Things aren’t looking good. Most of the canyon is now
covered with space ice, and you are intensely cold. Suddenly you hear Melvin
shout “Over here! I found something!” With intense effort, you fight against
the freezing cold to stagger towards the south wall of the canyon. “This spot,
right here!” says Melvin excitedly. “I think this spot is just ice, no rock.
Melt it and see!”
You raise your heavy, frozen arm, and with incredible
difficulty, pull the trigger of the heat ray. The wall starts to melt. You look
up and see that there are only one or two spots left that aren’t covered by the
ice ceiling, and those have packages drifting down towards them. The wall keeps
melting, though, and you start to see a small opening, which is gradually growing
larger.
“There’s no time!” shouts Melvin. “Kick it open!” There is
only one open spot in the ceiling now. You kick at the small hole, and crack
open a large enough hole to squeeze through. You immediately find yourself
rolling down the mountain face, and catch yourself, just before you tumble over
a cliff. You look up, and see that the intense cold has already refrozen the
hole you came through. No more packages are coming from the spaceship, but now
it has a spotlight and is casting it around. “They’re looking for us!” shouts
Melvin. The sun has just started to come up, and as you look down the cliff
face below you, you see a familiar sight in the orange light of sunrise. “Our
flags!” shouts Melvin. “This is where we climbed up the first time!” You notice
that fortunately there seem to be no deadly animals or Abominable Snowmen in
sight this time. The spaceship’s spotlight is headed your way. You start
looking for handholds to climb down. “We’ll never make it if you climb,” says
Melvin. “Put on the skis! It’s the only way!” You realize that he’s probably
right, and unfold them and strap them on your feet. Skiing down such a steep
mountain seems insane, but that spaceship doesn’t seem friendly, and its
spotlight is just a few yards away.
“Geronimo!” you shout, and leap over the cliff edge, hoping you can ski to the bottom before the spaceship can find you.
Put the Skiing cartridge into your Atari 2600. Choose game select 3, and set the difficulty switches to b. Play until you can ski down the mountain, through all 30 gates, in less than 28.2 seconds. Post a link to a video in the comments section of yourself completing the challenge.