Oregon Trails - Where are the Canadians?

[What'sThatSmell]

Oregon Trails - Where are the Canadians?

Since I've been visiting a few nostalgic topics and keep seeing that one person's signature that has something to do with Oregon Trails and ninjas - I felt like making a stand for Canadian nostalgic-driven people. For one, we never played Oregon Trails because it is an American game based around American history, so what did the Canadians play? It might sound a bit silly for me to be making this topic since most of us reside in igloos and you'd probably wonder how we'd figure out how to operate a computer. But, alas, we did have computers in the 90's and we were taught how to learn on them?

Okay, I'm vividly smelling marshmallows and campfires but I will continue with my point. Uh, we did have computers and we learned on them. We played a game which would benefit us on all these topics: Canadian Towns/Provinces, Gas, Trucks, and how to make money by illegally upgrading your truck..What was this glorious game called?

Cross Country Canada
http://www.the-underdogs.info/downlo...da.zip&id=4036

One of the best edutainment titles ever made, Cross Country Canada is an excellent game for kids aged 4-9 designed to teach them about the geography of Canada. You goal in the game is to take various delivery jobs drive by driving a truck across the country. The game gives you the starting location and the destination, and your task is to load commodities and deliver some of them along the way.

The game not only teaches geography, but also involves a lot of strategic decisions. For example, you may have to deliver corn to Vancouver. You have to check the map and choose the city where it would be most economical for you to stop and load the corn (usually there are 3 cities to choose from). In a nod to realism, you have to budget the time to sleep, eat, and fill the tank with gas. While doing all this, you will learn many interesting factoids about various Canadian cities (ranging from the weather, terrain, to cultural differences), basic map reading and interpretation skills, time and distance factors, gas mileage calculations, and even a little economics. The game uses a user-friendly interface that lets you type in commands similar to text adventures, and the graphics are crisp and clear, even with the limitation of 4-color CGA palette. The game even allows 2 players to compete on the same computer by taking turns driving their own trucks.

Cross Country Canada is a game I grew up with in school. Since about grade one, I have been playing this game religiously. The game pits you against the harsh Canadian landscape with two goals: travel across Canada, and drop off packages. You start off in a random city, with your truck turned off and no packages. You must travel to the city that contains the package you need, get the package and travel to your specified destination (oftentimes Red Deer, Alberta). Gameplay wise, the game is easy. The game will tell you when something bad happens, such as your character falling asleep at the wheel, being very hungry, or needing to refuel the truck. Often, the truck will break down, crash, get a flat or run out of gas. You are forced to phone a tow truck for this situation. Traveling city to city is easy also. If you look at the map, you can surmise the general direction of any city, and as such, command your character to go that way. If you play your cards right, a standard 3 package game will take you maybe 40 minutes at worst. Graphically, theres not much to speak of. The game was designed some time in 1990-91, and as such there is no 3D interface to speak of. However, the graphics portray a lot of the environments accurately, and are serviceable. Sound is where this game is awesome. Utilising your PC Speaker or Modem, the game produces beeps and burps as well as music throughout the game. I found the score to be moving as well as uplifting, especially when traveling on a ferry.

This game is available free from numerous websites, or can be borrowed from nearly any Canadian school, and as such is a terrific value. It's sequel, Cross Country USA, is also available free and is a good game in it's own right. By combining the feel of The Oregon Trail (minus the Snakebites, death, etc), and the monotony of the Canadian wilderness, Cross Country Canada ultimately succeeds in winning over the coldest of hearts, and will likely be played for another twenty years in schools.

1. Do I have a certain time/money limit? 

Nope. You can spend all you want and go wherever you please. You may 
get a bonus commodity that may give you $300 off your gas bill, or 
something similar. 

2. HEY! THAT HITCHHIKER STOLE MY COMMODITY!

Yeah, when you pick up a hitchhiker, there are three outcomes:

1.    He waves as you drop him off (common)
2.    He waves and gives you a $100 tip (rare)
3.    He steals your commodity at knifepoint. (semi-common)

Outcome #3 is all the more amusing if you have customized your 
commodity names to illegal substances.

3. You can customize commodities?

Yes, but you can only name 4 of them (the rest are still default), and 
you have to use the file called "AUTHOR.EXE" to do it. Then you can 
pick which cities to put them in. For example, I used commodity table 0 
as a base, named the four custom commodities, and then added the custom 
commodities to cities that don't normally have commodities. (I had 
Crack in Moncton...lmao. It's funny to type "get crack" and see a box 
loading into the back of the truck. But don't take my word for it...) 

4. Why do I get into so many accidents?

Well, is your guy hungry? Tired? Speeding? All three? Try and keep your 
guy's health up and the truck speed down, and you shouldn't have any problems with accidents.

Are there any Canadians on this forum that were at school from beyond the time the microwave was invented?

My god.

Sucks to your Oregon Trails!

[chipcago]

That sounds sweet.

[Blazin'Talon]

We played Oregon Trail when I was in school *shrugs*

This one looks pretty cool, but I can't load it on Linux...maybe I'll try to get another box runnig tomorrow.

[Disinterest]

Yeah these were on my school's computers but we never wanted to play it because there were so many other games that were so much less informative that we could play in its stead.

[Rasta_Man]

This was the cool thing when *I* was in school.

[xericx]

^^ yea...

Anyways, Cross Country Canada is awesome, I remember playing that in elemtry school. Always speeding and picking up hhitch hikers.

eric

[JollyRoger227]

Perhaps I will try this Canadian game

Long live the O.T.

[Cptobvious1]

I played this in grade 4-6 computer class....We had old macs and they had this game, carmen sandiego, and some tank game made with geometric shapes. Ahah, I can't beleive you brought this up, haven't thought of it for so long. I never remembered the graphics being so....dated. Carmen Sandiego was like black and white though if I remember correctly.

[cheebaa]

Originally Posted by JollyRoger227

Long live the O.T.

See what you started.