Sunday, January 23, 2011

Oregon Trail and the need of a social life

I love wintertime, but there are times when the cold and the darkness can be dreary. Volleyball hasn't started, so the nights are just, well....boring. This Friday I was contemplating my life as I sat on the couch and tried not to watch the Australian Open with my mom. Not that I don't like tennis, it's just that it hits me sometimes how very sad and depressing my life is. I mean, it was a Friday night. I should be out on the town doing something fun. I'm single and can be kinda fun, right? Anyway, enough being ornery about my non-existent social life.
The point of my ranting is that I discovered something fun that will help those of us with no evening time hobbies and no social life to waste time properly..."Oregon Trail". Those of you who were in Elementary school in the 80s might remember the game on the awesome old-school Apple computers. I bought an Ipod touch a couple of months ago (which I love, by the way) and I found a fun new version of the old game from my youth. I invested the 99 cents for some entertainment.
It is, of course, not exactly like the old-school version. It is extremely updated as far as the graphics. It also has some other fun extras. It gives you options to play different games to win food, fix your wagon, fish and hunt. You can pan for gold for win money and in the forts and towns, you have the option of buying supplies and also playing a "Simon Says" type game at the telegraph office. Another fun option is meeting notable characters from the Old West and learning some history (I think that was the point of the game in the first place). You can deliver packages for people and give people rides for a fee.
I didn't fare too well. I was WAY behind schedule and two of my sweet daughters were carried away by a giant bird, but it was a fun way to waste my depressing Friday night. I finished the game today with my nieces and nephew (I couldn't finish on Friday night because my battery died...it can be a much longer version as well) and they were getting the biggest kick out of it. It shouldn't have surprised me...I was their age when I discovered "Oregon Trail" as well! It's never been more fun to have typhoid and dysentery!

2 comments:

Tori said...

LOL you make me laugh...And yes you are a very fun person and should be out on a Friday night...as for the Oregon Trail...I still have all those old Oregon Trail game disks in the cabinet of the computer lab at school and the kids want to play them so bad but they dont work on our computers because they are so old...

M Israelsen said...

I'm so glad you came up to Logan on Saturday. You made the evening very "non-boring" :). Oregon Trail might have to come on our next roadtrip...