SkiFree is a computer game by created by Chris Pirih, who was working as a programmer at Microsoft.
The object of the game is simple - ski down a seemingly endless slope and avoiding the obstacles.
Pirih had created SkiFree in C on his home computer for his own education and entertainment. The game eventually attracted attention of a program manager for Microsoft Entertainment Pack when he noticed Pirih playing it at work, resulting to the inclusion of the game for the next Entertainment Pack release and licensing of it from Pirih.
The game was featured in the Best of Windows Entertainment Pack and there is also a ported version for the original Macintosh.
In 1993, Pirih started work on a second version to game, but was abandoned for other projects as the original source code was lost.
Gameplay
At the beginning of the game, the user has four choices:
- Enter the Free-style course (with the objective of collecting "style points" by doing flips, going over moguls, etc).
- Enter the Slalom course (with the objective of completing an opened slalom course in the shortest time possible).
- Enter the Tree Slalom course (similiar to the Slalom course, but longer, with trees interspersed).
- Enter none of the courses, and just "ski free".
Abominable snowman
Once the player has completed their run, the game does not abruptly end. Rather, the player continues skiing until they encounter an abominable snowman. From that point on, the player can ski until the monster catches them.
Tips and cheats
- During the game, the skier can slow his speed down by simply pressing the "s" key. On the other hand, pressing the "f" key allows the skier to move faster.
- Clicking the Left Mouse Button in front of a dead tree to jump over it, sets the tree on fire.
- In the Free-style course, extra style points can be gained by letting the lift pass over the skier.
- Colliding with a brown trapizodal rock from the bottom, by holding the "up" cursor key, turn the rock into a mushroom.
- If the skier follows a passing dog and runs over it from the bottom up, the dog will urinate. Doing so in the free style section results to the skier losing all accumulated points; more points are lost if it is done continuously.
- Aiming right by pressing "f" and going downwards in a straight line helps the skier get past the abominable snowmans (there's two of them). If the skier successfully evades them, he will eventually reach the top of the piste.
32-bit version
Because the initial SkiFree release was a 16-bit Windows program, compatibility issues when running the game in newer versions of Windows arose. Pirih noted that users of Windows XP can configure the operating system to run 16-bit Windows programs, resolving the problem for some.
On 4 April, 2005, Pirih announced his rediscovery of the game's source code and created a more compatible 32-bit version. The updated version is presently made available on his official SkiFree website.
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