Oregon Trail game heads toward the iPhone

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The original Oregon Trail computer game. (Photo credit: The_Pug_Father via Flickr)

Updated 1:58 p.m.: Oregon Trail will be available for download on the App Store on February 28, a Gameloft spokesperson said in an e-mail.

Get your immune system ready. Digital dysentery will be on the rise soon.

Oregon Trail, the computer game that practically raised a generation of American youth thanks to its availability in grade-school computer labs, appears to be making a return on the iPhone.

Video game website IGN today posted a handful of screen shots of the game -- and little else. No info. No release date. Nothing.

The graphics appear very similar to developer Gameloft’s other mobile versions of the game (the company hasn’t responded to our request for more details). The new Oregon Trail has a cartoonish look, which should lighten the all-too-common situations in which your wagon loses a wheel and your mates are infected with cholera.

If you haven’t heard of Oregon Trail, you probably weren’t attending a public school in the late ‘80s or the ‘90s. The ‘edutainment’ software had players name a group of nomads to travel on the Oregon Trail in hopes of finding salvation -- as well as learning a bit of history and geography in the process.

The nostalgia-inducing game has spurred a number of homages, including a Lolcat and a number of T-shirts.

No word on when the game will be available in the App Store, but the fact that it’s in the works should build excitement among many folks eager to get back on the wagon.

-- Mark Milian