Oregon Trail
Shares rank 34 of 78 video games by recommenders
Nostalgic educational game that teaches survival and patience, recommended by people who played it as kids. Critics say it only worked well enough.
Nostalgic educational game that teaches survival and patience, recommended by people who played it as kids. Critics say it only worked well enough.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Teaches survival and patience through play
“learned survival and life skills by playing Oregon Trail back in the day”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “'Five Nights at Epstein's' Game Goes Viral at US School Campuses” “Oregon Trail was intended to teach patience not just dysentery”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Scorched Earth 2000 is back” Nostalgic favorite from childhood
“it's a pretty interesting experience, you get to learn a tonne about the game you used to play”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “AI is mass decompiling games. That's both awesome and scary” “learned survival and life skills by playing Oregon Trail back in the day”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “'Five Nights at Epstein's' Game Goes Viral at US School Campuses”
Other video games people recommend
The four most recommended other video games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helldivers 2 | 50 | 34 | 60% | 10 | 1.9 yrs3 owners | — |
| GPU building game | 49 | 16 | 75% | 2 | — | — |
| Triple-A Minesweeper | 40 | 25 | 62% | 1 | — | — |
| Quake II | 33 | 8 | 80% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Oregon TrailThis page | 7 | 1 | 88% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's a pretty interesting experience, you get to learn a tonne about the game you used to play”
“Oregon Trail held up well”
“Edutainment games like Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, Operation Neptune, etc. are captivating to young audiences”
“It worked well enough for those games.”
“one of the most popular games that was originally written by a few Carleton students”
“Oregon Trail was intended to teach patience not just dysentery”
“learned survival and life skills by playing Oregon Trail back in the day”
“not name things like Frogger or worse, The Oregon Trail.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.