SkiFree

SkiFree is a single-player skiing computer game created by Chris Pirih and released with Microsoft Entertainment Pack 3 for Windows 3.0 in October 1991.

The player controls a skier on a mountain slope, avoiding obstacles while racing against time or performing stunts for points, depending on the game mode.

SkiFree remains popular among the gaming community and is often remembered for its Abominable Snowman, which pursues the player after they finish a full run.

SkiFree is a casual single-player sports simulator wherein the player uses the keyboard or the mouse to control a skier across a white background representing snow on a mountainside.

He had been focused on developing for the OS/2 operating system, but in 1991[9] decided to learn to write for the newly released Windows 3.0, and so created a new version of his skiing game in the programming language C, replacing the text-based environment with graphics.

[8] He called the game WinSki, and added exploitable, fanciful elements to demonstrate the new operating system's functionality, such as staining the snow yellow after crashing into numerous dogs and certain tree stumps transforming into mushrooms when skied on backwards.

[1] SkiFree was included in The Windows 3.x Showcase and uploaded to the Internet Archive in February 2016, becoming the most popular item on the website within a week.

[20] While ranking Klotski as the best of the packs and only noting SkiFree as a "simple skiing simulation", he recommended all of the sixteen games and praised each of them for taking advantage of effects that "show off the visual beauty that Windows can bring to a computer.

"[24] Computer Power User described the game as a "killer app", noting that SkiFree was not particularly groundbreaking, but as one of the MEP 3 titles, it "stood apart from Minesweeper and the various card and board-game translations that dominated the software bundles.

"[11] Brittany Vincent of PC Gamer characterized it as an endless runner, rationalizing that SkiFree had no ending and that the course would loop to the top of the map when players reached the bottom.

Benj Edwards of PC Magazine rated SkiFree as the best of MEP 3 because of the humorous inclusion of the Abominable Snow Monster.

The player steers the skier around trees and rocks and is about to be pursued by the Abominable Snow Monster. The colorful bars represent the ramps, and the top right box shows elapsed time, meters traveled, current speed, and "Style" score. [ 2 ]
SkiFree was based on Chris Pirih's earlier title, a text-based VAX/VMS game titled Ski . The circumflexes (^) are trees and the slashes represent the direction of the skis as they turn to the left side of the screen. [ 8 ]
In Microsoft's 2020 game Surf , a limited time theme allows the player to play the game in the style of SkiFree , complete with the Abominable Snowman.