-updated-for-millennial-moms
[3] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/oregon-trail-is-changing-so-that-we-share-less-of-your-private-dysentery-information
[4] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/from-the-journal-of-daniel-smith-a-character-in-the-apple-ii-version-of-the-oregon-trail
[5] https://www.slashdot.org/~whois_drek
[6] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23026530/
[7] https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/10/28/2249214/oregon-trail-action-comedy-movie-in-development-at-apple
[8] https://www.slashdot.org/~quonset
Careful - if it follows "Person of Interest"... (Score:2)
by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 )
The main "Oregon Trail" player will end up buried under a concrete slab.
Finally! (Score:3)
by fluffernutter ( 1411889 )
Finally I'll know if I should eat the food in the dented rusty can with no label!
"A Million Ways to Die in the West" movie (Score:3)
I always thought of the comedy movie "A Million Ways to Die in the West" as a good unofficial adaptation of the game "Oregon Trail".
Re: (Score:2)
After stepping on a poo-covered needle.
Re: (Score:2)
> After stepping on a poo-covered needle.
In 21st century San Francisco