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1. Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 14:26:55 UTC Robert McNees

   Prince Rogers Nelson – musical genius and one of the greatest multi-instrumentalists to ever walk the face of the Earth – was born OTD in 1958.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 14:37:26 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     In the fall of 1971, Prince was an 8th grader at Bryant Junior High in Minneapolis.

     Across town, student teacher Don Rawitsch was developing a card and dice game called "Oregon Trail" in his 8th grade history classes at Jordan Junior High.

     Rawitsch showed the game to Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger, who were student teachers at Bryant. They coded it up and play tested it with their school’s 8th graders.

     It is very likely that Prince was an early playtester of Oregon Trail!

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 14:42:03 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     The game was *wildly* popular with the junior high students. Access to the teletype terminal was limited, and demand was high, so students had to play in groups of 4 or 5. They would come to school early and stay there late to play Oregon Trail.

     So, while there are no records (that I know of) definitively showing Prince was involved, the game was so popular with the kids that it is very likely he was playing that first version.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 14:50:52 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • SnoopJ

     @SnoopJ Ha! It's like you were reading my mind! (See the subsequent post)

   • SnoopJ (snoopj@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 14:50:53 UTC SnoopJ

     in reply to

     @mcnees fun coincidence! In his classic game postmortem given at GDC 2017, Don Rawitsch talks about how the game the three teachers (who were roommates at the time!) came up with was so popular that there was a long line outside the classroom to play the game on the only available teletype. Plausible indeed!

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdGNFhKhoKY

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 14:52:39 UTC Robert McNees

     • Smörhuvud (he/him/surprise me)

     @guncelawits I first played the BASIC version on an Apple II. But even then, long after it was first introduced, there was so much demand that the teacher in charge of the computer room had to work up a schedule and slot people in before and after school.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 14:58:46 UTC Robert McNees

     • Smörhuvud (he/him/surprise me)

     @guncelawits Extremely same.

   • Prof. Sam Lawler (sundogplanets@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 15:07:06 UTC Prof. Sam Lawler

     in reply to

     @mcnees My kids have been hilariously delighted about playing Oregon Trail here: https://classicreload.com/oregon-trail.html

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 15:13:05 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     My head canon is that somewhere deep in the Paisley Park vaults, there is a forgotten tape labeled “When Doves Die of Dysentery,” containing a grand soundtrack for the game.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 15:38:39 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • m. libby

     @mlibby Yeah, I heard that was added in the mac port.

   • m. libby (mlibby@toot.cat)'s status on Wednesday, 07-Jun-2023 15:38:40 UTC m. libby

     in reply to

     @mcnees In spite of "You have died of dysentery" being the cliche phrase from the game, you could not actually die of dysentery in the original game.

     I have a recreation of the teletype verision on my web site: https://mlibby.com/oregon/