Classic Games Return Via Facebook

Children of the 1980s and 1990s can experience nostalgia thanks to Facebook and The Learning Company, the two have combined to bring back popular vintage computer games.

The Learning Company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, has announced The Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? are coming back as Facebook applications. Users will be able to play the games in real-time with their Facebook friends, adding a new social aspect to the games.

Both of these games hold a special place in the hearts of millions of people who grew up playing them in the classroom and at home. Social gaming presents a wonderful opportunity to re-introduce these beloved icons. Bringing The Oregon Trail and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? to Facebook allows us to reach these fans while offering a newly enhanced game play experience for long-time enthusiasts and newcomers alike, said Tony Bordon, president of The Learning Company, in a statement.

The Oregon Trail is available now and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? will be available on Feb. 9. The Learning Company created the game in conjunction with Blue Fang Games, a developer from Waltham, Mass.

The Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego offer original and iconic experiences that we are updating and extending with new social features that make both games more engaging than ever before, Eduardo Baraf, studio director of Blue Fang, said in a statement.

The Oregon Trail is nearly 40 years old and was originally designed as a board game. It took off when the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) turned it into a computer game. As it evolved throughout out the 1980s and 1990s, it became a fixture in elementary school classes across the country.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? was a computer game created in the 1980s which spun off into a TV show.

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