From: Jakob Schulze
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Date: 26 Oct 1996
Time: 23:47:29
As far as I've seen it, the Oregon Trail is very complex. In the beginning you can decide where you start and where you want to go. Then you go shopping. You have to think of everything: food, tools, clothing, animals, arms, and so on. You can talk to a couple of people who give advice (not always consistent). You can make all the decisions right away, but you have your most important resource, your guidebook. I think all important things are in there, but it is a lot of reading. Then you depart to the west and the computer tells you when you reach difficult passages like crossing a river, then you must make a decision. You can always refer to the guidebook.
I think the most difficult feature of the game is, that you get your feedback with great delay. If you buy a gun, but no bullets, you learn that you need bullets the first time you want to use your gun (most likely a bad situation to learn a lesson). I could imagine it being frustrating to fail and begin from the start just because you forgot one little thing.
So this game takes some patience in the beginning and a strong will, but pays back a lot (also nice graphics).