The second-most popular video game series from Macintosh developer Storm Impact, who are better known for TaskMaker. A straightforward skiing sim, it comes with several pre-loaded courses and the ability to make new ones. Like TaskMaker, it was originally made by another company and Re Tooled by Storm Impact into a better game.
Using the mouse or keyboard, the player controls a skier through timer courses (just try to get the best time), slalom, downhill, and more exotic courses that require skiing under Stonehenge pieces, or even striking down penguins or snowmen. Settings include weather conditions and ski type.
Not to be confused with SkiFree, another Obstacle Ski Course game made around the same time.
Tropes present:
- Distracted by the Sexy: From the help screen: "Wide-eyed skiers may want to be careful not to be distracted by ski bunnies. Smashing her into the ground won't lead to a date."
- Don't Try This at Home: The help screen also warns players that it is only for entertainment purposes, not training: "If you do not seek professional ski instruction, you could injure yourself very badly and look like a complete idiot in front of family and friends."
- Game-Breaking Bug: Until the last version (1.7.2) came out in 1999note , the game was actually unplayable on G3 era Macs such as the iMac. This was due to the frame rate algorithm underflowing to zero.
- Game Mod: The game allows the player to build new courses and set their difficulty.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: One of the programmers' mothers voiced the ski bunnies, who shout one of five random insults if you crash into them. According to the "About" box, she was not pleased when Macworld wrote that the ski bunny "feebly lifted her head from the snow and shouted in a nasal voice, 'bean brain!'"
- Obstacle Ski Course: The purpose of the game.
- Randomly Generated Levels: "Algorithmia", the default level, is randomly generated every time.
- Saint-Bernard Rescue: Every fifth object that the player collides with will result in him temporarily becoming incapacitated while a Saint Bernard trudges on-screen to rescue him.
- Shout-Out: One course ostensibly set in Cupertino, California features Clarus the Dogcow, a one-time Macintosh mascot.
- Super-Speed: Hitting a container of ski wax will temporarily boost speed, and allow the player to regain speed faster after a crash.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: The skier can crash into as many objects or fellow skiers as possible, Saint-Bernard Rescue notwithstanding. There are also the "kill the penguin" courses.
- Using the Game Mod, it is possible to create a course so that an object is exactly where the skier spawns, thus causing him to wipe out the second the course loads.
