Ski or Die

Ski or Die brings together five snow events around Rodney's shop. Electronic Arts published the DOS edition in 1990. The title credits Michael Abbot, Nana Chambers and Michael Kosaka, and it sets the tone before you begin: snowboards, skis and artwork that fills almost the whole screen.

You don't need to sign up for a competition to get to know the courses. In the shop, the cursor takes the shape of the game's logo. You can point at the player list, the records, Go Practice or Go Compete. Practice lets you head straight out onto the snow and learn one event on its own.

Five paths from the shop

When you step outside, a small map appears with the entrances to Snowball Blast, Downhill Blitz, Acro Aerials, Snowboard Halfpipe and Innertube Thrash. The Compete All entrance is added to those five routes. The trip to each entrance is part of the selection: you steer the skier around the map instead of picking the sport from a list.

The events differ quite a bit from one another. There is a downhill run, acrobatic jumps, a snowboard course, a descent on inner tubes and a snowball fight. It pays to learn the controls for each one; a command that selects or advances on one screen doesn't necessarily produce the same movement during a jump.

In Downhill Blitz, the scenery scrolls beneath the skier while you look for a line among the snow, the trees and the cuts in the mountainside. The arrow keys let you steer, and Down makes the skier advance. Enter confirms choices and takes part in the actions of the events. If you want to switch events during practice, Esc brings up the question about repeating or returning to the map.

The DOS edition and its conversions

This game page keeps RetroBat's English DOS copy. The player loads straight into the game and uses AdLib sound. The download keeps the collection's folder: to start Ski or Die in a DOS emulator, run SKI.EXE adlib. The GOLF subfolder contains Links 386 Pro, another game from the collection that is covered separately.

The screenshots of the title, the shop and the downhill run belong to the DOS edition. The NES and Amiga conversions have their own graphics and controls. The available editions are chosen from the selector on this page, along with their downloads and images. Rodney's artwork and the screen layout change depending on the machine; use the instructions for the version you have selected.