# Oregon Trail

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Oregon Trail and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Nostalgic educational game that teaches survival and patience, recommended by people who played it as kids. Critics say it only worked well enough.

## Why people recommend it

- Teaches survival and patience through play (2 comments): "learned survival and life skills by playing Oregon Trail back in the day" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47535388)) "Oregon Trail was intended to teach patience not just dysentery" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48130165))
- Nostalgic favorite from childhood (2 comments): "it's a pretty interesting experience, you get to learn a tonne about the game you used to play" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50090733)) "learned survival and life skills by playing Oregon Trail back in the day" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47535388))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Helldivers 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/helldivers-2.md): 50 recommend
- [Triple-A Minesweeper](https://hackerapproved.com/p/triple-a-minesweeper.md): 40 recommend
- [Quake II](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quake-2.md): 33 recommend
- [Red Dead Redemption 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/red-dead-redemption-2.md): 28 recommend
- [Grand Theft Auto (1997)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grand-theft-auto.md): 28 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Oregon Trail", https://hackerapproved.com/p/oregon-trail/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).