Skiing | |
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Developer(s) | Activision |
Publisher(s) | Activision |
Designer(s) | Bob Whitehead [1] |
Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
Release | 1980 |
Genre(s) | Sports |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Skiing is a video game cartridge for the Atari 2600. [2] It was authored by Bob Whitehead and released by Activision in 1980. [3] It is one of the first video games developed by Activision.
Skiing is a single-player only game, in which the player uses the joystick to control the direction and speed of a stationary skier at the top of the screen, while the background graphics scroll upwards, thus giving the illusion the skier is moving. The player must avoid obstacles, such as trees and moguls. The game cartridge contains five variations each of two principal games.
In the downhill mode, the player's goal is to reach the bottom of the ski course as rapidly as possible, while a timer records his relative success.
In the slalom mode, the player must similarly reach the end of the course as rapidly as he can, but must at the same time pass through a series of gates (indicated by a pair of closely spaced flagpoles). Each gate missed counts as a penalty against the player's time. [4]
Skiing was promoted via a 30-second TV commercial featuring a man demonstrating how to play the game (including the various obstacles into which a player can crash), while speaking in a stereotypical French accent. The commercial ends with a close-up of the game box, with the man's voice heard off-screen (now speaking in a general American accent) saying, "I think I hurt myself", in reference to his numerous virtual crashes.[ citation needed ]
Richard A. Edwards reviewed Skiing in The Space Gamer No. 43 [5] and called it a simple game with "excellent" graphics and varying scenarios. [5]
The Atari 2600 is a discontinued home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System, it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. The VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge—initially Combat and later Pac-Man. Sears sold the system as the Tele-Games Video Arcade. Atari rebranded the VCS as the Atari 2600 in November 1982 alongside the release of the Atari 5200.
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