Ski or Die

Title: Ski or Die
Year released: 1990
Type: Winter sports
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Title screen

14 years ago, in computer-science cabinet in my elementary school we had 286 and 386 computers. Teacher always timed his lectures so that we have time to play games for 15-30 minutes. That was the first time i played "Ski or die" and I loved it.
Music in game is perfect when Soundblaster card is used, graphics is good enough for this kind of game.

 Gameplay

Ski or Die is a game without story, you simply have to play and be the best ... something. Once you start the game, you'll get on the main map (shown below). On this screen you navigate by using arrow keys while holding the Enter key.

Main map

From this main map you can either go to "Rodney's Ski Shop" or to play one of the games. There are two ways of playing this game: "practice" and "compete" mode. By default, you're in practice mode and you can immediately go and play one of the games. But, in order to get into highscore list, you have to register at  Rodney's first and select "Compete" mode. Also, there is a slight difference between modes in one of the games.

It is possible to play with up to 6 players, but it isn't a real multiplayer - when you choose game to play, one player with play after another (only one game is an exception).

Rodney's Ski Shop

 

Rodney's Ski Shop

Rodney is only character in game to talk to, so you'll have to put aside his weird "I'm high" face expression. On this screen you can view high scores, or you can enter competition. You can do that by choosing notepad (above "Go compete" button) where you can sign up to 6 players for competition. Once you do that, choose "Go compete" to get the fun started.

 Games

In each game you use direction keys for navigation and "Enter" and/or right "Shift" as action keys.

Snowboard Halfpipe

Long time ago, this was my favorite part of the game. Today, I can't finish it without falling at least once. This is, in my opinion, the hardest discipline to play. It all narrows down to jumping and doing tricks on halfpipe. This however gets a bit complicated as you need good timing to perform tricks. There are three levels of tricks and each level is complicated than the one before. Luckily,  you have indicator on screen that shows you on which level you are. This is in fact a speed indicator and tricks change with speed level.

Indicator shows third level of tricks

Green circle indicates first level, blue square second and black rhombus third level. All tricks are done similar: when you're on top of the pipe, press enter key and one of the direction keys. Left and right direction key do the same trick. Besides that, you can do tricks by passing over the snow humps on track and using enter key with one of the direction keys.

Second level tricks: Enter+Down/Up/Left or right

 Avoid the logs and these things: , as they will throw you off your snowboard and drop down trick level to one. In order to achieve really high score, don't do the same trick over and over again and don't fall.

Innertube Thrash

Innertube Thrash

This is the only game where it's possible to play in two player mode.

First player commands: direction keys for moving, right "Shift" to attack
Second player commands: T-H-F-B for moving, Y to attack

Your goal is to reach the finish line and to collect as many points possible in process.Your main source of points is attacking the enemy. Once you move close to your opponent, press attack key to deflate his tube - each successful attack gets you some points. During the race, you can pick up different weapons and items (as pictured below).

Weapons (+25 points on pickup)

First two patch the tube, other two deflate it

This game is very fun to play in two player mode.

Acro Aerials 

Ski-jump acrobatics, press "Enter" to start and after that press "Left" then "Right" and repeat that left-right part until you're airborne. You need to do this to achieve greater speed  and by that - higher jump so you can do more tricks. Once you are airborne - use up/down direction keys to do loops or enter+one of direction keys to do one of the following tricks:

Enter+up/down/left/right

 In compete mode, your overall score is based on 3 jumps, in practice mode you can do unlimited number of jumps.

Downhill Blitz

This is really cool part of the game: you have mountain, jumps, tricks and time race. There are two things that will affect your score: number of points you managed to collect by doing tricks and how long it took you to reach finish line. Tricks are done in the same way as in "Snowboard halfpipe", only difference is that there is only one level of tricks.

Jumping of the ledge

You can do tricks by jumping of the ledges and doing tricks. Use left/right key to navigate, up key to speed up and down key to slow down. When you're near some ledge, press enter key to jump, and hold it in combination with one of the direction keys to perform trick.

Snowball Blast

In this good ol' snowball war game and your goal is simple - strike down all your opponents, become ultimate warrior and get all the girls! OK, I'm exaggerating, you just have to hit all opponents with a snowball. You move cursor around with direction keys and as soon as you aim the opponent, hit the Enter key to throw snowball. Points you get depend on your distance from the enemy (as pictured below).
There are actually four sectors here, you can check the compass in upper right corner of screen. When you whack all the opponents from the current screen, you have to move the cursor all the way to the side where you wanna move (left or right) and press "Shift" key. Numbers on the map represent the number of opponents in each sector (as you can see on a picture below).

Points by distance, compass in upper-right corner

To make the game more interesting, there are other objects to hit besides opponents:

Bonus points: 100/30/30/30

Extra time/unlimited ammo/+100 snowballs/-25 snowballs

There is a slight difference in gameplay between practice and compete mode. In compete mode, you have time in which you have to get as many points as possible. In practice mode, there is no set time, but there is a limited number of snowballs you can take before game-over. Collecting shovel in compete mode give you extra time, and in practice mode it takes down certain number of snowballs that hit you.

Slight difference in interface when in practice mode

I have to admit that this game is much more fun in practice mode!

More help

I recorded my best run from each game and you can find them on YouTube. Also, here you can find official manual: Ski or Die manual

Where to get it?

You can download this game from "Abandonia" site located HERE.

What next?

There are many great games that I'd love to play again. Commander Keen will probably be next, or maybe one of the great Lucas Arts adventure games.