3 ms·

I swear when I was like 7 and playing this, I managed to beat the snow monster by skiing off a ramp right when the monster appeared, so that I was in the air wh

I swear when I was like 7 and playing this, I managed to beat the snow monster by skiing off a ramp right when the monster appeared, so that I was in the air when he tried to gobble me, which -- to my utter astonishment -- seemed to kill them. Maybe it was just a dream or something, because to my knowledge no one has ever claimed to be able to get past the skifree snow monster. I expected it to pop up over the years at least once. But after almost three decades, it seems increasingly likely that I just have this weird random childhood memory that did not happen, instead of being the one child in the whole world to actually slip by the snow monster (and mention how). I assume that if it was even possible to kill the snow monster, someone would've disassembled the code by now and figured it out. But I can't help but wonder.

aatd86 4y ago
Nah... When you managed to go past one monster... Not only would it still run after you but another one would appear and join him if I remember well.
- sillysaurusx 4y ago
  So there is a way to get past them? That's the thing though, I killed them, rather than getting past them. So they couldn't chase after me. Or it was just a skifree fever dream. But I'm curious how to get past that damned devil. Is there any info anywhere?
  - aatd86 4y ago
    From memory, the only thing you can really do is taking the trampolines to flee. And also jump by using one of the mouse buttons especially using the little snow hills, that will propel you forward.
    - sillysaurusx 4y ago
      Hmm. So there's at least two ways to jump? Interesting. Maybe it's not so unlikely that no one ever tried jumping onto the snow monster via all available methods. I think it was the ski ramp that was able to kill them. Does anyone have a Windows box handy? If so, does the .exe still run on modern Windows? (https://ski.ihoc.net/ski32.zip https://ski.ihoc.net/ski32.zip) Whoa, apparently the author recently recompiled the SkiFree exe with VS2019. So, they have access to the source code, and there's a modern version available... ... Welp. This sounds like the beginning of a new quest to unveil a childhood SkiFree mystery. I wonder if I can bribe them to quietly let me rifle through the source code looking for the snow monster logic. Doesn't it seem kind of out of place that there wasn't any way to kill the snow monsters? Betcha there's at least one. And jumping is the only available mechanic, other than tricking it into running into a tree, Tasmanian-devil style.
    - Groxx 4y ago
      Yep. Jumps are faster than skiing, and with big ones you can outrun them, at least until you screw up.
_oghd 4y ago
https://xkcd.com/667/ https://xkcd.com/667/
- theandrewbailey 4y ago
  Press 'F' to pay respects.

aatd86 4y ago

Nah... When you managed to go past one monster... Not only would it still run after you but another one would appear and join him if I remember well.

sillysaurusx 4y ago
So there is a way to get past them? That's the thing though, I killed them, rather than getting past them. So they couldn't chase after me. Or it was just a skifree fever dream. But I'm curious how to get past that damned devil. Is there any info anywhere?
- aatd86 4y ago
  From memory, the only thing you can really do is taking the trampolines to flee. And also jump by using one of the mouse buttons especially using the little snow hills, that will propel you forward.
  - sillysaurusx 4y ago
    Hmm. So there's at least two ways to jump? Interesting. Maybe it's not so unlikely that no one ever tried jumping onto the snow monster via all available methods. I think it was the ski ramp that was able to kill them. Does anyone have a Windows box handy? If so, does the .exe still run on modern Windows? (https://ski.ihoc.net/ski32.zip https://ski.ihoc.net/ski32.zip) Whoa, apparently the author recently recompiled the SkiFree exe with VS2019. So, they have access to the source code, and there's a modern version available... ... Welp. This sounds like the beginning of a new quest to unveil a childhood SkiFree mystery. I wonder if I can bribe them to quietly let me rifle through the source code looking for the snow monster logic. Doesn't it seem kind of out of place that there wasn't any way to kill the snow monsters? Betcha there's at least one. And jumping is the only available mechanic, other than tricking it into running into a tree, Tasmanian-devil style.
  - Groxx 4y ago
    Yep. Jumps are faster than skiing, and with big ones you can outrun them, at least until you screw up.

_oghd 4y ago

https://xkcd.com/667/ https://xkcd.com/667/

theandrewbailey 4y ago
Press 'F' to pay respects.