The Oregon Trail handheld game now available


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Oregon Trail is seeing not only a resurgence in popularity, but also translation to a variety of media, from card game to stage play to Minecraft skin. Just now hitting the streets is yet another adaptation: the Oregon Trail electronic handheld game.

This game is the product of Basic Fun, a company that has released dedicated handhelds based on arcade classics such as Frogger, Q*Bert and Pac-Man. Oregon Trail seems to be the first time they’ve adapted a computer game, especially one that requires alphanumeric input. As such, this is not a straight port, having been adapted to use the handheld’s directional keys.

This is not the first Oregon Trail game to be available exclusively from Target, with the 2016 card game and its follow-up being the first. But unlike those previous releases, Basic Fun’s game isn’t yet listed on the store’s website, and it can’t even be found on store shelves — at least not when I tried. After confirming Target had the game in stock, I asked a store clerk about the game and provided them with DPCI (similar to a SKU) 087-10-2886. They looked it up in their inventory and found that all 12 of the store’s units were still sitting in a box in the back room, yet to have been put on display. Knowing how hard it’d be to find these games once they were released, I asked if there was a limit to how many I could buy. Indeed there was: I was limited to the 12 they had in stock.

I, uh… I may have gotten a bit carried away.

I’ll continue my exploration of this handheld journey to Willamette Valley in Juiced.GS!

(Hat tips to Kay Savetz and Kirk Millwood)