During our three play-throughs of the 1990 The Oregon Trail, I was amused at the “music” that would beep loudly during the “cutscenes” (still images) marking key stopovers and landmark waypoints on the crossing.
Soundtracks in video games at that time was mostly an exercise in the most musically-adjacent use of the computer’s variable-pitch terminal beep. But most of the songs were easily recognizable classics. I went looking to see if anyone had made a list of those songs and stumbled across “My Gaming Audio History: Oregon Trail (1985),” compiled by Blogger user Matthew Thompson in 2013, which I have turned into a Spotify playlist:
- Leaving Independence, MO: Yankee Doodle
- Kansas River: I Gave My Love a Cherry
- Big Blue River: Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be? (Johnny’s So Long at the Fair)
- Fort Kearney: The Campbells are Coming
- Chimney Rock: Auld Lang Syne
- Fort Laramie: Billy Boy
- Independence Rock: Wayfaring Stranger
- Fort Bridger: Where Has My Laddie Gone? (Blue Bells of Scotland)
- Green River Crossing: All Through the Night
- Soda Springs: Charlie Is My Darling
- South Pass: Believe Me, Of All Those Endearing Young Charms.
- Known by many for its appearance in those Looney Tunes shorts where the piano is rigged to explode (YouTube).
- Fort Hall: Skip to My Lou
- Snake River Crossing: O Shenandoah
- Fort Boise: On Top of Old Smokey
- Grande Ronde in the Blue Mountains: Long Long Ago
- Fort Walla Walla: Flow Gently Sweet Afton
- The Dalles: Jimmy Crack Corn (Blue Tail Fly)
- Willamette Valley: Viva la compangie (Viva l’amour)
I tried to find instrumental versions, skewing bluegrass/country-ish when possible, of these. Many are released largely (or even exclusively…) as lullabies and singalongs (from which I have protected you). And more than I expected were Irish or Scottish folk songs, which I suppose may be historically accurate given continued European immigration.
This may not be my Oregon Trail equivalent of the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix tape, as the Mystery Wagon has newfangled Bluetooth, but it was fun to find all this music.