R. PHILIP BOUCHARD
Retired Computer Software Designer | The Oregon Trail (Apple II, 1985)
R. Philip Bouchard Bouchard was the team leader and lead designer for the classic 1985 Apple II version of “The Oregon Trail”, as well as the principal designer of the 1986 game “Number Munchers”. He is also the author of the book "The Stickler's Guide to Science in the Age of Misinformation".
GDEX 2026 Presentation: The Making of the Oregon Trail Game
I was the team leader and lead designer for the classic 1985 Apple II version of “The Oregon Trail”, which gives me a unique perspective on how the game was created. My talk covers the history of the early versions of the game from 1971 to 1990, with principal emphasis on how we designed and built the highly successful 1985 product – the first version to include many of the features people now associate with the game. I’ll trace the surprising twists and turns of how we decided what to include, along with the challenges and setbacks we faced as we designed and built this completely reimagined version. I’ll also describe key features we had hoped to include but had to abandon for technical and budget reasons.
