Creating The Oregon Trail

In 1971, a student teacher named Don Rawitsch wanted his students to understand what it was like for westward pioneers in 1847. So he created a board game that challenged players to travel safely from St. Louis to Oregon. His two roommates, Bill Heinemann and Paul Dillenberger, helped him turn the game into software that ran on the computer connection recently installed at the school.

Type “BANG” to Hunt

The first version of The Oregon Trail ran on a bulky teletype terminal. Players read instructions and typed in commands on large spools of paper. There was no computer screen. To shoot animals for food, players had to accurately type words like “BANG,” “POW,” and “BLAM” before the animal escaped.

A True Historical Simulation

In 1973, Don Rawitsch joined MECC. There he revised The Oregon Trail game for publication. These pages from the game’s 1977 user manual show how he combed pioneers’ diaries to determine how often players had accidents, met with bandits, suffered through illnesses, crossed rivers, and overcame other obstacles. Real-life historical records provided the probabilities of such events actually occurring in the game.

Better Learning through Computers

In 1981, the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium began providing their wide catalog of software programs on geography, science, history, and math to schools outside of Minnesota. MECC became the world leader in educational software by packaging the programs with extensive instructional supplements that allowed teachers—many who never used computers before—to fit these games into classroom curriculums.

Seeding the Apple II’s Growth

In 1978, a year after Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs developed the Apple II, MECC representatives recognized that the computer’s affordability, power, and color graphics were perfect for schools. MECC soon purchased thousands of these computers, becoming the largest seller of Apple II computers. Steve Jobs showed his gratitude by giving the keynote at MECC’s 1982 education conference.

Serious Fun

MECC quickly grew in the 1990s, supplying teachers and parents nationwide with a diverse range of high-quality educational products that made learning geography, vocabulary, and mathematics a playful adventure.

Devouring the Competition

MECC’s award-winning title Numbers Munchers proved so popular that one school even held an annual competition. A San Diego elementary school’s yearly Numbers Munchers “Munch-Off” developed students’ basic math skills while it also encouraged students who performed well in educational games but struggled on classroom tests.