The Canadianschool kid's equivalent to The Oregon Trail,and on the surface, the comparison makes sense.However, I'm sorry to burst your syrupy bubble,but things aren't quite that simple.Developer Didatech was indeed a Canadian companyfounded in 1983 by David Vincent,Allen Forsberg and David Young.But in the beginning, they made gamesfor the overall North American market,and did a lot of advertising and sales in the USA.Their first game was Fay: That Math Womanfor the Commodore 64 and Apple II,followed by Fay: The Word Hunter,Fay's Word Rally,Quiz Castleand a typing tutor called All The Right Type.Then in 1985, co-founder David Vincentcreated a game for the Apple IIknown as Cross Country... USA.Yep.

Keeping in line with the demands of the United States edutainment market,and specifically that of school kids,their next game would be even more successful than Fay: That Math Woman. Keeping this in mind,it's not hard to see why they chose to release Cross Country USA first,as it was meant for younger audiences and so could be played during classes to give students a break from their daily routine of sitting at their desks,doing schoolwork.

Keeping the edutainment market in mind,their next game would be even more successful than Fay: That Math Woman. Keeping this in mind,it's not hard to see why they chose to release Cross Country USA first,as it was meant for younger audiences and so could be played during classes to give students a break from their daily routine of sitting at their desks,doing schoolwork.

Keeping the edutainment market in mind,and knowing that Cross Country... USA was going to be released soon, David Vincent would go on to create another game for the Apple II known as Cross Country USA. It is considered one of the best games ever made by Didatech and has many similarities with Oregon Trail which was also popular among students back then.

Keeping this in mind,it's not hard to see why they chose to release Cross Country USA first,as it was meant for younger audiences and so could be played during classes to give students a break from their daily routine of sitting at their desks,doing schoolwork. In addition,the game was designed to teach kids about different places and regions in the United States.

In 1986 they released another version of Cross Country USA, but this time on MS-DOS. This edition had many new features compared to the previous versions like improved graphics,more realistic weather effects and a much larger map than before.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enIf your typical weekend looks like this,then you also probably considerthe game Cross Country Canadato be a point of national pride.I've heard many describe this as the Canadianschool kid's equivalent to The Oregon Trail,and on the surface, the comparison makes sense.However, I'm sorry to burst your syrupy bubble,but things aren't quite that simple.Developer Didatech was indeed a Canadian companyfounded in 1983 by David Vincent,Allen Forsberg and David Young.But in the beginning, they made gamesfor the overall North American market,and did a lot of advertising and sales in the USA.Their first game was Fay: That Math Womanfor the Commodore 64 and Apple II,followed by Fay: The Word Hunter,Fay's Word Rally,Quiz Castleand a typing tutor called All The Right Type.Then in 1985, co-founder David Vincentcreated a game for the Apple IIknown as Cross Country... USA.Yep.Keeping in line with the demands of theUnited States edutainment market,Cross Country USA was the first game in the seriesthat later became well-knownas a Canadian classroom staple.In fact, there was even a Cross Country California made,which featured a more in-depthlook at America's Golden State.1986 was the year that CrossCountry Canada finally came about,once again for the Apple II.It was just a re-skin of the originalUSA game, but nonetheless,it's the one that Didatech is remembered for.Indeed, sequels to both Cross CountryUSA and Canada are still sold today.Although the company later becameknown as VR Didatech in 1996,and are currently known as C3 Media's Ingenuity Worksafter an overhaul in 1998.Well anyway, back to Cross Country Canada,of which we'll be looking atthe most famous version here,the MS-DOS one ported over by Jimfre Bacal.And yes, that's the same guy who laterbecame known for his blues music.So yeah, the game begins witha truck, a flag and a musical ditty.You're then given the optionslike the number of players,loading a saved game and difficulty parameters.Enter your name and the game willthen choose a random starting date,location, destination and commodity.You're then given the map ofyour country, in this case Canada.As the name suggests,it is your job to cross that country,with the goal of delivering precious Canadian cargo.Maple syrup,snowmobiles,furs, Eskimo art,lumber, salmon, uraniumand plenty more are all possible commodities.This is accomplished by typing in all the commandsthrough the text parser at the bottom of the screen.So yeah, the game plays a bit likeEuro Truck Simulator meets Oregon Trailmeets Adventure in Serenia.You're keeping up with fuel anddelivering cargo just like ETS,you're on a road trip with random eventsand real-life locations like Oregon Trail,and you've got the maddeningly specifictext input from early interactive fiction.According to one of the programmers,they intentionally omitted listing the specificcommands needed to control the game,which does deem a bit unfair.You've got specific commands for everythingimportant that happens in the game,from starting the truck to putting on a seat beltto remembering to eat breakfast.The good that comes from this is thatthe sense of discovery is awesome,and I'm sure it was easier than designinga graphical interface for the developers.The bad is that the initial difficulty is ridiculous,and you'll be ruined by things as simple asleaving your truck door unlocked while you sleep,because someone broke in and stoleyour hard-earned goods overnight.And just like Oregon Trail,this game doles out theserandom punishments left and right,so go ahead and prepare some apologiesbecause you ARE going to let yourCanadian brothers and sisters down.That's not to say I'm really complaining though.No, it's quite the opposite.This is simply a design decision that arbitrarilygives the player a hurdle to overcome.And once you figure this stuff out,Cross Country Canada is a pleasure to play.You get a basic strategy to follow:find who supplies the cargo you need,keep your truck fueled and locked,don't get too hungry or too tired,deal swiftly and strategically with any obstacles,speed only when you can afford to get away with it,and fasten your seat belt.Cargo can be found in major citiesand each city is going to have one or twocommodities that you can use as cargo.It came with a reference sheet that told youwhich cities exported what commodity,so it's just a matter of checking thisand then finding that city on the map.You can then plan your route accordingly,which isn't very hard at all, seeing as it'sjust straight lines between each city.Of course, longer drives are going to require more fuel,and if you run out of gas, you'll haveto radio for an emergency delivery.You can also blow a tire at random,but that doesn't cost anything but time.Seeing as you can't take food with you for some reasonand you can't eat your cargo,or any passengers,stopping at diners and partaking offine Canuck cuisine is a common thing.Gotta love that reference to their Fay series, too.I guess that's what happened after shestopped doing math and hunting words.While you can sleep in your truck,finding a hotel is going toprovide a much better night's rest,which is good, because if you'retoo tired, you might just crash.This is where wearing your seat belt comes inbecause otherwise crashes aremuch worse and you'll have to pay up.There are other obstacles, too,like rain, which requires the use of windshield wipers,and hitchhikers at nightthat will either thank you for yourconsideration and pay you a small tip,or rob you at gunpoint and take your cargo.Canada's not as risk-free as I thought.And if you're getting impatient,you can always choose to speedif the road is straight enough.But you chance the cops pulling you over,and sadly there are no options to plead with them,or bribe them with your truckload of potatoes.There are even ferries to take over bodies of water,because the idea of fording yourway across, or caulking the truck,is not very pleasant.Once you've reached your destination,it's time to unload the cargo,and you'll be rewarded with a falling maple leafand a trip to Ottawa!Seriously.Not cash,just trips to places you've already beenand other assorted game show-like prizes.Then it's time to print out your results and play it again,maybe this time with a friendand some custom commodities,which always makes for silly fun.Yeah, Cross Country Canada ispretty much awesome, I've gotta say.I can easily see why it was so well-rememberedby those that played it as a youngster,even if I had absolutely no nostalgic connection to itand knew practically nothingabout the Great White North.Although I do now,and actually have anunderstanding of where Yellowknife isin relation to Winnipeg, for instance.But I can just imagine beinga kid and playing this in schooland how cool it must have been tovisit places you're more familiar withand seeing how it's portrayed.I know, because I got that exactfeeling playing the USA versionand visiting my home state and local cities,making judgements on how inaccuratethe estimated population wasand the food and stuff like that.And like any game played in school,Cross Country Canada was automatically coolregardless of what it was,because it let you play on a computer during classand you didn't have to do real work.And it sneakily taught kids some thingsabout Canada,which is good.And it obviously did well enoughfor the company to still exist today,and resulting in a host of remakesand sequels over the years.Now finding a copy of the originalgames is seemingly impossible,but if you want to give it a try,you can do so on the InternetArchive and other similar sites,so what are you waiting for?Go and have fun with it.'Cause I sure did!And if you enjoyed this edutainment game review,well there are more coming this month,and there have been a lot of them in the past.You can check my channel for...well, either one of those, really.They're all gonna be on my channel.That's where I put my channel stuff.You can also subscribe to be notifiedwhen they occur in the future.There's also Twitter. And Facebook. And Patreon.And things like that, which are also linked here as wellbecause I deem them important enough to do so.And as always, thank you very much for watching.\n"