its XP and I'm not using an emulator...do I have to?

Use DOSBox.

It's easy to make as much money as you want by trading in Independence...

Well, I had no real problems running it under WinXP, but then again, I only played and finished it once that way. Otherwise I automatically play all these ames in DOSBox.

You might not have to, but it will probably run better in DOSBox. Unless, of course, you have a way to play it under true DOS. I recommend that you visit http://www.dosbox.com/ and download DOSBox. You may have to configure it slightly from time to time, but you'll learn how to use it quickly. :)

I do already have DOSBOX, but I was running it via XP, I will try DOSBOX now...thanks for all the help.

Oregon trail is a great adventure survival game however i find that as soon as you've completed the journey successfully then you probably won't be bothered to ever play it again, unless of course you want to kill yourself on the way and gaze at your own grave..

I think it has some replayability. I played the original a lot, trying to get the high score. I don't remember if this version has high scores or not.

I'm not from the US but still find this game funny in some strange, rather geeky way.

I downloaded it and proceeded to unzip the folder, but Windows, 7 in specific, is saying the .zip is empty and wont extract it. I tried to enter it manually and see, then it said it was "invalid".

edit: Never mind I redownloaded it and it's fine. I guess my Ethernet cable lost contact as I was downloading or something. I assume I open it with "Oregon.exe" right?

Correct.