'The Oregon Trail' is perhaps the most successful educational computer game of all time, but its humble origins include a stint in a converted janitor's closet and the casual deletion of every line of its initial code. In this episode of Throwback, Erin traces the history of your favorite computer lab activity.
How 'Oregon Trail' took over computer labs
In the 1980s and 1990s, computer classrooms across the country taught kids about the perils of dysentery and crossing rivers in wagons with 'The Oregon Trail,' an instructive—and morbid—text-based adventure game. We're here to discover the true story behind this pioneering simulation and talk about some of our other favorite retro video games.

Photo: images2.minutemediacdn.com
The history of 'Oregon Trail'
Read even more about one of the most influential computer games of the '80s and '90s.