No matter your walk in life, if you can’t get into Facebook gaming through Oregon Trail or Carmen Sandiego, you must have no soul.
Two classic educational games that just about everybody was forced to play growing up in the 1980s and 1990s were Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego. Luckily, they were the kinds of learning games that you actually liked playing. Thanks to developer Blue Fang Games and publisher The Learning Company, those games will now live on in modern eternity through Facebook.
Oregon Trail originally put players in the shoes of a settler leading his group down the 2000 mile Oregon Trail in a covered wagon. It required you to manage supplies while crossing dangerous rivers and hunting for food. Fail, and you might die of dysentery.
The Carmen Sandiego series became a much larger franchise that eventually encompassed multiple television shows. It began as a game called Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego that tasked players to chase Dick Tracy-style villains around the world. When traveling to real-life cities (or even through time and space in later versions), players would find clues that hinted where to go next. The ultimate goal was to catch all of the crooks and eventually the floppy-hat wearing Carmen Sandiego once and for all.
Judging by the trailers for the Facebook games, they follow the basic premises of the original titles. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego players still have to get the proper warrant by narrowing down suspects, but can ask for help from other Facebook members. Blue Fang’s Oregon Trail has players assembling a wagon party of old prospectors, lumberjacks, and children that will probably die off quickly. River crossing looks like it becomes a bit more hectic, while hunting now puts your avatar on the field. It also looks like Blue Fang is adding puzzle elements, and Oregon Trail has a mechanic where inviting friends, FarmVille-style, will help out.
Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego will be released on Facebook in February 2011.
Source: Gamasutra
