SkiFree

SkiFree is one of those wonderfully simple games that needs almost no explanation: grab your skis, head downhill and try not to become lunch for the surprisingly enthusiastic yeti waiting somewhere below. Originally created by Chris Pirih, the game became particularly familiar to Windows users thanks to its inclusion with Microsoft Entertainment Pack-era software. You can ski around trees, obstacles and other hazards, perform jumps and generally enjoy the freedom of a snowy slope until something inevitably goes wrong. The controls are easy to learn, but surviving for a long time requires concentration and decent reflexes. SkiFree remains a charming example of casual PC gaming from the early 1990s, with one of the most memorable surprise enemies in computer-game history.

“I wrote SkiFree in C on my home computer, entirely for my own education and entertainment. One day while I was playing with it at work, the program manager for Windows Entertainment Pack happened to look over my shoulder and immediately decided he had to have this game. I called it WinSki, but the Microsoft marketroids hated that and decided, for inscrutible marketroidal reasons, to call it SkiFree. After some token resistance I let them have their way. Since the program was not originally a Microsoft product, Microsoft licensed it from me and paid me some trivial one-time fee (something like 100 shares of MSFT stock, no royalties) for its use.” - Chris Pirih