Friday Flash Fun: SkiFree Online

December 4, 2009 7:17 AM

There are plenty of skiing games (many online), from dodging drunken skiers (flash, French) to the basic downhill skiing (java) but the grand-daddy of skiing games is SkiFree (previously), iteself based on the older Atari Skiing game. SkiiFree has been remade into a basic version built from SkiFree sprites and HTML Canvas, and the more complex flash version of the freestyle course, which includes the monster.
posted by filthy light thief (21 comments total)

I'm not sure if the flash version of SkiFree allows you to do all the fancy stuff as in the original SkiFree, but it's still fun.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:19 AM on December 4, 2009

Gonna have a go of this. Does it include the vicious pain of cracking my skull on the cold hard snow with the humiliation of a gang of 6 year olds slaloming past me? I hope not.
posted by Elmore at 7:48 AM on December 4, 2009

Yeah, pretty much. I'm crap at this too.
posted by Elmore at 7:49 AM on December 4, 2009

... yet I keep playing...
posted by Elmore at 7:57 AM on December 4, 2009

Elmore, welcome to the beauty of SkiFree.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:00 AM on December 4, 2009

filthy light thief, you have truly made my day sir.
posted by deezil at 8:19 AM on December 4, 2009

wait, you can outrun the monster? fuck.
posted by nathancaswell at 8:27 AM on December 4, 2009

Holy crap, I was just looking at the old SkiFree post the other day. Anybody else inspired by xkcd?

This is an appropriate way to waste time on a Friday where the office will probably close early do to snowfall (in Texas!).

Goddamn Texas weather.
posted by kmz at 8:33 AM on December 4, 2009

Oh wait, that was your last link. Oops.
posted by kmz at 8:33 AM on December 4, 2009

I like Gnarshmallow, it's tricks/freestyle oriented but still fun.
posted by anthill at 9:00 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Anyone remember an even older ski (slalom?) game? One would be able to program it with a one-liner using BASIC on an Apple II computer. This would have been back in the mid 80s.
posted by bitteroldman at 9:25 AM on December 4, 2009

fucking xkcd taught me the other day that you can press f to outrun the monster. wtf.
posted by shmegegge at 9:31 AM on December 4, 2009

i wasted countless hours playing ski stunt simulator in high school. easily the most addictive game of my life.
posted by notnathan at 9:53 AM on December 4, 2009

As much as I played SkiFree, I just can't bring myself around to nostalgic about it.
posted by cmoj at 9:55 AM on December 4, 2009

I prefer to think that I am actually playing the monster, and the game is all about delivering a delicious skier into my mouth. This way, I always win.
posted by Metroid Baby at 10:02 AM on December 4, 2009 [2 favorites]

And all those times I run into trees, I'm making the meal more tender.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:42 AM on December 4, 2009

Skifree was awesome. It was no GORILLA.BAS, but it was awesome.
posted by bondcliff at 10:46 AM on December 4, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ah, GORILLA.BAS. First computer game I ever played, first program I ever modified. That really does bring back memories.

SkiFree was a pretty awesome little game, although for some reason I always preferred the Slalom course to the Freestyle. The game was even better for the easter eggs hidden in it. For example, the monster is above you as well - walk up the hill about 100m, and nom nom nom.
posted by ZsigE at 12:12 PM on December 4, 2009

For example, the monster is above you as well - walk up the hill about 100m, and nom nom nom.

From what I understand, the original SkiFree was circular - get past the "end" and you're back at the beginning.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:40 PM on December 4, 2009

I have the honor of knowing the author of SkiFree, Chris Pirih
posted by MikeHoegeman at 2:28 PM on December 4, 2009

Also, this is where baby snow monsters come from..
posted by MikeHoegeman at 2:33 PM on December 4, 2009