Chapter 8: Getting Warmer

You whizz down the mountain, doing your best to dodge the red and blue ski gates. Melvin perches on your shoulder, huddling for warmth. The cold is unbelievable, and as you glide past the final gate, toward the village, you pass some pine trees and an improvised hockey rink. Two teenage boys on the rink pause their game, and, surprised, watch you glide by. As you finally come to a stop, you try to reach down to remove your skis – but your arm won’t move! Your other arm won’t either! You try to blink your eyes in surprise, but you realize that you are frozen stiff!

The boys have run over to you now. They both wear distinctive yellow shirts and green pants. “Hey, who are you?” says the younger one. You struggle, but are just too frozen to move. “Would you look at that?” says the older one. “Frozen stiff!” The boys look at each other, and the older one whispers to the younger one. A smile spreads over the younger one’s face, and he nods. Then he pulls out a gun, and aims it straight at you, shouting, “FREEZE!”

You are certain this is the end, but instead of a bullet or a death ray, suddenly you are surrounded by warmth, like from a sunbeam or a warm bath. And suddenly you can move. You and Melvin both gasp for breath, and collapse onto your skis, which are slipping in the rapidly melting snow.

The boys both laugh. “Are you okay?” the older one asks. “It’s too cold for skiing today. Where did you come from, anyway?”

Melvin, at this point, is lying in a puddle on the ground, still warm from the heat ray the younger brother shot at you. He peels himself off the ground, and sort of wrings himself out, and then shakes off the water drops. He looks them up and down and says, “My friend is a Player, and we are on a quest.”

The boys look at each other in amazement. “A Player? Come on, are you kidding? Our Dad says there aren’t any more Players.”

“No, it’s true,” you say. “I am a Player, and like Melvin says, we are on a quest.”

The boys look at each other again. “If you’re really a Player,” says the older one, “show us your reset button.”

Thinking how glad you are to be warm again, you reach inside your snow gear, and pull out the reset button for them to see. Their eyebrows raise upon seeing it, and they whisper to each other. They come to agreement and both nod. The younger brother says, “That’s fake.”

Melvin gets angry. “How dare you insult my Player this way!”

The older brother says, “If that’s real, play some hockey with us… if you can beat us, we’ll believe you.”

“Ha!” says Melvin. “We’ll crush you – you’ll see!” The three of them rush back to the rink. You roll your eyes – you should be finding a crown, not playing games! But you see little alternative, and figure, what the heck, you’re warm, the village seems safe, and maybe these boys will know where the cave is.

The boys are strapping on their skates, and there are some more skates here that you start putting on.

“You ready?” shouts one of the boys. You look at Melvin, and to your surprise, he has turned into a sort of hologram of a hockey player, wearing a purple jacket and red snow pants, just like you. “Whoa, Melvin! What in the world?”

Melvin twirls around, “Oh yeah, for sports games especially, I can take all kinds of forms. Anyway, come on, let’s show these mountain punks a thing or two about their game!” You grab a red hockey stick and skate out after him, glad, for once, not to be fighting for your life.

Put the Ice Hockey cartridge into your Atari 2600. Set difficulty switches to b, and use game select 1. Play until you win the game. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.