The days when you could die of dysentery, rattlesnake bites, and Indian attacks at the drop of a hat. You might even have to cannibalize your team members!

He never played the video came, but John played an in-person variant of this in middle school. The video game “simulates” a trip from Independence, Missouri to Willamette Valley, Oregon.

They had teams of 4 or 5 people. They game required situational decisions, random tests or skill-based tests. The smart, skilled, and lucky participants proceeded onward. The unlucky ones experience a calamity of some sort. They might just get delayed repairing their wagon. They might have to abandon some equipment. They might lose a team member to dysentery, rattlesnake bites, or Indian attacks.

As they progress towards Oregon, the calamities compound. That rope they had to leave behind, they need it to pull their wagon out of the mud. The alcohol they left behind, they need it for disinfecting to save a team member. That team member that died last week, he was the one that knew how to fix the wagon. John thinks the last of his group died of starvation, but he is not sure if he was the victim of a rattlesnake or angry Indian.

The luckiest teams had at least one member make it through to Oregon. The unluckiest are delayed to long and have to cannibalize their team members to survive the winter.

It was definitely depressing and gruesome for middle school, which is why we liked it.