10 Video Games That Got History Wrong

10. The Oregon Trail

History major Don Rawitsch gave dysentery to his 8th grade students at a junior high in Minneapolis in 1971, when he developed a piece of software designed to teach them about American expansion into the west during the 19th century. So popular was The Oregon Trail that it had kids lamenting the peal of the bell, and it soon found its way into schools across the state.

Given his expertise in the area, Rawitsch's cult hit unsurprisingly gets most of its history right - particularly areas of pioneer life frequently misunderstood. Just as depicted in the game, Native Americans were seldom hostile towards peaceful pioneers, and dysentery was the ultimate final boss.

That said, Oregon Trail was designed for 13 year olds, and so took certain liberties for the sake of 'edutainment'. Settlers tended to travel as a caravan rather than a solitary wagon, meaning fording a deep river was impractical. The plains buffalo population had mostly been eradicated by the early frontiersmen, thwarting massive hunting sprees for latecomers.

And lastly, when people died along the Oregon Trail, their grieving relatives tended not to memorialise them with an off-beat headstone. The gruelling, nomadic life was nowhere near as fun as it was in the classroom.