The Oregon Trail headed to iPhone

Gameloft announced Wednesday plans to release The Oregon Trail for the iPhone and iPod touch.

A game that’s existed in one form or another since the early 1970s, The Oregon Trail was a trailblazing educational title for the Apple II and other early computer platforms. The game’s refrain “You have died of dysentery” has even become enough of a cultural touchstone in recent years to spawn a t-shirt.

The game takes players across the famed Oregon Trail — one of the few practical ways that early American settlers in covered wagons had to travel to the northwestern United States. The trail was notorious for taking a heavy toll on settlers, who succumbed to illness, starvation and occasional attacks from bandits and others on the way.

The iPhone version takes you from Independence, Mo. to Willamette Valley, Ore., making decisions and solving problems on the way. You’ll have to ford raging rivers, survive bear attacks and avoid sickness and starvation, plus you play eight skill-based mini-games using the accelerometer, such as hunting, fishing, wagon repairing, river crossing, rafting, telegraphing, gold panning and berry picking.