SkiFree
by Jeff
Image text: And from that day on, I wore this little 'F' key pendant everywhere I went.
SkiFree was one of the most simple and amazing games for early Windows Operating Systems in the Windows Entertainment Pack. There are a few different types of games in which you move the skier down the course gaining points. Besides trees, the main obstacle is the Yeti that periodically appears in the game and will destroy the skier.
The comic gets philosophical about death when the female character thinks that the Yeti symbolizes death because you can keep dodging the Yet, but it will get you in the end. However, the existence of the 'F' key to speed up those the girl's whole world into uproar. If there is an 'F' key in SkiFree, there must be something equal in real life, hence the 'F' pendant from the image text. I had no idea about the 'F' key to go faster.
You can download SkiFree from this site http://ski.ihoc.net/ - However, it looks like the xkcd effect has taken down the site. We will keep trying and update when it is back up.
UPDATE: Here's another site to download the game from and relive all your memories of SkiFree.
November 25th, 2009
According to the wiki though, if you escape the yeti (which is actually meant as a time limit), you will enter a special level with 5 yetis.
November 25th, 2009
I loved ski free! I used to play that on the Commodore in my 6th grade classroom.
December 1st, 2009
“If there is an ‘F’ key in SkiFree, there must be something equal in real life, hence the ‘F’ pendant from the image text.”
I think you got this wrong. I think this is a sarcastic reference to how people wear crosses. Like, the cross is the key to eternal life, just as the F key is.
May 2nd, 2011
There is a secondary nuance to this one. Back in the day when people played Skifree, the game typically would come bundled on PCs with windows. However, with the internet being very lacking compared to now, the game would have no documentation and nowhere to turn for help or key commands. Thus the girl in the comic (like many of us) did not realize there was a hidden command to ski faster and escape the monster. She (and we) would therefore always die when the yeti showed up without this crucial piece of information. Hence, she has spent all this time seeing the skier’s death at the monster’s hands as inevitable.
Cueball DOES know the command, though how he learned it is anyone’s guess.
February 4th, 2012
So we can cheat death if we… get going fast enough? Ray Kurzweil would have a field day with that one.