The Oregon Trail Is Now A Card Game

The classic video game The Oregon Trail will be turning 45 later this year, but for the generations of kids who've played it, the love for it is real. For the 12 or so people out there who've never heard of or played the game, The Oregon Trail was designed to teach children about the life of a 19th century pioneer trying to make the journey from Missouri to Oregon. Inevitably along the way players would encounter all sorts of obstacles and tragedies, such as broken bones, broken wheels, and of course the ever-iconic message that "You have died of dysentery."

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While the computer game has been updated several times over the years, now it can be played in an even more old school format: as a table top card game. Redditor u/dwboso discovered the latest iteration of the game while shopping at Target, and fortunately he was kind enough to share this exciting news with the rest of us.

The game, produced by Pressman Toy Company, is designed for 2-6 players, and uses a combination of cards (representing supplies, events, locations, etc) and dice (you roll to progress the game). To see what some of those cards will look like, check out the slide show below

The game is apparently a Target-exclusive release, but the suddenness of its appearance, along with a number of other not-yet-announced games, has people wondering if someone at Target unknowingly put the games out before their actual release date.

However, even if The Oregon Trail game was supposed to hit the shelves right away Pressman's lack of fanfare about the upcoming release of the game is undoubtedly strange. In a year where we've seen the return of so many nostalgic things, it's odd that Pressman hasn't been shouting about it from the roof tops in order to build up excitement. When u/dwboso attempted to go to the website mentioned in the game's rulebook, he discovered nothing more than a Page Not Found message. After speaking to someone at Pressman, he also mentioned that "it doesn't seem like it was actually an accidental release [as] much as just an unannounced game they put out." Either way, a chance to revisit a beloved childhood game in a new way is definitely exciting news. Also, it'll give us something to do while we wait for the next nostalgic thing from our childhood to make a comeback.